NADER SOHRABI, REVOLUTION AND CONSTITUTIONALISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND IRAN

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İran ve Turan Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi
Cilt: 8 Sayı: 15
NADER SOHRABI, REVOLUTION AND CONSTITUTIONALISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND IRAN

NADER SOHRABI, REVOLUTION AND CONSTITUTIONALISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND IRAN

Authors : Kenan Han

Pages : 93-99

View : 58 | Download : 156

Publication Date : 2025-12-30

Article Type : Other Papers

Abstract :This review reassesses Nader Sohrabi’s Revolution and Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and Iran as a major comparative intervention that reframes 1906-08 as a trans imperial moment of “modular revolution.” Rather than reading the Iranian and Ottoman constitutional movements as belated imitations or insulated national episodes, the book demonstrates how actors selectively translated a circulating repertoire-catalysed by 1905 Russia-through distinct matrices of state capacity, coalition architecture, and logistical infrastructures. I situate Sohrabi within diffusion and contentious-politics theory (Tarrow, Tilly, Sewell) while testing his claims against core Ottomanist and Iranist historiography (Hanioglu, Zurcher, Ahmad; Afary, Abrahamian, Martin, Bayat, Katouzian) and political-sociological accounts of state formation (Findley; Cronin). Two analytic stress tests-mechanisms of circulation (print publics, exile/officer networks) and intra-case heterogeneity (Tabriz vs. Tehran; Salonica vs. Istanbul/eastern provinces)-clarify both the reach and the limits of “modularity,” suggesting how to render it a falsifiable analytic rather than a persuasive metaphor. The review argues that Sohrabi explains divergent outcomes without teleology: in the Ottoman case, constitutionalism becomes a technology of recentralization under CUP (Committee of Union and Progress) stewardship; in Iran, constitutional gains prove reversible absent coercive-fiscal consolidation. By provincializing Europe without provincializing the Middle East, Revolution and Constitutionalism offers a portable grammar for comparative revolution and imperial politics.
Keywords : Anayasal devrim, Modüler devrim, diffüzyon, İttihat ve Terakki, Kaçar İranı, devlet kapasitesi, koalisyon yapısı, 1906-1911

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