1971/01/01 by John H. Lorentz
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Eurasian Exchange Networks #Hindsight bias #History #Innovator #Islamic Studies and History #Law #Persian #Philosophy #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Scrutiny #Social psychology #Sociology #Theology
paper · doi:10.1080/00210867108701412
crossref issued 1971/01/01 · crossref published 1971/01/01 · crossref published-print 1971/01/01 · openalex publication_date 1971/01/01 · crossref created 2011/09/27 · crossref published-online 2022/01/01 · crossref deposited 2022/01/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
One of the more pervasive implicit assumptions about Amīr Kabīr in both Persian and Western sources is that he was an innovator who wished to transform Iranian society. Not unrepresentative of such an assumption are comments like the following: “If Amīr Kabīr had not been killed at the hands of Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh's executioners, how much he would have entangled the fate of Iran in a significant transformation.” In the same vein there is a tendency to view Amīr Kabīr as a visionary of political freedom. This tendency is perhaps most evident in two rather popularized Persian accounts of his life and career, that of Hāshimī Rafsanjānī and that of Ḥusayn Makkī. But with the advantage of hindsight, many less exaggerated accounts, also, attribute more to the intentions of Amīr Kabīr than can perhaps stand up under scrutiny. It is not uncommon, as Algar points out, for Amīr Kabīr to be reckoned among the precursors of the Constitutional Revolution.