Extension, renewal or resurgence? The anti-constitutional argument of a cleric in 1920s Iran

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the complexity and diversity of anti-constitutionalist thought developed by the ulama by synthesizing the arguments of Shaykh Marandi (d. 1349/1930), the author of two important treatises on the subject in the mid-1920s. As Shaykh Fazlallah Nuri had been able to do twenty years earlier, the two treatises by Marandi gave religious and ideological justification to the monarchist cause at a time when it was once again deeply debated and questioned, notably in favour of the republican option. The treatises are marked by a very conservative vision of society and a religious culture in which the primacy of the Quran seems absolute, and the messianic horizon considered near. The argument of Marandi was essentially centred on a radical delegitimization of the idea that consultation (mashvirat) might be a principle of Islam. His argument was based both on scriptural sources (Quran, hadith) and on an interpretation of the early history of Islam associating consultation in the context of an assembly with the strategies employed by those the Shiʿi credo considers to be the first enemies of the Prophet.