Minor Tyranny

He also ignited several conflicts between the country's ethnic and religious minorities to weaken his opponents and prevent them from allying against him.

[7] In early 1907 the Shah reportedly told the British ambassador that the current constitution is not favoured by him, and that the parliament is filled with undisciplined and ignorant people who only think about their personal gain.

Some of his major disagreements with the article 8 of the amendment which equaled him with the rest of the people of Iran in front of law, and other parts of the amendment which were inspired by the Belgian constitution and heavily restricted his powers and gave massive powers to the parliament, such as dismissing ministers and controlling the military budget.

After protests from people, parliament members and constitutionalists, he was forced to sign the amendment, and even joined Society of Humanity to prove his support for the constitution.

[8] Kamran Mirza, the Shah's uncle and father in law, led the politicians left from the Nasseri era.

Ein ad-Dowleh, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah's grand vizier before the constitutional revolution, was also among the main opponents of the movement.

Javad Sa'd al-Dowleh, a member of the parliament who was the minister of trade and an opponent of Joseph Naus before the revolution, also started slowly leaning towards the Shah and the court.

Seraya Shapshal, the Shah's Russian language teacher and Vladimir Liakhov, the leader of the Cossack Brigade were also opposed to the revolution.

Among them were Asef ad-Dowleh in Khorasan, the Qavam family in Shiraz, Shoja Nezam in Marand and Rahimkhan Chalabianloo and his son in Maku.

In 1908, Noori who saw himself above both Seyyed Abdollah Behbahani and Mirza Sayyed Mohammad Tabatabai, openly favored the Shah and declared constitutionalist journalists and clerics non Muslims.

[16] On 13 December 1907 a group of court workers and servants who were outraged by their incomes being cut protested against the parliament first in Tehran's arsenal and then in Abdolhossein mosque.

The prime minister, Abolqasem Naser ol-Molk was imprisoned by the order of the Shah and was to be executed but was freed on the requests of the British and moved to Europe after freedom.

The new government that was then formed included both constitutionalist and royalist politicians, Nezam as-Saltaneh became prime minister, and Javad Sa'd al-Dowleh was forced to take refuge in the Dutch embassy.

On the orders of the Shah, some people including Haydar Khan Amo-oghli were arrested and interrogated in the Golestan Palace.

Following this, gatherings in streets, squares and even houses were banned, no one had the right to carry arms and the security forces were allowed to shoot at people if they did not comply.

The main excuse for this action was that a group of the Shah's strongest critiques such as Mirza Jahangir Khan Sur Esrafil, Sayyid Jamal al-Din Va'iz, Malek al-Motekallemin [fa], Qazi Ardaghi and Seyyed Mohammad Reza Mosavat had taken refuge in the parliament building.

The attacking forces then bombarded the parliament building, the Sepahsalar mosque and Mozzaffari and Azerbaijan political associations.

The parliament's defenders were less than 80 men, who had often not received any military training, had a severe lack of ammunition and avoided shooting towards the Russian troops to not give them any excuse to invade Iran.

The Shah's forces besieged the city, not letting food and provisions to reach the people which led to a famine.

For example, a group of around 150 students named Fowj-e Nejat (Persian: فوج نجات; lit: Salvation regiment) led by the teacher of the American memorial school, Howard Baskerville, tried breaking through the besieging forces and bring food and supplies from nearby villages, but they were defeated and the American teacher was killed.

Despite having an autocratic and harsh rule, he failed to subdue farmers in Talish region and stop constitutionalist associations' secret activities in Bandar-e Anzali and Rasht.

In a trip to Tbilisi in autumn of 1908 the Russian Social Democratic Party agreed to send forces to Gilan to help the constitutionalists there.

[25] Akhund Khorasani, Mirza Husayn Tehrani and Abdallah Mazandarani were among the people who declared the Shah's rule unlawful.

[28] Initially, the Shah declared that he did not intend to abolish the constitutional government and would organize another parliamentary election in three months.

[29] The British and the Russian embassies declared their disagreement with this new assembly that would replace the parliament elected by the people, and put the Shah under pressure.

[30] Mohammad Ali Shah gave the task of reworking the constitution to this assembly, but the constitutionalist forces from Gilan and Isfahan were on their way to Tehran and the new laws never entered effect.

[32] With constitutionalist success in Isfahan, Azerbaijan and Gilan, further unrest spread across the nation and the government forces lost control of the cities of Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah and Mashhad.

The government ran out of budget and foreign nations refused granting loans to maintain the Shah's military force of Cossacks.

[38] A grand assembly, consisting of the nobility, clergy, bureaucrats, merchants and constitutionalists formed and removed Mohammad Ali Shah from the position of monarch, putting his infant child Ahmad Mirza in his place.

[39] A court was formed in Tehran, putting up trials against the royalist leaders which sentenced people like Sheikh Fazlullah Nouri, Mir Hashem Tabrizi and Mafakher ol-Molk to death.