The Persian Constitutional Movement and American Literature

Whitman entered Persia in a significant period in the history of the country and also in the history of Persian literature. He was introduced to the country when Persia was going through a transition to modernity. Literature of the early twentieth century was the outcome of the Constitutional Revolution, itself a drastic change in the Iranian society. The Constitutional movement was “the first large-scale attempt to reconcile the European idea of modernity with the Iranian social context.” The constitutionalist project aimed to recast Iranian political culture in the modern liberal tradition. Iranians were introduced to the new ideas coming to their country from several locations including Russia, Western Europe (particularly France and England), the Ottoman Empire and India. Contact with the West – through travel, translations, and educational establishments – contributed to the formation of modern concepts, ambitions, beliefs and thereby the emergence of a modern intelligentsia in Persia. The period between Iranian society's encounter with the modern West starting in the Safavid Era and the Constitutional Revolution of 1906–1911 is identified as ʿAṣr-i Bīdārī ( the Period of Awakening). This period marked the formation of a new intellectual and political discourse among the Iranian intelligentsia. Iranian intellectuals became increasingly educated in modern ideas (particularly through translations of European texts) and tried adapting them to the political and cultural specificities of the Iranian context.

When Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh ( r. 1848–1896) was assassinated, people considered the event to be the end of the dynasty and its absolutist regime. “The assassin's bullet ended more than Nasser al-Din Shah's life. It ended the old order.” It was recognised as the end of the Middle Ages in Asia. Then, a new chapter began in Iranian history which resulted in the victory of the Constitutional Revolution. After Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh, Muẓaffar al-Dīn succeeded his father to the throne, and the Qājār Dynasty (1785–1925) continued. However, “from then on the Court was no longer the only, or even the decisive force controlling the course of events.”