Historical Background

The long reign of Nasir al-Din Shah ended with his assassination in 1896. His death at the hands of a disciple of the revolutionary agitator Jamal al-Din ‘al-Afghani’ reflected a deep popular discontent both with the monarch himself, the Qajar dynasty in general, and the overall stagnation of the country. Reform was urgently required, but the combination of arbitrary and despotic rule and Western penetration of the economy generated an unnatural opposition alliance of radicals and conservative ulama. This had manifested itself in 1891 in the popular protests against the Shah's selling of the tobacco monopoly to an Englishman and would emerge again when Muzzafar al-Din Shah was forced to grant a majlis (parliament) in December 1905. The so-called mushrutih, or Persian constitutional revolution, lasted until 1911 when Russian pressure effectively ended it. Although the British legation in Tehran had been generally sympathetic to the revolution, the British government signed a convention with Russia in 1907 partitioning the country. In allowing Russia a free hand in the north this effectively doomed Persia's experiment in modern government to failure. In the south, where Britain's influence invariably predominated, oil had been discovered and in 1901 a Briton, William Knox D'Arcy, had been granted the concession for exploration. In 1914 the British government acquired a majority of the shares in the company holding the concession.