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The Impact of Modernization on the Ulama in Iran, 1925–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mohammad H. Faghfoory
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Extract

This article examines the impact of modernization and Westernization on the clerical community in Iran between 1925 and 1941, and discusses briefly the reactions and attitudes of various factions and strata of the ulama toward the modernization efforts of the state. The study also demonstrates that the clergy's reaction to modernization was not one of outright opposition and resistance. While the clerical community as a whole rejected Westernization, its reaction to the government's modernization policies varied greatly.

The process of modernization in Iran was accompanied by a considerable degree of change in social stratification. New social classes and occupational groups emerged and the power of the old and traditional elites declined. In contrast to popular assumptions, the ulama as a traditional elite showed a remarkable degree of adaptability in response to modernization and social change.

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Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 3-4 , Summer Fall 1993 , pp. 277 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1993

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Footnotes

*

Special thanks are due to Dr. Willem Floor, Dr. Patrick Clawson, and Professor Abbas Amanat who read an earlier draft of this paper and made perceptive comments and valuable suggestions. Dr. Floor also put at my disposal several documents from the British Foreign Office for which I remain grateful. The responsibility for the views and any errors is solely mine.

References

1. Banani, A., The Modernization of Iran: 1921–1941 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1961)Google Scholar. See also Akhavi, S. Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran: Clergy-State Relations in the Pahlavi Period (New York, 1980)Google Scholar, chapter 2.

2. Faghfoory, M. H., “The Ulama-State Relations in Iran: 1921–1941,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 19 (November 1987): 413–32Google Scholar.

3. Iṭṭilā'āt, 16 Mehr 1320/6 October 1941.

4. Dawlatabadi, Y., Tārīkh-i ‘aṣr-i ḥazir yā ḥayāt-i Yaḥyā (Tehran, 1331 Sh./1952), 3:287–9Google Scholar.

5. Augustin Ferrin to U.S. Secretary of State, Desp. #45, Document Group #891.404/12, 30 June 1928, The National Archives, Washington, D.C. Unless otherwise stated, all archival materials are from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Visiting the city of Mashhad a year later, Ahmad Kasravi summarized the religious situation in that city and stated: ”… it is Moharram and in Mashhad the Shi'ites have grown ten times wilder. Everything has been put aside and nothing is heard except chest beating and mourning …” See Kasravi, Zindigānī-yi man (Tehran, 1339 Sh./1960), 271Google Scholar.

6. Faghfoory, “Ulama-State Relations”.

7. Augustin Ferrin to U.S. Secretary of State, 30 June 1928, op. cit.

8. David Williamson (U.S. chargé d'affaires in Tehran), “Confidential Report to U.S. Secretary of State,” 2 May 1929, Desp. #821, Record Gr. #891.405/6.

9. Iṭṭilā'āt, 21 Khordad 1312/11 June 1933, 19 Azar 1314/10 December 1935, and several other issues.

10. Iṭṭilā'āt Year Book, Ḥavādi-i muhimm-i yik rub'-i qarn (Tehran, 1329 Sh./1950), 156.

11. Eṭṭelā'āt, 31 Farvardin 1310/21 April 1931.

12. Faghfoory, “Ulama-State Relations”, 425–6; ‘ Hekmat, A. A., Si khāṭirah az ‘aṣri farkhundih-yi Pahlavī (Tehran, 1355 Sh./1976), 201–2Google Scholar.

13. Faghfoory, “Ulama-State Relations”.

14. Iṭṭilā'āt, 14–15 Farvardin 1307/3–1 April 1928.

15. Ibid., 11 Tir 1307/2 June 1928.

16. Ibid., 17 Mordad 1307/8 August 1928.

17. Public dissatisfaction and anger with the clergy's control over registration of land transactions and their dishonest conduct in the process facilitated the implementation of this law. Reportedly, cheating in land transactions was quite common by the clergy in their private offices. Qudsi reports: “I purchased a plot of land from two Jewish individuals and the deal was registered in a mulla's office in Shemiran. Sa'd al- Dawlah's daughter filed a complaint against me and this transaction. It turned out that the mulla had sold the same property to two people in one day and had issued two certificates for two owners” (Qudsi, Hasan I'zam, Kitāb-i khāṭirāt-i man [Tehran, 1342 Sh./1963], 2:58)Google Scholar. For the text of the laws concerning the offices of registration see Iṭṭilā'āt, 17 Mehr 1310/9 October 1931.

18. For the text of this law see Iṭṭilā'āt, 14 Mordad 1310/5 August 1931; Filmer, Henry, The Pageants of Persia (New York, 1936), 367–9Google Scholar.

19. Iṭṭilā'āt Year Book, 79.

20. “Qavānīn va muṣavvabāt-i majlis-i shūrā-yi millī” 2:462 and 4:140, as quoted in Banani, Modernization of Iran, 76–7.

21. Ibid., 77.

22. “Majmū'a-yi qavānīn-i majlis-i shūrā,” articles 10, 98, 100 (Tehran, n.d.). See also Banani, Modernization of Iran, 79Google Scholar.

23. Shaygan, Sayyid ‘Ali, Ḥuqūq-i madanī-yi Irān (Tehran, 1316 Sh./1937), 40–42Google Scholar.

24. Ibid., 191–2.

25. Ibid., 12, 32–3, 167–8.

26. Wallace Treat to U.S. Secretary of State, 16 January 1929, Desp. #739, Rec. Gr. #891.404/14.

27. Ibid.

28. Shaji'i, Zahra, Namāyandigān-i majlis-i shūrā-yi millī dar bīst-u yik dawrih-yi qānūnguzārī (Tehran, 1344 Sh./1965), 176Google Scholar.

29. Wilber, Donald, Reza Shah: The Resurrection and Reconstruction of Iran (New York, 1975), 263Google Scholar; Filmer, Pageants, 368Google Scholar.

30. “Iḥṣā'iyyah-yi madāris-i Irān dar sāl-i 1304,” in Iṭṭilā'āt, 17 Shahrivar 1305/7 September 1926. Other sources provide different figures. According to Jamalzadah, the number of schools throughout Iran in 1924 was 1,943 units with 96,000 students (Jamalzadah, M. ‘A., “An Outline of the Social and Economic Structure of Iran,” International Labor Review (January 1951): 32Google Scholar.

31. Ibid.; Āmūzish va parvarish: māhnāmah-yi rasmī-yi vizārat-i farhang 11–12 (Bahman-Esfand 1318/January-March 1939): 88–104.

32. Ibid.

33. Mu'tamin, ‘A., Rāhnamā-yi tārīkh-i astdnah (Mashhad, 1348 Sh./1969), 397–8Google Scholar.

34. Ibid., 399–400.

35. Majallah-yi ta'līm va tarbīyat 8 (Aban 1314/October-November 1935): 418.

36. Majallah-yi āmūzish va parvarish (Bahman-Esfand 1318/January-March 1939): 76–8.

37. Rāhnamā-yi dānishgāh-i Tihrān (Tehran, 1317 Sh./1938), 1, 55.

38. Arasteh, Reza, Education and Social Awakening in Iran (Leiden, 1962), 106Google Scholar.

39. Iṭṭilā'āt, 22 Azar 1313/13 December 1934.

40. For the complete text of the waqf Urn see Iṭṭilā'āt, 27 Ordibehesht 1314/17 May 1935; Akhavi, Religion and Politics, 55–8.

41. Haj Mirza Hasan Khal'atbari, “Qīyām-i ‘aẓīm-i Islāmī,” as quoted in Makki, H., Tārīkh-i bīst sālih-yi Irān (Tehran, 1362 Sh./1983), 6:104–5Google Scholar.

42. Iṭṭilā'āt, 4 Day 1307/25 December 1928. See also Augustin Ferrin to U.S. Department of State, 28 December 1928, Desp. #20, Record Gr. #891.405/3.

43. Shirvani, A., “Unity of Dress,” in Iṭṭila'dt, 8 Day 1307/29 December 1928Google Scholar. See also Mahdi Quli Khan Hedayat, Khāṭirāt va khaṭarāt (Tehran, 1344 Sh./1965), 282–3. Ann Lambton visited Iran first in 1934. Later she wrote: “When I went to Iran, provincial particularism was still clearly evident…. If you asked the man in the street or the villager who he was, he would not answer Irani, but rather Tabrizi, Isfahani, or whatever the town [was] from which he came; or Lur, Qashqa'i, or whatever his tribe …” (“Reflections of Iran in the Mid-Twentieth Century,” Asian Affairs: Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs 19 [October 1988]: 3.

44. Wallace Treat to U.S. Department of State, 16 January 1929, Desp. #739, Rec. Gr.#891.404/14.

45. Ibid.

46. Augustin Ferrin to U.S. State Department, 28 December 1928, Desp. #20, Rec. Gr. #891.405/3. See also Makki, Tārīkh-i bīst sālih 6:202.

47. Makki, Tārīkh-i bīst sālih 6:251Google Scholar.

48. Smith Murray to Department of State, 6 May 1925, Desp. #1061, Rec. Gr.#891.4051/2.

49. Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 Mordad 1315/1 August 1936.

50. Qudsi, Kitāb-i khāṭirāt 2:244.

51. FO 371/20040/, “Kirman Diary” (June 1936).

52. Katouzian, Homa, The Political Economy of Modern Iran: Despotism and Pseudo-Modernism, 1926–1979 (New York, 1981), 126CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53. Reza Baraheni narrates a story that on one such occasion a police officer stopped Baraheni's father and asked him what he had in his sack. “It is full of pistachio nuts,” his father had replied. The policeman then asked for some pistachios and began tickling the obviously human body in the sack. Baraheni's grandmother laughed at first and then wriggled out and ran away. His father was arrested. See Baraheni, Reza, “The Crowned Cannibal,” as quoted in Munson, H., Islam and Revolution in the Middle East (New York, 1988), 48Google Scholar. According to Ann Lambton, “the attitude toward unveiling was ambivalent among both men and women. In actual fact, anyone who went out with a veil might have it torn off her head by a policeman. I witnessed several such incidents” op. cit., 275.

54. FO 371/20040/, “Kirman Diary” (June 1936).

55. FO 371/20051/, “Tabriz Diary” (December 1935).

56. FO 371/20040/, “Kirman Diary” (June 1936).

57. According to one observer, some people migrated from the country in order to avoid the law. See Makki, Tārīkh-i bīst sālih 2:276–7Google Scholar.

58. Hedayat, Khāṭirāt va khaṭarāt, 405–8Google Scholar.

59. Wallace Treat to Department of State, 16 January 1929, Desp. #739, Rec. Gr. #891.404/14.

60. Earl T. Grain to Department of State, 2 March 1936, Desp. #84, Rec. Gr. #840.5, Box #4.

61. G. F. Squire, “ An Appreciation of the Political Situation in Eastern Iran,” FO/371/21855, f. 260–65, (Mashhad, 3/5/1938).

62. Butler to Eden (Tehran, 20/10/1936), FO/371/20049, f. 28.

63. FO/371/23263, “Tabriz Diary” #7 (Tabriz, July 1939).

64. Iṭṭilā'āt, 19 Tir 1310/10 July 1931.

65. Makki, Tarikh-i bīst sālih 6:204–5Google Scholar. Also see Iṭṭilā'āt, 11 Bahman 1315/31 January 1937. On the occasion of Ayatullah Ha'iri's death on 10 Bahman 1315/30 January 1937, the court arranged a funeral procession in Tehran's Shah mosque in which the prime minister, speaker of the Majlis, court minister, cabinet and parliament members as well as leading ulama and merchants of Tehran participated. On Ha'iri's death the British embassy sent the following report to London: “Haj Sheikh Abdul Karim of Qom, one of the leading mullahs and a great supporter of the government in their schemes for progress died” (FO/371/20831, “Intelligence Summary to 27/2/1937,” f. 153).

66. In less than two months, over 80 lecture sessions in provincial centers, and at least 14 in Tehran, were held by the ministry of education alone. See Majallah-yi ta'līm va tarbīyat 11–12 (Bahman-Esfand 1314/January-March 1936).

67. Of this number, 9 were located in Tehran, 4 in Tabriz, 3 each in Isfahan, Mashhad and Rasht, 2 each in Shiraz and Anzali, and one in each of the cities of Kirmanshah, Hamadan, Qazvin, Ahvaz, Reza'iyyeh, Tajrish; the locations of 3 theaters are not mentioned. See from U.S. embassy in Tehran to Department of State, 7 August 1941, unnumbered desp., Rec. Gr. #84, Box 40.

68. Majallah-yi ta'lim va tarbiyat 7–8 (Mehr-Aban 1318/August-October 1939).

69. For more detail on this incident see Razi, M., Āthār al-ḥujja (Qom, 1332 Sh./1953), 1:35–6Google Scholar.

70. Makki, Tārīkh-i bīst sālih 6:252–7Google Scholar.

71. Ibid.

72. Iṭṭilā'āt, 25 Tir 1314/16 July 1935; 7–8 Day 1314/28–29 December 1935. See also Hekmat, Si khāṭirah, 210–11, and Akhavi, Religion and Politics, 44.

73. Razi, Āthār 1:47.

74. Iṭṭilā'āt, 25 Tir 1314/16 July 1935.

75. Rūznāmih-yi Nāhīd, enclosure to Wallace Treat's report to the U.S. Department of State, 16 January 1929, Desp.#739, Rec.Gr.#891.404/14.

76. Ibid.

77. Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 Khordad 1310/31 May 1931.

78. Ibid., 15 Day 1307/5 January 1929. See also the issue of 21 Esfand 1313/12 March 1935.

79. Rastākhīz #2, 1 Ordibehesht 1305/21 April 1926.

80. Ibid., Mehr 1305/September-October 1925.

81. Kasravi, A., Din va sāyāsat, 2d ed. (Tehran, 1348 Sh./1969), 6Google Scholar.

82. Hedayat, Khāṭirāt va khaṭarāt, 276.

83. On Shari'at Sangalaji see Mashkur, M. H. in Āyandih 3:1 (Tehran, Khordad 1365/May-June 1986)Google Scholar; anonymous, Sharḥ-i ḥāl va asrār-i marḥūm āyat'ullāh Sharī‘at Sangalajī (Tehran, 1323 Sh./1944); Richard, Y., “Shari'at Sangalaji,” in Arjomand, S. A., ed., Authority and Political Culture in Shi'ism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988)Google Scholar. Sangalaji's best-known work is Kilīd-i fahm-e Qur'ān, 5th ed. (Tehran, 1362 Sh./1983).

84. See, for instance, Iṭṭilā'āt, 7 Mordad 1308/29 July 1929.

85. Augustin Ferrin to State Department, 3 August 1929, Desp. #91, Rec. Gr. #891.405/8.

86. David Williamson to State Department, 5 September 1929, Desp. #906, Rec. Gr. #891.405/9.

87. Iṭṭilā'āt, 19 Mehr 1311/9 October 1932; 30 Bahman 1311/11 February 1933.

88. Ibid., 18–26 Aban 1311/9–17 November 1932.

89. Ibid., 29 Mordad 1308/20 August 1929. There is hardly an issue that does not contain an article or report on the growth of prostitution and the spread of venereal diseases. See Iṭṭilā'āt, 28 Mehr 1309/20 October 1930; and numerous issues in the month of Tir 1310/June-July 1931.

90. Shafaq-i surkh, 9 Mordad 1308/31 July 1929, enclosure to desp. #84, U.S. embassy to State Department, 7 August 1929, Rec. Gr. #891.405/8.

91. “Intensification of Punishment of Anti-Moral Crimes,” in Iṭṭilā'āt, 10 Mordad 1312/1 August 1933.

92. Wallace Treat to State Department, 16 January 1929, Desp. #739, Rec. Gr. #891.404/14.

93. Iṭṭilā'āt, 19 Farvardin 1308/8 April 1928. See also Qudsi, Kitāb-i khāṭirāt, 115–16.

94. Ibid., 24 Bahman 1315/13 February 1937.

95. Iṭṭilā'āt, 2 Day 1315/23 December 1937.

96. FO/371/20040/b. 195, “Kirman Diary” (February 1936).

97. During a public ceremony several prominent members of the clergy including Haj Shaykh al-Islam Hujjat, Zahir al-Islam, Aqa Mulla Husayn Taheri, Hujjat al-Islam Fakhr al-Din Al-i Aqa, Haj I'timad, Fazili Masa'ili, and Tusi removed their clerical garb in favor of modern dress and expressed support for the removal of the veil. It is not known whether these ulama represented Shi'i or Sunni communities or both. See Iṭṭilā'āt, 18 Bahman 1314/7 February 1937.

98. FO/371/20040/b. 205, “Kirman Diary” (March 1936).

99. Rives Childs, “Observations on a Motor Trip Through Azarbaijan and Kurdistan,” Enclosure to desp. #522, 26 July 1935, Rec. Gr. #891.00/1614.

100. FO/731/20051, “Tabriz Diary,” f. 9 (December, 1935).

101. Makki, Tārīkh-i bīst sālih 6:251Google Scholar.

102. Wallace Treat to State Department, 16 January 1928, Desp. #739, Rec. Gr. #891.404/14.

103. Mu'tamin, ‘Ali, Tārīkh-i āstānah, 270–71Google Scholar.

104. Iṭṭilā'āt, 21 Mordad 1305/11 August 1926.

105. Bamdad, M., Tārīkh-i rijāl-i Irān (Tehran, 1351 Sh./1972), 6:1009Google Scholar.

106. Ibid., 139–40.

107. Ibid., 173–4.

108. Musahab, ‘A., Dā'irat al-ma'ārif-i Fārsī (Tehran, 1345 Sh./1966), 1:675Google Scholar.

109. Bamdad, Tārīkh-i rijāl 6:231Google Scholar. See also Kasravi, A., Zindigānī-yi man (Tehran, 1339 Sh./196O)Google Scholar.

110. U.S. embassy to State Department, rep. #84 (Tehran, 1936), Rec. Gr.#610.1.

111. Bamdad, Tārīkh-i rijāl, vols. 4, 5, 6. See also I. Safa'i, Nakhustvazīrān-i Irān (Tehran, 1353 Sh./1974). Other examples in this category included Dr. Manuchehr Iqbal, Dr. Hasan Khal'atbari, son of Shaykh Nur al-Din Mazandarani, Dr. Mahdi Malekzadah, son of the famous constitutionalist ‘ālim Malik al-Mutakallimin, Jamal Imami, son of Ayatollah Imam Jum'a Khu'i, and many others.

112. Safa'i, Nakhustvazīrān, 181–2Google Scholar.

113. Qudsi, Kitāb-i khāṭirāt 2:123Google Scholar.

114. Ibid., 229–31.

115. Kasravi, Zindigānī-yi man, 255–6, 273Google Scholar.

116. Razi, Āthār 1:46Google Scholar.

117. Faghfoory, “Ulama-State Relations”, 428.

118. A. R. Shaikholeslami, “From Religious Accommodation to Religious Revolution: The Transformation of Shi'ism in Iran”, in Banuazizi, A. and Weiner, M. (eds.), The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1986), 243Google Scholar.

119. A. Ferdous, “Religion in Iranian Nationalism: A Study of the Fadayan-i Islam” (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1966). See also F. Kazemi, “The Fada'iyan-e Islam: Fanaticism, Politics and Terror,” in S. A. Arjomand, ed., From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam (Albany: SUNY press, 1984) 158–76; Faghfoory, “The Role of the Ulama in Twentieth-Century Iran With Particular Reference to Ayatullah Haj Sayyid Abulqasim Kashani” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1978), chapter 5.