The Role of Late Qajar Period Intellectuals in the Formation of the First Modern State in Iran

The following text, which has been emerged from the research on the period of power transition from Qajar to Pahlavi, unlike the approaches that are based on traditional history, according to the Foucauldian discourse analysis and the post-colonial literature, offers differentiatedscrutiny on how the first modern statehas been formed in Iran. The results show that the formation of the first modern state in Iran is the objective and strategic embodiment of the imperative modernity. Reconsidering the formation of imperative modernity, the influential discourse acts, the paper also which have formed the supporting elements of the foresaid formation were identified. Embarks upon the critical discourse analysis of the journals published in the period of power transition from Qajar to Pahlavi, including: Kaveh,Iranshahr, Name-e Farangestan, Ayandeh and Mard-e-Azad. Resulting categories of this discourse analysis include the following main concepts: "self and other image"; "Asking about collapse and underdevelopment", "adopting western civilization", "separation of religion from politics and public sphere", "elitism", "necessity of the imperative and authoritative state", and finally "nationalism". The intellectuals of the power transition period, as the reference group of the imperative modernity discourse, as well as the most influential strategic group, have played a major role in institutional and discourse formation of the first modern state in Iran. Here, wewell focus to analyze their discourse effects.