200 • 12 THE RISE OF NATIONALISMWell might they wonder how long it would take for Russia to occupy Persia.
Persians knew about the British occupation of Egypt, Sultan Abdulhamid's
weakness, and the foreign penetration of China. If the Russian troops did
not come, some asked, would British investors take over Persia more
subtly? Russia was Persia's main enemy, but Britain was a close second. The
shah, surrounded by corrupt courtiers, had sold most of his inherited
treasures and spent the proceeds of his foreign loans on palaces, trips
abroad, and gifts to his family and friends.
The Constitutionalist Movement
Patriotic Persians felt that the remedy to these ills was a constitution that
would limit their rulers' arbitrary acts. The idea spread among bazaar
merchants, landlords, ulama, army officers, and even some government
officials and tribal leaders. Secret societies sprang up in various cities, no¬
tably Tabriz (Azerbaijan's main city) and Tehran (Persia's capital). The
spark that set off the revolution was an arbitrary act by the shah's prime
minister, Ayn al-Dowleh, who had several merchants flogged for allegedly
plotting to drive up the price of sugar in the Tehran bazaar. The merchants
took refuge in the royal mosque (which, by a time-honored Persian cus¬
tom called bast, gave them sanctuary from arrest), but Ayn al-Dowleh had
them expelled. This move enraged Tehran's ulama and swelled the num¬
ber of protestors, who moved to another mosque. Desiring peace, the shah
offered to dismiss his minister and to convene a "house of justice" to re¬
dress their grievances. But he failed to act on his promises. When the shah
was incapacitated by a stroke, Ayn al-Dowleh attacked the protestors, who
organized a larger bast in Tehran. Meanwhile, the mujtahids, or Shi'i legal
experts, sought bast in nearby Qom and threatened to leave Persia en
masse—an act that would have paralyzed the country's courts—unless
their demands were met. Tehran's shops closed. When Ayn al-Dowleh
tried to force them to open, 15,000 Persians took refuge in the British lega¬
tion, camping on its lawn for several weeks during July 1906. Finally the
shah bowed to popular pressure. He fired Ayn al-Dowleh and accepted a
Western-style constitution in which the government would be controlled
by a Majlis, or representative assembly. So great was his aversion to the
Persian nationalists, however, that only pressure from Britain and Russia
(plus the fact that he was dying) kept him from blocking the constitution
before it could take effect.
The Persian nationalists achieved too much too soon. In 1907 Britain
and Russia reached an agreement recognizing each other's spheres of in-