What is it about?
Since the end of the 19th century, news about politics in Persian and the Ottoman Empire was covered by Azerbaijani newspapers and magazines written in both Azerbaijani and Russian. These were published in the Russian-ruled Caucasus region. This chapter looks at what was said in the Azerbaijani press about the Iranian constitution. It also looks at political debates around the constitution and the idea of a parliament and reforms in the satirical journals "Molla Nasraddin" (1906–31) and "Füyuzat" (1906–7), as well as in the Baku-based newspapers "İrşad" and "Tǝkamül".
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Why is it important?
The article talks about how a society that was mostly Shia Muslim and spoke Turkic, which had been colonised by Russia, saw constitutionalism in neighbouring Persia. This reformist intellectual movement, which came from Persia, was an interesting example of political reform for a short time, while Russia stayed very authoritarian. Azerbaijani journalists used short political texts, cartoons, caricatures and photos to share news about Persian constitutionalism with their audience. This was difficult because of Tsarist colonialism and censorship.
Perspectives
The first journal with caricatures in the Middle East, "Molla Nasraddin", is one of the best studied. The rest of the Azerbaijani media and their discourses have not been researched much. This article tries to fill the gap by showing how much the media in the main cities of the Russian-ruled Caucasus, Tbilisi and Baku, are focused on Persian constitutionalism.
Zaur Gasimov
German Academic Exchange Service
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Iranian Constitution in the Mirror of the Russian Azerbaijani Press, July 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004734661_008.
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