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The Constitutional Ideas of a Shi'ite Mujtahid: Muhammad Husayn Na'ini

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Fereshte M. Nouraie
Fereshte M. Nouraie*
Affiliation:
University of Tehran
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Extract

The Iranian constitutional movement of the early twentieth century involved various segments of Iranian society. Intellectuals, enlightened members of the bureaucracy, religious leaders, merchants and the urban population, each to a greater or lesser extent participated in this reform movement. Naturally their political attitudes, objectives, and interests differed. The intellectuals, who were secular in outlook and influenced by liberal Western ideas, hoped for the establishment of a constitutional form of government. A small group of reformers in the government sympathized with these men and were in close contact with them. Indeed, it is difficult to distinguish between the former and the latter since most of the intelligentsia were also a part of the ruling class. Perhaps one of the best examples is Mīrzā Malkam Khān Nāẓim al-Dawlah (1834-1908), who represents the attitude of a liberal thinker as well as a reformist member of the bureaucracy.

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Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1975 , pp. 234 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1975

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References

Notes

1. For the life and times of Mīrzā Malkam Khān, see: Muhit-Tabatabai, Muhammad ed., Majmū˓ah-i ĀBERJAYAāar-i Mīrzā Malkam Khān (Tehran, 1948)Google Scholar; Adamiyat, Fereydun Fikr-i Āzādī (Tehran, 1963)Google Scholar; Algar, Hamid Mīrzā Malkum Khān (Berkeley, 1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nouraie, Fereshteh M. Taḥīiq dar Afkār-i Mīrzā Malkam Khān (Tehran, 1973).Google Scholar

2. For the history of constitutional movement, see Kasravi, Ahmad Tārīkh-i Mashrūṭah-i Iran (Tehran, 1968)Google Scholar; in regard to the political attitude of the liberals, see various works of Fereydun Adamiyat, such as Mīrzā Fatḥ-˓Alī Ākhūndzādah (Tehran, 1969)Google Scholar, Mīrzā Āqā Khān Kirmānī (Tehran, 1966)Google Scholar, and Andīshah-i Tariqqī (Tehran, 1972).Google Scholar

3. Cited by Fereydun Adamiyat, Andīshah-i Tariqqī p. 179.

4. Vakīl al-Tujjār, deputy from Rasht, Summary Records of the First Majlis (Tehran, 1325), p. 241.Google Scholar

5. Hasan Ali Khān, deputy from Tehran, ibid., p. 531.

6. Shaykh Muhammad Kāẓim Khurāsānī, in the Preface to Nā'īnī, Tanbīh al-Ummah va Tanzīh al-Millah, 3rd ed. (Tehran, 1955).Google Scholar

7. Hājjī Mīrzā Ḥusayn Tihrānī, cited in Tanbīh al-Ummah, p. 48.

8. In 1890 the Iranian government had granted to a British subject a concession for the purchase, sale, and export of all tobacco grown in Iran. Tobacco, an item of daily use, being placed under control of a foreign company aroused the public and brought a mass movement against the concession, which finally led to its cancellation in 1892.

9. Tanbīh al-Ummah, p. 1.

10. The attitude of constitutionalists was influenced by Western European thought, which had reached the Muslim countries particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century. Ṭabāyi˓ al-Istibdād by al-Kawākibī is an example of a work influenced by European thought. It was first published in Cairo in 1905, and was translated into Persian by ˓Abdul Ḥusayn Mīrzā, a learned Qajar prince, and was published in Tehran in 1907. He had also translated various works of Alexander Dumas, the French writer, and some Arabic works including Ṭabāyi˓ al-Istibdād.

There are some similarities between Ṭabāyi˓ al-Istibdād and Tanbīh al-Ummah. Nā'īnī might have been influenced by Kawākibī's book which had been published prior to his own in 1905. For details on Kawākibī's work see: Haim, Sylvia Arab Nationalism: An Anthology (Berkeley, 1964), pp. 25-30, 78-80.Google Scholar

11. Tanbīh al-Ummah, p. 65.

12. Ibid., p. 6.

13. Ibid., p. 7.

14. Ibid., p. 8.

15. Ibid., p. 10.

16. Ibid., p. 17.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., p. 16.

19. Ibid., pp. 11-12.

20. Ibid., p. 12.

21. The essence of the Shi'ite doctrine is that of imamate and acknowledgment of the authority of the Imam who is the only sure guarantee of right guidance. The twelfth Imam, the last Imam from the House of ˓Ali--recognized by the isna˓ashirī Shi'ism dominant in Iran--disappeared in 260 (873). He was followed by a succession of four agents, a period called “Lesser Concealment,” Ghaybat-i Ṣughrā. After the death of the fourth agent in 334 (940), the Shi'ite community entered the period of “Greater Concealment,” Ghaybat-i Kubrā, which will continue until the Imam returns to the earth as the Mahdi or saviour. Until the return of the Imam the community leadership is bestowed upon the body of mujtahids who are learned men of religion and their studies and eminence permit them to interpret the law and to make decisions. Since Shi'ite divines regarded all governments in the absence of the Imām as unrighteous, they did not leave any provision for the establishment of a legitimate state. Even after Shi'ism became the official religion of the state under the Safavids, the Shi'ite theory of state was not modified. The temporal authority based on vilāyat, a term which called for total loyalty of the faithful to the Hidden Imam is considered by the mujtahids as secondary to imamate, the legitimate rule of the Imam.

22. Tanbīh al-Ummah, p. 56.

23. Ibid., pp. 41-42.

24. Ibid., p. 42.

25. Ibid., p. 15.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid., p. 49.

28. Ibid., p. 50.

29. Ibid., pp. 51-52.

30. Ibid., p. 57.

31. Ibid., p. 53.

32. Ibid., p. 65.

33. Ẕimmah refers to the covenant by which Muslims undertake to safeguard the life and property of the non-Muslims who are protected by a treaty of surrender with all duties deriving from it, including payment of jizyah (poll tax). Nā'īnī accepts the privileges recognized by the Sharī˓at, assuming the status of ẕimmah for the non-Muslims. Tanbīh al-Ummah, p. 71.

34. Ibid., p. 90.

35. Ibid., p. 89.

36. Ibid., pp. 108-109.

37. Ibid., p. 109.

38. Ibid., pp. 105-107.

39. Ibid., p. 119.

40. Ibid., pp. 63-64.