Mirza Malkum Khan: A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism

340 Pages·1973·17.653 MB·English

by  Hamid Algar

MÏRZA MALRUM KHÄN

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The front page of the first issue of Qânûn.
MIRZÄ
MALKUM
KHAN
A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism
HAMID ALGAR
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
Copyright © 1973, by
The Regents of the University of California
ISBN 0-520-022/7-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-187750
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Dave Comstock
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Chapter One l
Chapter Two 20
Chapter Three 56
Chapter Four 78
Chapter Five 101
Chapter Six 127
Chapter Seven 163
Chapter Eight 185
Chapter Nine 206
Chapter Ten 228
Chapter Eleven 238
Conclusion 260
Appendix A 264
Appendix B 278
Appendix C 300
Bibliography 309
Index 3»9

PREFACE
THE HISTORY OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY IRAN, after a long period of ne-
glect, is beginning to receive concentrated attention both within the
country and abroad. Numerous memoirs, travel diaries, and collections
of documents are being published, and the spate of material coming off
the presses in Tehran shows no signs of abating. Despite all this activity,
there is still relatively little concern with a critical analysis of Iranian
history in the Qajar period, particularly its intellectual aspects. Iran's
diplomatic entanglements and, to a lesser extent, the course of political
events within the country, have been made the object of careful study.
But beyond a few monographs and articles, the intellectual development
of nineteenth-century Iran is still treated in a superficial and all too
general manner. The praise or condemnation of controversial figures
takes the place of detached and detailed analysis. The present study of
Mirza Malkum Khan is intended as a contribution to remedying this
deficiency. The reader will discern a certain lack of sympathy on the
part of the author toward his subject. It is hoped that such lack of
sympathy is not equivalent to bias and that the reasons for it will become
apparent from the study of Malkum's words and deeds.
The chief interest of Malkum's career lies in his formulation of
reformist ideas and tactics and in the role he assigned, in political and
social change, to a utilitarian concept of religion promoted in the ab-
sence of personal belief. The much vaunted hero of nineteenth-century
Islam, Sayyid Jamal ud-Din Asadabadl (Afghani), also hid rationalist
beliefs behind a exterior and the phenomenon of concealed unbelief and
political activism discussed in recent writings on Jamal ud-Din is further
illuminated in the present study of Malkum Khan. In addition to this
manipulation of religious themes, numerous political and ideological
motifs important in later Iranian history were first adumbrated by
* Mirza Malkum Khan
Malkum. Indeed, some have considered him the intellectual progenitor
of the Constitutional Revolution.
Malkum was a versatile figure. His career included masonic activity,
journalism, diplomacy, and concession-monger i ng as well as political
agitation and the demand for reform. In view of this variety, his life
possesses an inherent interest; it also constitutes an important part of
the total history of Iran for more than seventy years. This biography
should then furnish a source for further investigation of several aspects
of Qajar history and is intended, after my Religion and State in Iran:
The Role of the Ulama in the (¿ajar Period, as a second contribution to
the overall history of nineteenth-century Iran.
Part of the research for the present work was carried out with the
support of the Humanities Institute of the University of California in
the summer of 1967. Thanks are also due to Professor Nikki R. Keddie
of the University of California, Los Angeles, who read the book while
in manuscript and made several useful suggestions for its improvement;
and to Dr. Soheil Afnan, who, many years ago in Istanbul, first suggested
to me the interest of the topic.
H. A.