Persian Constitutional Revolution

The Persian Constitutional Revolution (Mashrūtiyyat, or انقلاب مشروطه Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911 during the Qajar dynasty. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament in Persia (Iran), and has been called an "epoch-making episode in the modern history of Persia". The revolution was "the first of its kind in the Islamic world, earlier than the revolution of the Young Turks in 1908". It opened the way for the modern era in Persia, and debate in a burgeoning press. Many groups fought to shape the course of the revolution. The old order, which Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar had struggled for so long to sustain, was finally replaced by new institutions. Shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signed the 1906 constitution shortly before his death. He was succeeded by Mohammad Ali Shah, who abolished the constitution and bombarded the parliament in 1908 with Russian and British support. This led to a second effort with constitutionalist forces marching to Tehran, forced Mohammad Ali Shah's abdication in favor of his young son Ahmad Shah Qajar, and re-established the constitution in 1909. The revolution ended in December 1911 when the Shah's ministers oversaw the expulsion of the deputies of the Second Majlis from the parliament with the support of 12,000 Russian troops". After the 1921 Persian coup d'état ( کودتای ۳ اسفند ۱۲۹۹), Iran's parliament amended the constitution on December 12, 1925, replacing the 1797–1925 Qajar dynasty with the Pahlavi dynasty as the legitimate sovereigns of Iran. The 1906–1907 constitution, though not adhered to, remained until after the Islamic Revolution a new constitution was approved on 2 and 3 December 1979 establishing an Islamic Republic. The Constitutional Revolution began in 1905 with protest against a foreign director of customs (a Belgian) enforcing "with bureaucratic rigidity" the tariff collections to pay for a loan to another foreign source (Russians) that financed the shah's (Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar) extravagant tour of Europe.