Hamid Ahmadi; Maliheh Khoshbin
Abstract
The historiography of Iranian Constitutional Revolution tends to concentrate on few main regions and cities at the expense of others with important role on the revolution. Khorasan, ...
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The historiography of Iranian Constitutional Revolution tends to concentrate on few main regions and cities at the expense of others with important role on the revolution. Khorasan, particularly its capital city Mashhad, has been one of such neglected regions. Many researchers and observers may think that because of its religious centrality, Mashhad has played a lesser role in the constitutional revolution, even to the extent that it has taken an opposite position toward it. Studying on primary sources, this article maintains that in contrast to the current conventional view, Mashhad has played important role in that revolution and that not only has not been a passive observer but also the struggles in this city have paved the ground for the upcoming constitutional revolution. The main argument of the article is that the struggles of Mashhad constitutionalists made Russia to suppress Mashhad resistance in order to subdue other regions. Mashad activists were against the domestic despotism and foreign intervention in the aftermath of the constitutional revolution (1907-1912). Violating the holly shrine of Imam Reza by artillery bombardment in 1912, Russia , the main actor in international system, was able to put a temporary end to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution.
