Investigating the Concept of "People" in Iran and Ottoman Constitutional Law

Pursuant to codification of Iran and Ottoman’s constitution, the concept of "people" has also gained a modern manifestation. It was a turning point in the awareness of the people of these two political platforms of their rights and the role they played in determining the political fate. According to the constitution, people enjoyed a range of personal and fundamental rights that did not previously exist. By relying on exploration of the text of the constitutional law in this comparative study, first, the position of the concept of the nation, and, then, the similarities and differences of the first constitutional experience in Iran and Ottoman are examined. The result of the study shows that in both Iran and the Ottoman, the Constitution opened a unique chapter on the fundamental rights of the people. However, in the Iranian constitution, people were introduced, at least on paper, as the backbone and source of the legitimacy of the power institution, and the monarchy was seen as an emanation of their demands. However, in the Ottoman, while certain personal rights were considered for the citizens, the scope of the people's rights reach the constitutional rights as compared to the Iranian constitution. Moreover, the concept of Ottomanism led to the emphasis of the Constitution of the rights of the people to be a function of the Ottoman effort to overcome the crisis of religious-ethnic diversity.