Constitutionalism

The encounter of Iranians with the modernism of the West happened for the first time during the constitutional period and through familiarization with the events and political technologies that happened in Russia, Japan, and Turkey. According to what Gadamer says, according to their political, social, economic, mental, and cultural structures, Iranians have received an understanding of modernism that is appropriate to their existential conditions, an understanding that stands as an application, and in response to the Iranians' question about the application of modernism to their lives. This article attempts to compare the epistemic foundations of both sides with a descriptive critical analytical method to show that the due to the structural differences that existed in the epistemic system of Iran and the West during the constitutional period is that it was very difficult to understand modernism in Iran and therefore, instead of bringing modernism into the country, Iranians have settled for some political technologies. Political technologies are considered a salve for their countless pains.

The Constitutional Revolution that restricted political power for the first time in Iran can be considered as one of the turning points in the history of political developments in Iran and the growth of political thought based on Shiite religious teaching. In fact, although constitutionalism began in the West, it soon influenced Islamic states, including Iran, and challenged the authoritarian monarchies. Meanwhile, the support of religious and leading scholars of The Najaf Seminary, especially Akhund Khorasani and Allameh Naeini from this socio-political movement in Iran played an important role in the relative victory of the Constitutional Revolution, otherwise the signing of the constitutional decree and the establishment of parliament and emergence of a new form of political system in Iran didn’t seem possible. Accordingly, despite the dichotomy of muslim scholars in favoring and opposing the constitutional movement, the great influence of the top scholars of Najaf, especially Allameh Naeini in supporting and theorizing about the superiority of the constitutional government over the authoritarian monarchy, paved the way for the victory of this movement. This article, by direct reference to the important work of Allama Naini called “Tanbih al-Umma Wa Tanzih al-Milla" has been attemped to analyze the rational and narrative teachings that has caused him to the preference of the constitutional government instead of the absolute monarchy in the era of Absence.

Political poetry underwent considerable changes in both the format and the theme after the onset of the constitutionalism movement. While poetry and being a poet were commodities belonging to the educated persons until before constitutionalism. They made a lot of efforts in this period to get close to the language of the alleys and streets. In this era, political poetry seeks to express the people’s concerns and it becomes sublime with poets becoming the people’s tongue against superstition and despotism. Both prose and poetry experience subtle changes in this period. To be more exact, the constitutionalism’s literature is formed and enlivened in the course of the battle with the old literature and, due to the same reason, it is novel and it violates the tradition in terms of both form and content. The constitutionalist thinkers insist on pulling words out of the magnificent aristocratic palaces and making them serve the people of alleys and bazars. The goals of the poems in this period are awakening the people and inciting the national and patriotic feelings and promoting the individual and social freedoms and denial of the superstitions and loose and improper thoughts, fighting with the foreigners and westernism, harshly and mercilessly criticizing the disorders and familiarizing the people with their human limits and rights. It was with the constitutionalism’s revolution that the newspapers along with the preaching, discussion and lecture sessions became the primary medium for the conversations and expressing of the revolutionary notions and opinions, and a “public arena” that had been never seen before came about. More importantly, insolence, insult, and frivolity lost their private, fanciful, and exceptional aspects and became completely political and one of the most important and most effective means of the political fight. Such a thing was unprecedented in the political and literary history of the country. Two essential dimensions are seen in the constitutionalism’s literature: one is the criticizing of the past literature and the other is the positing of a novel literature. Zain Al-Abedin Maraghe’ei has the following words in this regard: “these days are not the time in which the masters of pen and thoughts spend their time on simple things, chimerical myths and senseless nonsense like their antecedents for nothing but fiction would result thereof. The present article tries introducing the prominent political figures of the constitutionalism era