Dr. Denis Hermann

The Iranian constitutional movement (1906-1911) was marked by the explosion of a political and social literature in which different visions for a new Iran were expressed. Among the various actors involved the Iranian ulemas were certainly one of the most mobilized, especially in the first three years of the movement.

In political treaties (risâla-yi siyâsi or lâhiya) with programmatic characters, the Iranian ulema, like other socio-political actors, discussed the current political situation in Iran but also drew up a state of the situation in the contemporary Muslim world by drafting at the occasion models (as well as anti-models). And it is precisely in this respect that the mention to the Ottoman Empire is as frequent as it is diverse. By endeavoring in this communication to note the variety of mentions to the Ottoman Empire and their uses, we will insist on what they say about the Iranian constitutional movement, the political imagination of Iran at this period, and of course the relations between Iran and the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century.

Dr. Denis Hermann is an historian born in Paris in 1977. Currently director of IFRI (Institut Français de Recherche en Iran), he is mainly working on Qajar Iran, Twelver Shi’ism and the Constitutional Movement of 1906-1911. He has published Le shaykhisme à la période qajare. Histoire sociale et doctrinale d’une École chiite (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017) ; Kirmānī Shaykhism and the ijtihād: A Study of Abū al-Qāsim Khān Ibrāhīmī’s Ijtihād wa taqlid [Orientalistik series, vol. 24], Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2015 ; Muslim Cultures in the Indo-Iranian world during the Early-Modern and Modern Periods [eds. with F. Speziale], Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag/IFRI, 2010 ; Shiʻi Trends and Dynamics in the Modern Times (XVIII^th-XX^th centuries), [eds. with S. Mervin], Beirut: Orient-Institut Beirut/IFRI, Beirut, 2010 ; Shiʿi – Sufi Relations : Past and Present. Historical Relations and Confreric Developments, [Shi‘i Heritage series; eds. with M. Terrier], London: IIS & I.B. Tauris, forthcoming in 2019.