Author's note: Many of the ideas in this paper owe a great deal to conversations with Amin Banani over the past decade, and I want to express my profound gratitude for his generosity and encouragement.

¹ In English, see Vanessa, Martin, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906 (London, 1989);Google ScholarMcDaniel, R. A., The Shuster Mission and the Persian Constitutional Revolution (Minneapolis, 1974);Google Scholar also still valuable is Edward, G. Browne, The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909 (Cambridge, 1910).Google Scholar

² See, e.g., Farīdūn, Ā;damiyyat, Fikr-i;Āzādi va Muqaddimah-ʾ-i NahŻa-i mashrūṭiyyat-i Irān (Tehran, 1340 s.l 1961–1962);Google Scholaridem, , Andīshahhā-yi Taraqqī va Ḥukūmat-i Qānūn-i ʿAṣr-i Sipāh Salār(Tehran, 1352 s./1973–1974);Google Scholaridem, , Idiʾlūzhi-i NahŻat-i Mashrūṭiyyat-i Irān (Tehran, 2535/1976);Google ScholarHairi, A. H., Shi'ism and Constitutionalism in Iran (Leiden, 1977). I once saw a typescript on the Babi-Bahai movement and Constitutionalism by Denis MacEoin.Google Scholar

³ Peter, Smith, The Babi and Baha'i Religions (Cambridge, 1987).Google Scholar

⁴ Christopher, Hill, “John Mason and the End of the World,” Puritanism and Revolution (Harmondsworth, 1986 [1958]), pp. 311–23;Google Scholaridem, , Antichrist in Seventeenth-Century England (London, 1971);Google Scholaridem, , The World Turned Upside Down (London, 1972);Google ScholarCapp, B. S., The Fifth Monarchy Men (London, 1972).Google Scholar

⁵ See Abbas, Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Bābī Movement in Iran, 1844– 1850 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1989).Google Scholar

⁶ Smith, P., “A Note on Babi and Baha'i Numbers in Iran,” Iranian Studies, 15 (1984), 295–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ Nikki, R. Keddie, “Religion and Irreligion in Early Iranian Nationalism,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 4 (1962), 265–95;Google ScholarFarīdūn, Ādamiyyat, Andīshahhā-yi Mirzā āqā Khān Kirmānī(Tehran, 1970);Google ScholarMangol, Bayat, Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran (Syracuse, N.Y., 1982), esp. pp. 157–61;Google ScholarBrowne, E. G., “Babiism,” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 1909, repr. in Moojan, Momen, ed., Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Bábí and Baháí Religions (Oxford, 1987), p. 426.Google Scholar

⁸ lgnaz, Goldziher, Ińtroduction to Islamic Theology and Law, tr. Andras and Ruth Hamori (Princeton, 1981), pp. 251–52.Google Scholar

⁹ ʿAbd al-Bahā called some of the early constitutionalist reforms, dated bí internal evidence to 1906, “the basic foundation of the Most Great Civilization.” See ʿAbd, al-BahāMajmūʿah-ʾi mubārakah (Tehran, 1908), pp. 89–90.Google Scholar See also Juliet, Thompson, The Diary of Juliet Thompson (Los Angeles, 1983), pp. 100–3.Google Scholar

¹⁰ On Qajar society, see Ann, K. S. Lambton, Qajar Persia (Austin, Tex., 1987);Google ScholarShaul, Bakhash, Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and Reform under the Qajars 1858–1896 (London, 1978);Google ScholarEdmund, Bosworth and Carole, Hillenbrand, eds., Qajar Iran (Edinburgh, 1983).Google Scholar

¹¹ For Shiʿism in this period, see Hamid, Algar, Religion and State in Iran, 1785–1906 (Berkeley, 1969);Google ScholarSaid, Amir Arjomand. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam (Chicago, 1984);Google Scholar on Shaykhism, see Henri, Corbin, En Islam iranien, 4 vols. (Paris, 1971–1972), vol. IV;Google ScholarBayat, , Mysticism, pp. 37–86.Google Scholar

¹² For Bahaullah's (Bahāʾ Allāh) life, see Balyuzi, H. M., Bahāʾuʾlláh, King of Glory (Oxford, 1980).Google Scholar

¹³ Ustad, Muẖammad ʿAli Salmāni, Sharẖ-i hāl, copy of Persian ms in author's possession, pp. 8, 14–16;Google Scholar partial tr. Marzieh, Gail, My Memories of Baháʾʾ;11áh (Los Angeles, 1982), pp. 22, 39–41.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See Mīrzā, ḤabībAllōh, Afnān, “Tōrikh-i amīi-i Sh7imacr;rōz,” Persian MS, Afnan Library, London, pp. 153–68;Google Scholar see also Balyuzi, H. M., Eminent Bahá' ís in the Time of Baháʿuʿllāh (Oxford, 1985), pp. 216–24;Google ScholarMuẖammad, ʿAll FayŻi, Khāndān-i Afnān (Tehran, 1970); ʿGoogle ScholarAbd, al-Ḥamid Ishrōq-Khōvōrī, Nūrayn-i nayyirayn (Tehran, 1966).Google Scholar For provincial notables in Iran, see William, R. Royce, “The Shirazi Provincial Elite: Status Maintenance and Change,” in Bonine, M. and Keddie, N., eds., Modern Iran: The Dialectics of Continuity and Change (Albany, N.Y., 1981), pp. 289–300.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Gobineau, C. Sde, ed., Correspondence entre le Comre de Gobineau et le Comte de Prokesch-Osten (1854–76) (Paris, 1933), pp. 288–89;Google Scholar also tr. in Moojan, Momen, ed., The Bábi and Baháʾi Religions, 1844–1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford, 1981), p. 187.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Roderic, Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876 (Princeton, 1963),Google Scholar esp. chaps. 2, 3, 4, and 7; Niyazi, Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal, 1964), chaps. 5 and 6.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Bahaullah's letters to the monarchs were published by Victor, Rosen in the Collections scientifiques de l'lnstitut des langues orientales du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, 6 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1877– 1891), vol. VI, pp. 141–233;Google Scholar some are translated in Bahaullah, , Proclamation of Bahā“u”llāh, tr. Shoghi Efendi (Haifa, 1967).Google Scholar Early, somewhat flawed, discussions are Browne, E. G., “The Báís of Persia,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 21 (1889), 953–72;Google Scholar idem, “Some Remarks on the Bábís Texts Edited by Baron Victor Rosen,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 24 (1892), 283–318.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Bahaullah, , “Sūrat al-Mulūk,” Alvōẖ-i Nāzilah Khiṭāb bih Mulūk va Riʾasā-yi Arḍ (Tehran, 1968), pp. 3–70, esp. 17–19.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Bahaullah, “Lawẖ-i Sulṭn-i īrān,” in ibid., pp. 143–201, esp. 160–61, 179–80.

²⁰ Bayat, , Mysticism and Dissent, p. 130.Google Scholar

²¹ Bahaullah, ,“Sūrat al-Mulūk,” Alvāẖ-i nāzilah, pp. 35–37.Google Scholar

²² Diplomatic correspondence concerning the exile of the Azalis and Bahais from Edirne is printed in Momen, , Bábí and Bahá'i Religions, chap. 11.Google Scholar

²³ Bahaullah, “Lawẖ-i Fuʾ;āad,” in Rosen, , ed., “Manuscrits Babys,” Collections scientifiques, 6:231–32.Google Scholar This passage tr. Shoghi, Efendi, The Promised Day is Come, preface Firuz Kazemzadeh (Wilmette, III, 1967 [1941]), p. 63.Google Scholar Bahaullah's letters to Âli Pasha of 1868, the Arabic “Lawẖ al-Raʾīs” (Tablet to the Leader) and the Persian, “Lawẖ-i Raʾīs,” are in Bahaullah, Alvāẖ-i Nāzilah Khiṭāb bih Mulūk, pp. 203–5 1, see esp. p. 233.Google Scholar

²⁴ smāʾil, RiŻvānī, “Qadīmtarīn Zikr-i Dimūkrāsi dar Nivishtah'hā-yi Fārsī,” Rāhnamā-yi Kitāb, 5 (1341/1962–1963). 257–63, 367–70;Google ScholarHafez, Farman-Farmayan, “The Forces of Modernization in Nineteenth Century Iran,” in Polk, W. and Chambers, R., eds., The Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East (Chicago, 1968), pp. 119–51.Google Scholar

²⁵ An insider's account of the Young Ottoman movement is Ebüzziya, Tevfik, Yeni Osmanlilar Tarihi, ed. Ziyad, Ebüzziya, 3 vols. (Istanbul, 1974);Google Scholar the most detailed modern English academic treatment is şerif, Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought (Princeton, 1962), esp. pp. 46–47 on Suavi.Google Scholar

²⁶ See Ebüzziya, , Yeni Osmanlilar, 2:18;Google Scholar for Malkum and Bahaullah in Baghdad, see Balyuzi, , Bahá‘u’lláh, pp. 151–52;Google Scholar see also Hamid, Algar, Mirza Malkum Khan (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1973), esp. p. 89.Google Scholar

²⁷ Bakhash, , Iran, pp. 44–45.Google Scholar

²⁸ Bahaullah, , “Lawẖ Malikah Wiktūriyā,” Alvāh-i Nāzilah, p. 131; tr., Proclamation, p. 33.Google Scholar

²⁹ Idem, , “Lawẖ Malikah Wiktūiriyā,” p. 133; tr., Proclamation, p. 34.Google Scholar

³⁰ Ami, Ayalon, Language and Change in the Arab Middle East: The Evolution of Modern Political Discourse (Oxford, 1987), pp. 100–109;Google ScholarSteingass, F., A Comprehensive Persian–English Dictionary (Beirut, 1975 [1892]), s.v. jumhūr.Google Scholar

³¹ Bahaullah, , “Lawẖ-i Napüumacr;liʾūn-i Sivvum,” Alvāẖ-i Nāzilah, pp. 102–3; tr. Proclamation, p. 20.Google Scholar

³² Idem, , “Khiṭb bih Qayṣar-i Almān,” from al-Kitāb al-A qdas, in Alvāẖ-i Nāzilah, pp. 250–51; tr. Proclamation, p. 39.Google Scholar

³³ Idem, , al-Kitāb al-Aqdas, p. 98; my translation.Google Scholar

³⁴ Idem, , “Khiṭāb bih ruʾasā-yi jumhūr-i Amrīqā,” from al-Aqdas, in Alvōh- Nōzilah, p. 258.Google Scholar

³⁵ Idem, , “Lawẖ-i Pādshāh-i Rūs,” in Alvāẖ-i nāzilah, p. 122; tr., Proclamation, p. 27.Google Scholar

³⁶ Idem, , al-Kitōb al-Aqdas (Bombay, n.d.), pp. 178–79; my translation.Google Scholar

³⁷ Ayalon, , Language and Change, pp. 89–91.Google Scholar

³⁸ Bahauliah, , “Lawẖ-i Salmān,” Majmūʾahʾ-i Maṭbūʾah-ʿ Alvāẖ-i Mubārakah, ed. Muẖyi, al-Din Ṣabri (Cairo, 1920; repr. Wilmette, III., 1978), pp. 125–26;Google Scholar this passage tr. Shoghi, Efendi, The Promised Day Is Come, p. 72.Google Scholar

³⁹ Ebüzziya, Yeni Osmanltlar, III:64. My thanks to James Stuart Robinson for his help in interpreting this passage.

⁴⁰ Namk, Kemal, Hususi Mektuplar, ed. Fevziye, Abdullah Tansel, vol. 1 (Ankara, 1967), pp. 240–41, 450, 454.Google Scholar

⁴¹ For the loss of Namik Kemal's correspondence with ʿAbd al-Baha, see Süleyman, Nazif, Nasiru'dDin Ṣah ve Babilar (Istanbul, 1923), pp. 52–53. The Bahai leader's letters may still be somewhere in Namik Kemāl's private papers.Google Scholar

⁴² Bereketzade, Hakki Efendi, Yad-i mazi (Istanbul, 1914), pp. 105–21.Google Scholar

⁴³ Balyūzī, , Bahá‘u’lláh, pp. 378–79; Balyūzi fixes the meeting between Midhat Pasha and ʾAbd alBaha in Beirut sometime in 1879.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Ṣükrü, Hanioğlu, Bir Siyasal Düṣünür olarak Doktor Abdullah Cevdet ve Dönemi (Istanbul, 1981); I am grateful to the author himself for drawing these facts to my attention.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ See Guity, Nashat, The Beginnings of Reform in Modern Iran (Urbana, III., 1981); Bakhash, Iran,Google Scholar ch. 2; Azriel, Karny, “Mirza Husein Khan and His Attempts at Reform in Iran, 1872–73,” Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1973;Google ScholarFiruz, Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864 –1914 (New Haven, Conn., 1968), esp. pp. 100–47.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Bayat, , Mysticism, pp. 165–66.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Kāẓim, Samandar, Tārikh-i Samandar (Tehran, 1974), p. 199.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Asrār al-Ghaybiyya li-Asbāb al-Madaniyya was first printed in Bombay at the Ḥasanī Zivar Press by al-Ḥājj Muẖ.ammad Ḥusayn al-ḤakḤakīm al-Bahāʾī in Rabīʾ 1 1299/January–February 1882, according to the frontispiece reprinted in Rosen, ed., Collections scientifiques, 6:253. 1 have used the second printing: ʾsAbd, al-Bahāʾ, al-Risāla al-madaniyya (Cairo, 1911);Google Scholar a translation is ʾ Abd, al-Bahāʾ, The Secret of Divine Civilization, tr. Marzieh Gail (2d ed., Wilmette, III., 1970). The Persian text of this book was reprinted in 1984 by the Bahaʾi Publishing Trust in Hofheim, Germany.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Bayat, Mysticism;Bakhash, , Iran, pp. 29–42;Google ScholarDabīr, al-Mulk, “Risālah-i siyōsi,” in Adamiyyat, F. and Natiq, H., eds., Aflcār-i Ijtimāʾi va Siyāsī Va Iqtiṣādi dar āsār-i Muntashir Nashudah-ʾi dawrah-ʾi Qājār (Tehran, 1356/1977–1978), pp. 417–48.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See Stanford, J. Shaw and Ezel, Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. 2 (Cambride, 1985), pp. 105–86;Google ScholarBernard, Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (2d ed., Oxford, 1968), ch. 5; Berkes, Secularism, chaps. 7–8; Mardin, Genesis.Google Scholar

⁵¹ īraj, Afshār and Aṣghar, Mahdavī, eds., Majmūʾah-ʾi asnād va madārik-i chāp nashudah dar bārahʾi Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn mashhtūr bi-Afghōnī (Tehran, 1963), plate 62 (p. 133 of facsimiles). For Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn,Google Scholar see Nikki, R. Keddie, Sayyid Jamālu'd-Din “al-Afghāni”: A Political Biography (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972).Google Scholar

⁵² Adib, Isẖāq, al-Durar, ed. Jirjis, Mikhāīl (Alexandria, 1886), pp. 55–57 (Miṣr, 1878).Google Scholar

⁵³ Bahaullah, , “Bishārāt” Majmūʾah'i az alvāẖ-i Jamāl-i Aqdas-i Abhō kih baʾd az Kitāb-i Aqdas Ḥabib ๬ahirzādah (Hotheim, 1980), p. 15;Google ScholarBahaullah, , Tablets of Bahá‘u”lláh Revealed after the Kitāb-i-Aqdas, tr. Ḥabīb Tahirzāah (Haifa, 1978), p. 28.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ “Fi nisbat al-Fitna ilā al-Faransiyyin,” al-Jawāʾib, 26 October 1870, in Aẖmad, Fāns al-Shidyāq, Kanz a-Raghāʾib fi muntakhabōt al-Jawāʾib, 7 vols. (Istanbul, 1871–1880), vol. 2, p. 78.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Bruce/Church Mission Society, 19 Nov. 1874 Momen, , Bábí and Bahāʾi Religions, p. 244.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Browne, E. G., Materials for the Study of the Bábí Religion (Cambridge, 1918), p. 190.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Rūẖ, Allāh Mihrābkhvānī, Sharẖ-i Aẖvāl-i Jināb-i Mīrzā Abū al-FaŻāʾil-i Gulpāygāni (Tehran, 1974), pp. 44–45.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ For the Hamidian reactBerkes, , Secularism, pp. 252–88;Google ScholarLewis, , Emergence, pp. 175209Google ScholarShaw, and Shaw, , History of the Ottoman Empire, pp. 172–272, esp. pp. 251–52 for censorship; for Iran,Google Scholar see Bakhash, , Iran, pp. 146–86, 261–93.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Browne, , “The Bábis of Persia,” p. 944.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Bahaullah, , al-Kitāb al-Aqdas, p. 30;Google Scholar tr. Shoghi, Efendi Rabbani in A Synopsis and Codification of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of the Bahá‘u’llāh (Haifa, 1973), p. 13.Google Scholar

⁶¹ The following Bahaullah, , Majmūʾah'ī az Alvāẖ: “Bisharāt,” pp. 14–15, Ṭāhirzāda, tr. pp. 26–27; “Lawẖ-i Dunyā,” p. 50, tr. p. 89; “Ishrāqāt,” pp. 74–77, tr. pp. 127, 129−34.Google Scholar

⁶² Bahaullah, , al-Kitāb al-Aqdas, p. 122; Er. Gleanings, pp. 335–36.Google Scholar

⁶³ Ayalon, , Language and Change, p. 53.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Bernard, Lewis, Emergence, p. 66, quoting the memorandum of Ahmet Atif Efendi, 1798, reprinted in the chronicle of Ahmet Cevdet Paṣa.Google Scholar See for this issue Leon, Zolondek, “The French Revolution in Arabic Literature of the Nineteenth Century,” The Muslim World, 57 (1967), 202–11.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ ʾAbd, al-Bahāʾ, A Traveller's Narrative, tr. and ed. Edward, G. Browne, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1891), vol. I, pp. 193–205 (Eng. tr. 2: 158−66). Contrast Pope Leo XIII, “Libertas Praestantissimum,” where he wrote, “Justice therefore forbids, and reason itself forbids, the State to be godless; or to adopt a line of action which would end in godlessness—namely, to treat the various religions (as they call them) alike.”Google Scholar In Michael, Curtis, ed., The Great Political Theories, 2 vols. (New York, 1981), vol. 2, pp. 403–4.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Rūẖ, Allāh Mihrābkhvānī, “Maẖāfil-i Shūr dar ʾAhd -i Jamāl-i Aqdas-i Abhā,” Payām-i Bahāʾī, 28 29 (1981), 9–11, 8–9; based on Mīrzā Asad Allāh Iṣahānī, “Yād-dāshtihā,” Persian ms. (I am grateful to the author for sharing with me a photocopy of this ms.).Google Scholar See also Samandar, , Tārikh, pp. 203–5.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Bahaullah, in Aẖmad Yazdānī, ed., Mabādī-i Rūẖāni (Tehran, 104 BE.). p. 109, “lmrūz imāʾ Allāh az rijāl maẖsūb”Google Scholar

⁶⁸ ʾAbd, al-Bahā, Tablets of ʾAbdu-l-Bahá ʾAbbās, 3 vols. (Chicago, 1909–1916), vol. I, p. 7.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Bahaullah, , “Kalimāt-i firdawsiyyah,” in Majmūʾa'ī az alvāẖ, pp. 35–36; tr., p. 65.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ SeeNikki, R. Keddie, Religion and Rebellion in Iran: The Tobacco Protest of 1891–1892 (London, 1966);Google ScholarLambton, , Qajar Persia, pp. 223–76;Google Scholar and Faridūn, ādamiyyat, Shūrish bar Imtiyāznāmahʾi Rizhi (Tehran, 1981).Google Scholar

⁷¹ See Charles, Issawi, ed., The Economic History of Iran, 1800–1914 (Chicago, 1971).Google Scholar

⁷² Bahaullah, , “Lawẖ-i dunyā,” p. 47; Er., Proclamation, p. 84.Google Scholar

⁷³ Ibid., pp. 47–48, 52–53; tr. pp. 85, 92–93.

⁷⁴ Ibid., pp. 50–51; tr., p. 90.

⁷⁵ “A Petition from Iranian Reformers to the Foreign Representatives in Tehran in Early 1892,” quoted from “The Liberal Movement in Persia,” Manchester Guardian, 04 20, 1892,Google Scholar Appendix V of Keddie, , Religion and Rebellion in Iran, pp. 152–54.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Qānūn, no. 35, quoted in Algar, , Mirza Malkum Khan, p. 237.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ ͑Azīzu'llāh, Sulaymānī, Masābīẖ-i Hidāyat, 9 vols. (Tehran, 1948–1973), vol. 7, pp. 419–47; Ibrāhīm Ṣafā͗i, Rahbarān-i Mashrū๭ih, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1984 [1966]), vol. 1, pp. 561–91 (oddly, does not accept that Shaykh al-Raʾis was a Bahai).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ See AfŻalu'l-Mulk, Kirmānī, “Biography of Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani,” Appendix to Keddie, “Religion and Irreligion”; and Shaykh, al-Raʾis, Muntakhab-i Nafis (Tehran: Maẖmudi, repr., c. 1960), pp. 117–23.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Shaykh, al-Raʾis, ltriẖad-i Islam, ed. Ṣādiq, Ṣājjādī (Tehran, repr. 1984 [1894]).Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Shaykh al-Raʾis/Malkum Khan, 20 Safar 1312/23 August 1894, Supplement Persan, 1981, fol. 50, Bibliothèque Nationale, cited in Algar, , Mirza Malkum Khan, pp. 225–26.Google Scholar

⁸¹ First Minister Amīn al-Suliṭān's summary, reported in F.O. 539/56, Lascelles/Salisbury, no. 124 (35), 16 Feb. 1892, and quoted in Keddie, , Religion and Rebellion in Iran, p. 108.Google Scholar

⁸² See Balyuzi, , Bahá‘u’lláh, ch. 40, esp. p. 385.Google Scholar

⁸³ Bahaullah, , “Lawẖ-i Dunyā,” pp. 54–55; Er. Proclamation, pp. 94–95. For Sayyid Jamālu'd-Dīn in this period,Google Scholar see Keddie, , Sayyid Jamālu'd-Din “al-Afghānī, pp. 283–388.Google Scholar