It was mandated by the Council of the Islamic Revolution after the March 1979 referendum for regime change, and composed of 73 seats including four reserved for ethnoreligious minorities and the rest representing provincial constituencies on a basis of population.

The elections to the assembly were held by the Interim Government of Iran in August 1979, which resulted in a landslide victory for the Islamist disciples of Ruhollah Khomeini who successfully added his theory –the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist– to the constitution despite opposition by the minority.

Ayatollah Khomeini was prepared to submit this draft, virtually unmodified, to a national referendum or, barring that, to an appointed council of forty representatives who could advise on, but not revise, the document.

[4] The controversial articles in question were ones that revamped the draft constitution to include principles of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (velayat-e faqih) and establish the basis for a state dominated by the Shia clergy.

The number of seats dedicated to each province and the population which it was based on, were as follows: The assembly's work was part of a highly contentious time during the Iranian revolution that saw the breakup of the original alliance of secular, radical, religious, and theocratic groups that all united to overthrow the Shah.