(by Ali Ansari, The Spectator, 28 December 2022)
The political movement that led to Iran’s first constitution in 1906 – which established the country’s first parliament – was underpinned by an intellectual revolution which absorbed and adapted ideas from the European Enlightenment. How these ideas came to influence Iran, given the absence of a print industry in the country, is a question that has long intrigued intellectual historians. One route was membership of the Freemasons.
In 1835, three Iranian Princes paid a visit to London where they visited and commented on the varied and interesting developments that were taking place in England, including the construction of the Thames Tunnel – an engineering wonder – and a review of the political system which was described in thoroughly whiggish terms. Their fascination with British notions of liberty was writ large throughout the diary they kept of…
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