Table of Contents

  • CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN

    M. Ḥassan Kākaṛ

    When Amir ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān Khan (r. 1297-1319/1880-1901) acceded to power, he established a centralized monarchy in Afghanistan for the first time.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION

    Multiple Authors

    (Enqelāb-e mašrūṭa) of 1323-29/1905-11, during which a parliament and constitutional monarchy were established in Persia.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION i. Intellectual background

    Abbas Amanat

    The establishment of a constitutional regime in Persia was the chief objective of the Revolution of 1323-29/1905-11.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION ii. Events

    Vanessa Martin

    After 1308/1890 the Persian government found itself in increasing financial difficulties, as inflation produced a sharp decline in the value of the land tax and the silver qerān lost value against the pound sterling with the rapid fall of international silver prices at the end of the 19th century.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION iii. The Constitution

    Said Amir Arjomand

    The term for “constitution” in Persia, qānūn-e asāsī (lit. “fundamental law”), was borrowed from the Ottoman empire in the 19th century. 

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION iv. The aftermath

    Mansoureh Ettehadieh

    In the decade 1329-39/1911-21, from the Russian ultimatum and the dissolution of the Second Majles until the coup d’etat of 1299 Š./1921, the Constitution was put to a series of crucial tests.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION v. Political parties of the constitutional period

    Mansoureh Ettehadieh

    Political parties were first officially organized after Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah was forced to abdicate in 1327/1909, at about the time elections for the Second Majles were beginning.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION vi. The press

    ʿAlī-Akabr Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

    There are no statistics on literacy in Qajar Persia, but it can be conjectured that the literate population was very small. Until the beginning of the Pahlavi era there were people who could “read” the Koran and prayer books, for teaching in religious schools consisted of memorizing koranic passages.

  • CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION vii. The constitutional movement in literature

    Sorour Soroudi

    “constitutional literature” refers here to literature produced from the late 19th century until 1339=1300 Š./1921, under the impact of aspirations for reform and the constitutional movement.

  • CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES in Persian architecture

    Wolfram Kleiss

    The most frequent building material in Iranian cultural areas has always been mud, which is available everywhere. When wet, it can simply be plastered on walls without shaping. Alternatively, it can be tempered and formed into large blocks with more or less rectangular sides.

  • CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY

    Willem Floor

    In 1933, Iran’s first cement plant, the state-owned company Simān-e Ray (100 tons per day), became operational  in Ray. It had only 360 workers in 1936, but after expansion in 1939 to a capacity of 300 tons per day it had 1,000 workers. Its output did not suffice to satisfy domestic demand.

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  • CONSUMERS AND CONSUMPTION

    Cross-Reference

    See ECONOMY.

  • CONTARINI, AMBROGIO

    Filippo Bertotti

    (1429-99), Venetian merchant and diplomat, author of a noteworthy report on Persia under the Āq Qoyunlū Uzun Ḥasan.

  • CONTI, NICOLO` DE’

    Paola Orsatti

    (1395-ca. 1469), Venetian merchant who traveled in the east from 1414 until 1438.

  • CONTINENTS

    Cross-Reference

    See KEŠVAR.

  • CONTRACTS

    Muhammad A. Dandamayev, Mansour Shaki, EIr

    (usually ʿaqd), legally enforceable undertakings between two or more consenting parties.

  • CONVERSION

    Multiple Authors

    the act of adopting another religion.

  • CONVERSION i. Of Iranians to the Zoroastrian faith

    Gherardo Gnoli

    Although modern Zoroastrians question whether their religion even allows conversion, Zoroastrianism, as an ethical and essentially monotheistic religion based on a historical figure, originally had pronounced missionary characteristics, as is clear from the extent of its dissemination.

  • CONVERSION ii. Of Iranians to Islam

    Elton L. Daniel

    Iranians were among the very earliest converts to Islam, and their conversion in significant numbers began as soon as the Arab armies reached and overran the Persian plateau.

  • CONVERSION iii. To Imami Shiʿism in India

    Juan Cole

    South Asians adopted Imami, or Twelver, Shiʿism in great numbers, mostly after the Safavid conquest of Persia in the first decade of the 16th century.