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This paper attempts to examine the prevailing scholarly view on the Young Ottoman and the Young Turk movements, which postulates that the concept of constitutionalism was solely and directly based on the western model, imported by the constitutionalist movements to the Ottoman Empire. As a child of the ‘modernization theory’, this approach mostly concentrates on European impact in an isolated manner, thus overlooking not only the manifold sources of the Ottoman constitutionalism, but also the means of legitimation that the Young Ottomans and the Young Turks cultivated. In view of this, I seek to shed light on the historical context of the Ottoman constitutionalism, by pointing out how the Young Ottomans and the Young Turks perceived the power struggles in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and built continuity between themselves and the political position that aimed to restrict the royal prerogative before the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the last 15 years several important sources have been published allowing the appraisal of the role of ulema during the Iranian constitutional movement (1906–11) and thus opening new lines of research. The 2006–7 edition compiled by Muhsin Kadivar from several unknown documents written by Akhund Muhammad Kazim Khurasani (d. 1330/1911) make it possible to measure his importance and his impact on the evolution of the events as well as his ideological influence. The usuli rationalist jurist Akhund Khurasani was considered at the beginning of the constitutional movement as one of the principal mujtahidandmarja’-i taqlid of the Shiite world, and was possibly the best-known. After introducing the life and work of Akhund Khurasani and the theoretical principles (nazari) that he uses to define the constitutional movement, the main topics that arise in the study of this literature are identified. Particular attention is paid to his position as a rallying point and legitimizing force, his enthusiasm for an ambitious progressive policy, his intricate relations with western powers and his links with the Qajar. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]