Iran’s Constitutional Revolution Opens a Parliament

In December 1905, government officials in Tehran ordered two merchants beaten for price gouging, touching off an urban rebellion that shook the Qajar dynasty. Outraged bazaar traders shut their stalls, while prominent Shi'i clerics joined the resistance. This united front traced its roots to the nationwide tobacco protests of 1891, when the religious establishment and commercial guilds had forced the monarchy to cancel a British trade monopoly. Facing rising state debt, costly royal tours of Europe, and heavy commercial concessions handed to foreign interests, merchants and scholars demanded formal legal protection against autocratic rule.

Protesters initially sought refuge in a city mosque, but state forces entered the sanctuary and dispersed them. The confrontation widened when demonstrators withdrew to a shrine outside Tehran, demanding the dismissal of the prime minister and the establishment of a consultative house of justice. Although Mozaffar ad-Din Shah agreed to concessions in January 1906, renewed clashes erupted months later. After a young theology student was shot dead during a protest in July 1906, thousands of merchants camped in the gardens of the British legation while leading clerics withdrew to Qom. In August 1906, the ailing monarch yielded and decreed the creation of an elected assembly.