ABSTRACT
Three years after the coup which brought him to office in 1921, Riza Khan, Sardar-i Sipah, instigated a campaign to oust the Qajar dynasty and transform Iran into a republic. In the English accounts of the event, the prevailing view has been that he was thwarted in his aim by the objection of the ‘ulama’, who, having witnessed Ataturk’s abolition of the Caliphate in March 1924, identified republicanism with assertive secularism. 1 It has, however, long been clear in the Persian accounts, particularly the memoirs of Iranian contemporaries, that Riza Khan’s republicanism was quashed, not by the ‘ulama’ in Qum, who played little part in the affair, but by his political enemies in Tehran. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the political configurations at the time of the republican movement, and most particularly to study the part played by Mudarris, Riza Khan’s principal opponent, and his followers, in bringing about his defeat on this point. An attempt will also be made to define the precise role of the ‘ulama’ and its implications.
