ABSTRACT
The impact of Azal¥ intellectuals upon the Iranian Constitutional Revolution is a controversial issue. The surveys of Iranian historians, for the most part, remain silent on their actual influence upon the development of the Revolution. However, some recent studies have emphasized their role in radicalizing the constitutional movement and furnishing it with the idea of modernity. The present chapter proposes to evaluate the historical studies and the validity of such claims, by focusing on three major BÇb¥-Azal¥ texts. The aim is to assess the extent of their association with modern European social and political ideas and their possible influence upon the discourse of the constitutional era.
