A Review of the Political Thought of Mirza Fazlali Aqa Tabrizi (Based on conversations of the 1st National Consultative Assembly)

With failure of Iran in the war with Russia, ideas of reform began to emerge in many minds. The Shia society of Iran therefore faced with new concepts and challenges which needed to be addressed by the country’s religious figures, who then took two opposite stances: refutation and interpretation. The latter shaped new interpretations of governance in the age of occultation. The pioneers of such interpretations were a number of important Shi’a figures including Akhund Khorasani, Allameh Na’ini, and Seqat al-Islam Tabrizi. Also, several other figures played important roles in the first National Consultative Assembly, one of whom was Mirzi Fazlali Aqa Tabrizi, who played an active role in the Constitutional Revolution and in intellectual challenges raised over enactment of the Supplementary Fundamental Law and in particular over issues like the “legitimate” constitutional rule and concepts like law, separation of powers, freedom, monarchy and equality before law, all of which were products of acknowledging public rights for people. The present paper aims at exploring political thoughts of Mirza Fazlali Aqa Tabrizi and his reactions to intellectual challenges raised in the first National Consultative Assembly. The study follows an analytical-descriptive design and makes use of several documentation and library resources, including in particular the Assembly conversations.