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.