ABSTRACT
In the early 1890s, the issue of the Tobacco Concession rocked Iran and challenged the power of NÇ‚ir al-D¥n ShÇh to grant economic privileges to foreigners. The role of the clergy in stirring popular opinion against this concession had given them new and added prestige and power, and, it seems, raised their level of respect in the population in general. In
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and most defenceless of the religious minorities in Iran. The Armenians and other Christians fared comparatively well, since representatives of European countries strongly protected their Christian brethren. Though the Zoroastrians had also been severely persecuted in the past, at this time, because of their concentration in areas of British influence and because of the influence of the Parsees under the British Raj, they enjoyed some protection as well. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, persecution of the Jews was quite common, although its degree depended on the local authority, the power of sympathetic clergy or the severity of the accusation. With no reliable domestic sympathisers and no foreign protectors, the Jews were indeed quite vulnerable.
