GIVEN THE FACT THAT IRAN has always occupied some measure of media attention in the Anglophone world even before the Islamic Republic made it into a pariah state, it is odd that most politically-minded members of the public or even of the academic classes know little of the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906. This may have to do with the oft-repeated myths of Iranian modernity, which to a great extent were propagated by the last shah.
In its most basic form, this story of Iran’s emergence as a modern nation starts with the collapse of the morally and politically bankrupt Qajar dynasty (1796-1925), who had abnegated their guardianship of a