Constitutionalism as a solution to despotism and imperialism: the Iranian Constitutional Revolution in the Ottoman-Turkish press

Abstract

This article contributes to the growing scholarship on the connections between the Ottoman and Iranian revolutions by exploring Ottomans’ reactions to and portrayal of the constitutional struggle in Iran. Based on an examination of primary sources that have not been utilized before, it reveals how an ideologically diverse group of intellectuals tried to link the two revolutions together in the Ottoman-Turkish press, focusing on shared problems and ideals. It demonstrates that undergoing a revolutionary process themselves, these intellectuals interpreted the events in Iran through the prism of their own experiences and used them to garner support for the constitutional regime at home. Through their depictions of the Iranian revolution, they not only portrayed the 1908 Revolution as part of a broader struggle against despotism and imperialism with significant implications for the Islamic world, but also conveyed the message that the Ottoman constitution needed to be supported and protected so that it did not fail like the one in Iran.

Keywords:

• Ottoman-Iranian relations
• the 1908 Revolution
• Iranian Constitutional Revolution
• Ottoman press
• Young Turks

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at ‘Commemorating the Constitution, 1906–2006: State-Building and Global Responses to Iranian Constitutionalism’ at the University of Pennsylvania (2006). I would like to thank Farzin Vejdani and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. I would also like to express my gratitude to my students, İbrahim Tolga Kara and Furkan Şahin, who have helped with the transliteration of some of the newspaper articles used in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

Notes

1 Studies on the Iranian Revolution include Vanessa Martin, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906 (London: I.B. Tauris, 1989); Mangol Bayat, Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Houri Berberian, Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911 (Boulder: Westview, 2001); Janet Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots, Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996); and H.E. Chehabi and Vanessa Martin (eds), Iran’s Constitutional Revolution: Popular Politics, Cultural Transformations, and Transnational Connections (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010). The main monographs on the Ottoman Revolution (1908) are Ernest Ramsaur, The Young Turks: Prelude to the Revolution of 1908 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957); Feroz Ahmad, The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969); Erik Jan Zürcher, The Unionist Factor: The Role of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement, 1905–1926 (Leiden: Brill, 1984); Şükrü Hanioğlu, The Young Turks in Opposition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); Aykut Kansu, The Revolution of 1908 in Turkey (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997); and Şükrü Hanioğlu, Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902-1908 (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

2 Nader Sohrabi, Revolution and Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and Iran (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011); ‘Global Waves, Local Actors: What the Young Turks Knew About Other Revolutions and Why It Mattered’, Comparative Studies in Society and History Vol.44, No.1 (2002), pp.45–79; ‘Historicizing Revolutions: Constitutional Revolutions in the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Russia, 1905–1908’, The American Journal of Sociology Vol.100, No.6 (1995), pp.1383–447.

3 Fariba Zarinebaf, ‘From Istanbul to Tabriz: Modernity and Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and Iran’, Comparative Studies of South Asia and the Middle East Vol.28, No.1 (2008), pp.154–69.

4 Farzin Vejdani, Crafting Constitutional Narratives: Iranian and Young Turk Solidarity, 1907–1909 in Iran’s Constitutional Revolution, pp.319–340.

5 Vejdani suggests that even though the Ottoman presence in Iran continued after the 1908 Revolution, it turned into a destabilizing force for Muhammad ʿAli Shah’s regime rather than for the constitutionalists, because it ‘meant that the CUP could provide… military and logistical assistance to the Iranian mojahedin who were locked in intense fighting with the royalists in Azarbayjan, while simultaneously diverting royalist troops away from their internal opponents’, p.328.

6 Celal Metin, Emperyalist Çağda Modernleşme: Türk Modernleşmesi ve İran, 1800-1941 [Modernization in the Age of Imperialism: Turkish Modernization and Iran, 1800–1941] (Ankara: Phoenix, 2011), pp.120–21.

7 For more information about the Iranian community in Istanbul and their activities, see Thierry Zarcone and Fariba Zarinebaf-Shahr (eds), Les Iraniens d’Istanbul (Tehran: Institut Français de Recherches en Iran, and Istanbul: Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes, 1993); and Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. ‘Anjoman-e Sa‘adat’.

8 Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. ‘Diaspora’.

9 Ibid.

10 For an intellectual biography of Ahmet Ağaoğlu, see Ada Holly Shissler, Between Two Empires: Ahmet Ağaoğlu and the New Turkey (London: I.B. Tauris, 2002). For a study of Mehmed Emin Resulzade’s life, see Sebahattin Şimşir, Mehmed Emin Resulzâde'nin Türkiye'deki Hayatı, Faaliyetleri ve Düşünceleri [The Life, Activities, and Thoughts of Mehmed Emin Resulzâde in Turkey] (Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü, 1995) and Nesiman Yagublu, Mehmed Emin Resulzade Ansiklopedisi [The Encyclopedia of Mehmed Emin Resulzade] (Ankara: Azerbeycan Kültür Derneği Yayınları, 2015).

11 Vejdani, Crafting Constitutional Narratives, p.322. For more information on Ömer Naci, see Fethi Tevetoğlu, Ömer Naci (Istanbul: Milli Eğitim Basımevi, 1973).

12 Nikki Keddie, Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan, 1796–1925 (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999), p.54.

13 Ibid.

14 Bayat, Iran's First Revolution, p.45.

15 Nikki Keddie, Iran, Religion, Politics and Society (London: Frank Cass, 1980), p.40.

16 Palmira Brummett, Image and Imperialism in the Ottoman Revolutionary Press, 1908–1911 (Albany: SUNY Press, 2000), p.91.

17 Selçuk Esenbel, ‘Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900–1945’, The American Historical Review Vol.109, No.4 (2004), pp.1140–70.

18 For information about Abdullah Cevdet’s political views, see Şükrü Hanioğlu, Bir Siyasal Düşünür Olarak Doktor Abdullah Cevdet ve Dönemi [Doctor Abdullah Cevdet as a Political Thinker and His Era] (Istanbul: Üçdal Neşriyat, 1981). For his connections to Iran and Bahaism, see Necati Alkan, ‘“The Eternal Enemy of Islam”: Abdullah Cevdet and the Baha’i Religion’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Vol.68, No.1 (2005), pp.1–20.

19 Shissler, Between Two Empires, p.4.

20 Ibid., p.4.

21 Ibid., p.212.

22 Ussama Makdisi, ‘Ottoman Orientalism’, American Historical Review Vol.107, No.3 (2002), pp.768–96; Selim Deringil, ‘“They Live in a State of Nomadism and Savagery”: The Late Ottoman Empire and the Post-Colonial Debate’, Comparative Studies in Society and History Vol.45, No.2 (2003), pp.311–42; Thomas Kühn, ‘Shaping and Reshaping Colonial Ottomanism: Contesting Boundaries of Difference and Integration in Ottoman Yemen, 1872–1919’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Vol.27, No.2 (2007), pp.315–31; Fuat Dündar, Modern Türkiye’nin Şifresi [The Code of Turkey] (İstanbul: İletişim, 2013). Barış Ünlü, Türklük Sözleşmesi [The Turkishness Contract] (Istanbul: Dipnot, 2018).

23 Makdisi, ‘Ottoman Orientalism’, p.792.

24 Ibid., pp.769–70.

25 Deringil, ‘They Live in a State of Nomadism and Savagery’, pp.311–3.

26 Ibid., p.341.

27 Kühn, ‘Shaping and Reshaping Colonial Ottomanism’, pp.116–18.

28 Ünlü, Türklük Sözleşmesi, p.116.

29 Ahmed Agayef, ‘İran'ın Mazi ve Haline Bir Nazar-6’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.109 (1910), pp.79–80; K. Derviş, ‘İran İhtilali 1905 - 1909’, Servet-i Fünun Vol.40, No.1018 (1910), pp.79–84; İbn ül-Rahmi Ali Tayyar, ‘Ejder-i İran’, Beyan-ül Hak Vol.4, No.124 (1911), pp.2257–60; M.E. Resulzade, ‘İran Tarihçe-i İnkılabi’, Sebilürreşad Vol.9, No.218 (1912), pp.192–3.

30 Agayef, ‘İran'ın Mazi ve Haline Bir Nazar-6’.

31 M.E. Resulzade, ‘İran Tarihçe-i İnkılabı’, Sebilürreşad Vol.9, No.215 (1912), pp.129–31.

32 Abdullah Cevdet, ‘Kuvadis İran?’, İctihad Vol.5, No.106 (1914), pp.105–8.

33 For a discussion of this discourse, see Cemil Aydin, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought (New York City: Columbia University Press, 2007).

34 ‘Ahmed Bey Agayef Efendi’nin Nutku’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.112 (1910), pp.126–7; Ahmed Agayef, ‘İran’ın Mazi ve Haline Bir Nazar-7’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.110 (1910), pp.97–8.

35 Mustafa Safvet, ‘İran’ın Tal’ii’, Beyan-ül Hak Vol.2, No.38 (1910), pp.1582–4.

36 Ibid.

37 Abdürreşid İbrahim, ‘İran ve İraniler’, Tearüf-i Müslimin Vol.1, No.19 (1910), pp.299–300.

38 ‘Alimcan Efendi'nin Nutku’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.112 (1910), pp.134–5.

39 ‘Tevfik Beyefendi'nin Nutku’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.112 (1910), p.134.

40 The British ultimatum, issued in October 1910, demanded that the Iranian government establish security in southern Iran. In the event of Iran’s failure to meet this demand, Britain would maintain its own force in the region. Mansour Bonakdarian, Britain and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Foreign Policy, Imperialism, and Dissent (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), pp.226–7.

41 Vejdani, Crafting Constitutional Narratives, p.338.

42 Brummett, Image and Imperialism, p.91.

43 Sohrabi, ‘Global Waves’, p.61.

44 E. V, ‘İran, Acaba Yeni Bir Lehistan Mı Olacaktır?’, Mecmua-yı Ebuziyya Vol.31, No.126 (1912), pp.296–300.

45 Abdullah Cevdet, ‘İran Viran’, İctihad Vol.1, No.28 (1911), pp.792–4.

46 ‘İran Ahvali’, Servet-i Fünun Vol.36, No.932 (1909), p.341.

47 ‘Ahmed Bey Efendi’nin Nutku’.

48 Agayef, ‘İran’ın Mazi ve Haline Bir Nazar-7’.

49 Abdullah Cevdet, ‘İran Viran’.

50 Mustafa Safvet, ‘İran’ın Başındaki Fırtınalar’, Beyan-ül Hak Vol.3, No.98 (1911), pp.1824–6.

51 İbn ül-Rahmi Ali Tayyar, ‘İran Ejderi’; ‘İran Ahvali’, Servet-i Fünun Vol.36, No.914 (1908), pp.60–1.

52 Brummett, Image and Imperialism, pp.95–100.

53 ‘İran Ahvali’, Servet-i Fünun Vol.36, No.932; ‘İran Müslümanları’, Beyan-ül Hak Vol.1, No.10 (1908), p.221.

54 İbn ül-Rahmi Ali Tayyar, ‘Ejder-i İran’.

55 Cevdet, ‘İran Viran’.

56 Şair Eşref, İran’da Yangın.

57 Ibid. ‘Attığın top sana doğru dönecektir, ey Şah, Kerbela’ya çeviren memleketi bahtındır; Yıkılıp üstüne enkazı yakında ezecek, Bir çürük tahtaya bastın ki o da tahtındır.’

58 ‘İran Şah-ı Mahlu’, Tearüf-i Müslimin Vol.2, No.31, p.112.

59 A.K. Haif, ‘İran İnkılabı'na Bir Nazar’, Servet-i Fünun Vol.48, No.1228 (1914), pp.93–4.

60 Brummett, Image and Imperialism, p.117.

61 Nikki Keddie, ‘The Iranian Power Structure and Social Change, 1800–1969: An Overview’, International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol.2, No.1 (1971), pp.3–20.

62 Ibid., p.40.

63 For information on the role of non-Muslims in the Iranian Revolution, see Afary and Berberian.

64 Houri Berberian, ‘The Dashnaktsutiun and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1905–1911’, Iranian Studies Vol.29, Nos.1 and 2 (1996), pp.7–33.

65 For more information on women’s participation in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, see Morgan Shuster, The Strangling of Persia (New York: The Century Co.,1912); Mangol Bayat-Philipp, ‘Women and Revolution in Iran, 1905–1911’, in Lois Beck and Nikki R. Keddie (eds), Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp.295–308; Parvin Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995); Mansour Bonakdarian, ‘British Suffragists and Iranian Women’, in Ian Fletcher et al. (eds), Women’s Suffrage in the British Empire: Citizenship, Nation, and Race (New York: Routledge, 2000), pp.157–174; and Afary.

66 It is important to note that the 1908 Revolution was largely undertaken by military figures, and the constitutionalists made a point of maintaining the support of the ulema. Even though there is a huge gap in the scholarship concerning the role different groups played in the revolutionary process in the Ottoman Empire, the following works contain some information about the issue: Necati Alkan, Dissent and Heterodoxy in the Late Ottoman Empire: Reformers, Babis, and Baha’is (Istanbul: ISIS, 2008); Amit Bein, Ottoman Ulema, Turkish Republic: Agents of Change, Guardians of Tradition (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011); and Naci Kutlay, İttihat Terakki ve Kürtler [The Union and Progress and the Kurds] (Ankara: Dipnot, 2015).

67 Touraj Atabaki, Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006), p.1.

68 Cevdet, ‘Kuvadis İran’.

69 Derviş, ‘İran İhtilali’.

70 Safvet, ‘İran’in Tal’ii’.

71 ‘Ahmed Bey Efendi’nin Nutku’.

72 Derviş, ‘İran İhtilali’.

73 ‘Ömer Naci Beyefendi'nin Nutku’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.112 (1910), p.144.

74 Tevfik, ‘Zavallı Yefrem Han’.

75 Safvet, ‘İran’ın Başındaki’.

76 Hasan Ünal, ‘Britain and Ottoman Domestic Politics: From the Young Turk Revolution to the Counter-Revolution, 1908–9’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.37, No.2 (2001), pp.1–22.

77 ‘Aydın Mebusu Ubeydullah Efendi'nin Nutku’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.5, No.112 (1910), pp.140–1.

78 Mehmed Ragıb, ‘Zavallı İran’, Sırat-ı Müstakim Vol.6, No.132 (1910), pp.26–9.

79 Ibid.