Beyond Borders in Late-Qajar Persia: Political Dissidence, Transnational Mobility, and Perceptions of Modernity in the Akhtar Newspaper

This thesis examines the transnational dimensions of reform and modernity in nineteenth-century Iran, with a focus on the mobility of Iranian reformers, intellectuals, and dissidents beyond the borders of the Qajar state. During the second half of the century, Iran's encounters with modernity were shaped not only by internal reforms but also by the intellectual networks that connected Tehran, Tabriz, Istanbul, Tbilisi, and beyond. The central question guiding this research is: How did the mobility and transnational connections of Iranian reformers and intellectuals—from state-embedded figures to exiled dissidents—shape the emergence of reformist and oppositional thought during the late Qajar period, particularly through networks centered in the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus, and how were these ideas of modernity and political reform articulated and mediated in Persian-language publications, especially Akhtar newspaper? To address this question, the thesis draws on a wide range of sources, including Persian and Turkish primary sources and second-hand materials, archival documents, letters, and periodicals such as Akhtar, the first long-running Persian newspaper published abroad. By tracing figures and dissidents such as Mīrzā Malkūm Khān, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Ākhūndzādeh, Mīrzā Āqā Khan Kermānī, and Mirzā Ḥabīb Iṣfahānī, the thesis shows how exile became a creative force that redefined Iranian political thought and reformist ideas and how mobility of dissidents fostered intellectual networks beyond Iranian borders. In addition, the study highlights Istanbul as a pivotal hub for Iranian dissidents in the second half of the nineteenth century and explains its crucial role in disseminating reformist ideas to Persia by means of their intellectual activity such as writing books, pamphlets, and articles in different newspapers such as Akhtar. The analysis of Akhtar further illustrates how concepts such as law, liberty, and progress which were translated and extracted from Western and European works were articulated, translated, and disseminated among a Persian-speaking public through the writings of Iranian exiles residing primarily within the Ottoman Empire. In conclusion, this research argues that mobility—of people, texts, and ideas—was central to the birth of Iranian modernity and the Constitutional Movement. It demonstrates how reformist ideals, forged through cross-border exchanges and the experience of exile, helped lay the intellectual and cultural foundations for the Constitutional Revolution.