ABSTRACT
The Constitutional Revolution of Iran took place more than one hundred years after the establishment of the reign of the Qajar dynasty. The reign of the Qajars can theoretically be divided in two periods, namely the attempt to reconstruct theocratic power, and the attempts at modernization. The Qajars, using the cultural capital created by helping the Safavids to power, tried to legitimate themselves as the faithful Shi'ite dynasty and the 'shadow of God on the earth'. The political reforms of Amir Kabir were generally intended to rationalize the patrimonial bureaucracy and reduce the involvement of the shah in political matters. The Qajars' foreign policy was based on continued concessions to foreign companies. The limited income of such concessions used to pay Nasir al-Din Shah's journeys to Europe. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Iran was a land of great social complexity and regional diversity. Geographic factors had made many Iranian towns and villages isolated and economically self-contained.
