Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906 - Ali Ansari

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Iran’s first revolution in 1906 provided the country with a constitution and parliament, laying the foundations for its political development over the next century. Although overshadowed by the later Islamic Revolution of 1979, it was the Constitutional Revolution - modelled on the British constitution and British political ideas - that gave birth to the modern state and shaped future political development.
This lecture will explore the ideas that shaped the revolution and its lasting legacy on Iranian politics.
This lecture was recorded by Ali Ansari on 17 October 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London
Ali is Professor of Iranian History and Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews; Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute.
www.gresham.ac.uk/speakers/pr...
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/i...
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[@johnleake5657]

Nice to see Ali Ansari!

[@23strawbale]

Iran has the misfortune to have Petroleum which apparently belongs to the West, and not to the Iranian people.

[@ArmyJames]

“Why is our oil under their sand?” - placard seen at a protest in Washington DC.

[@JCResDoc94]

51:50 the bahi problem _JC

[@travis7573]

Why is the transcription so...funny. I thought it was machine transcribed but it seems an actual human did these? Wild.

[@hans7686]

Aww I've listened to most of it already without the subtitles... Do you remember which bits were the funniest?

[@travis7573]

@@hans7686 Babis (the Islamic sect followers) are exclusively referred to as Barbies (the American fashion doll) in the subtitles!!

[@hans7686]

@@travis7573 😂

[@travis7573]

​@@hans7686 Honestly Ali Ansari is a funny one to me because of his familial ties to the Pahlavis and his intellectual obsession with writing about the family dynasty (his analyses generally have the unfortunate tendency to focus on the Pahlavis and Pahlavi state building, while Literally Every Other Object Or Category Of Analysis In Society takes a backseat)

[@jimmiller1686]

Great presentation. We in the US need to better understand that part of the world.

[@olivertaltynov9220]

Yeah, very British lecture: "we (Britain) are the torch of freedom", "we came to Iran to offer a liberal society to those poor savages". No need for him to mention that once it became expedient for the British Empire and its shareholders to establish an absolut monarch (Shah in 1953), they quickly forgot some necessity of parliamentarian democracy. And it was a British project (supervised by Norman Derbyshire, a role of Kermit Roosevelt was very minor). Should I believe that around 1906 and years before the Empire was different? :-D They do the same still today! Also the idea that Iranians were going (sounds from him like) exclusively to Britain to get some sense of modernity and (liberal) democracy, and not for example to Paris, is not so much convincing to me. I am not certainly an expert on Iranian intellectuals of that time (before and around 1906), but as I do remember interviews with Iranian politicians from the end of 1970s they were quite frequently talking in French. And there has to be some reason for that, some educational background. Esmail Momtaz od-Dowleh, the actual writer of the Persian Constitution of 1906, was fluent in French and able to copy extracts lifted from the Belgian constitution, Mosaddegh was studying in France, ...

[@aristeon5908]

The British empire was extremely influential, as were other empires, like the Roman or the Chinese. Many countries emulated Britain in the 19th century, including European countries, which insituted various forms of parliamentary government and sought to industrialize. Denying facts just because you don't like them is not history.

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

Then there's the point that this lecture is only on the 1906 period, rather than later.

[@jonathanhandy6504]

It's interesting how often folks confuse ONE ideology with unanimous thought. New ideas were indeed circulating in Europe in the 19th century, but these were mixed with older ideas and different new ideas than many look back on and choose to see in isolation. A look at Russia's struggle to determine its government institutions during 1800 - 2000 shows the wildest swings. Diversity is always lurking.

[@saliksayyar9793]

What does he mean by Persian constitution ? Persian is a language, not a country.

[@railwaymechanicalengineer4587]

BUT "IRAN" DIDN'T EXIST IN 1906 !!!!!! And the PERSIAN oil company was bought from the Shah of Persia by the "British Empire" when it gained control of 51% of its shares in 1914. In 1954 the British Government renamed the Company British Petroleum (BP), a name it still uses today, although it is now a Public Limited Company (Plc).

[@peterruane9220]

Relies 100% on British sources lol

[@aristeon5908]

How can you say that? Just because he quotes some British people to provide some colour to the lecture? That's not how it works. A lecture like this is based on a huge amount of research, but you can't understand what his sources are unless he provides a bibliography.

[@jaygiri4060]

a redacted history of the constitutional revolution !