Tashayyuʻ va mashrūṭīyat dar Īrān va naqsh-i Īrāniyān-i muqīm-i ʻIrāq

This study examines the response of the Shīʻa religious leadership to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, both in their practical involvement and in the intellectual contribution they made to the movement. At its heart lies the thought of Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥusayn Nāʼīnī (1860–1936), whose treatise Tanbīh al-ummah va tanzīh al-millah offered the most systematic defence of constitutional government from within the framework of Shīʻa political doctrine. The author traces the intellectual roots of constitutionalism in Īrān, the stance of the mujtahids towards the apparatus of state, and the apparent tensions between constitutionalism and Shīʻism. Particular emphasis falls on the pivotal role played by the Iranian ʻulamāʼ resident in ʻIrāq, especially the scholars of Najaf, in shaping events and restoring the constitutional order. Nāʼīnī emerges as the foremost exponent of the religious leaders whose authority and writings sustained the revolution and gave it doctrinal legitimacy.