ABSTRACT
Confrontations such as the Tobacco Movement and the Constitutional Revolution were consequences of state efforts to influence and change the traditional position of the bazaris and the ulama and change the balance of power in its favor. Although the ulama were the leaders of the Constitutional Revolution, they did not have any intention to seize the entire political power. In a word, the society was characterized by a regime that combined an autocratic, and in many ways, traditional political/administrative structure with a commitment to rapid economic and social modernization. As R. Burns points out, social changes are not logical constructions, but products of historical processes, during which social organizing principles and rules became the object of reflection, reform efforts, cooperation as well as social struggle. The leadership of both revolutions, as the first dimension of comparison, was a religious leadership. The second dimension of comparison are the characteristics of revolutionary alliances in the Constitutional and Islamic Revolutions respectively.
