Non-Muslim communities of the Middle East were intimately involved in the rise of constitutional politics that occurred in both the Ottoman Empire and Iran during the early 20th century. But to what extent were their interests represented in the emerging parliaments of revolutionary constitutional governments? In this episode, Saghar Sadeghian discusses her research on the representation of non-Muslim communities of Iran such as Jews, Armenians, Zoroastrians, and Baha’is during the early years of constitutionalism from 1906 to 1911.





PARTICIPANTS

Saghar Sadeghian is the Henry Hart Rice Family Foundation Fellow and Lecturer at the MacMillan Center. Her research focuses on the ideas of nationality, constitution, and modern institutions in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is specifically interested in minority groups in the Middle East and the question of gender, race, religion and ethnicity. Chris Gratien holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University’s Department of History. His research focuses on the social and environmental history of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. He is currently preparing a monograph about the environmental history of the Cilicia region from the 1850s until the 1950s.

CREDITS

Episode No. 236

Release Date: 7 April 2016

Recording Location: Yale University

Editing and production by Chris Gratien

Sound excerpts: Istanbul’dan Ayva Gelir Nar Gelir – Azize Tozem and Sari Recep; Baglamamin Dugumu – Necmiye Ararat and Muzaffer; Seyfettin Sucu – Eğin Türküsü (digitized by Chris Gratien); Harmandali – Recep Efendi, Cemal Efendi

Image via Iran Review

Bibliography courtesy of Saghar Sadeghian

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrahamian, Ervand, Iran Between Two Revolutions, (Princeton University Press, Princeton.1982).

Afary, Janet, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911, (Colombia University Press, New York, 1996).

Bayat, Mangol, Iran’s First Revolution, Shi’ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909, (Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford, 1991).

Berberian, Houri, Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911, (Westview Press, the USA and the UK, 2001).

Brookshaw, Dominic Parviz, and Fazel, Sina B., (editors), The Baha’is of Iran, (Routledge, London and New York, 2008).

Chaqueri, Cosroe, The Armenians of Iran: The Paradoxical Role of a Minority in a Dominant Culture, Articles and Documents, (Cambridge, Mass, Distributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press, 1998).

Der Matossian, Bedross, Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014.

Golnazarian-Nichanian, Magdalena, Les Arméniens d’Azerbaïdjan, Histoire locale et enjeux régionaux 1828-1918, (Centre d’Histoire Arménienne Contemporaine, Paris, 2009).

Hairi, Abdul-Hadi, Shi’ism and Constitutionalism in Iran. A Study on the Role Played by the Persian Residents of Iraq in Persian Politics, (E.J. Brill, Lieden, 1977).

Momen, Moojan, “The Baha’is and the Constitutional Revolution: The Case of Sari, Mazandaran, 1906-1913”, Journal of International Society for Iranian Studies, Vol.41, No.3, (Routledge, UK., 2008), pp.343-363.

Sanasarian, Eliz, Religious Minorities in Iran, (Cambridge University Press, UK, 2000).

Sohrabi, Nader, Revolution and Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and Iran. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

اشراق خاوری، عبدالحمید، “شرح حال مرحوم شیخ الرئیس”، آهنگ بدیع، سال پنجم، شماره های یازدهم تا هجدهم، لجنۀ ملی نشریات امری، تهران، 107-108 بدیع/ 1951-1952 میلادی

امینی، تورج، اسنادی از زرتشتیان معاصر ایران (1338-1258 ش) ، سازمان اسناد ملی ایران پژوهشکدۀ اسناد، تهران، 1380ش

کرمانی، ناظم الاسلام، تاریخ بیداری ایرانیان، به اهتمام علی اکبر سعیدی سیرجانی، 2 جلد، انتشارات بنیاد فرهنگی ایران با همکاری انتشارات آگاه و انتشارات لوح، تهران، تابستان 1357