Introduction

Law has been a key issue in the history of modern Iran. Many researchers have described how modern or Western law was introduced into Iran. During the nineteenth century, Iranian intellectuals such as Malkom Khan and Mostashar al-Dowle claimed that Western-type law was indispensable for the modernization of Iran. The term qanun represented such Western-type law. ¹ These intellectuals insisted that there was no law in Iran and nothing that prevented despotic authorities from committing an injustice. It is a well-known fact that their claims introduced a modern concept of law to Iran and paved the way for the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the Constitution in 1906. On the other hand, it is also well known that Sheykh Fazl-allah Nuri, a leading mojtahed at the time of the Constitutional Revolution, wanted a shari‘a-based constitution (mashrute-e mashru‘). His claim was reflected in Article Two of the Supplementary Fundamental Law enacted in October 1907. ²