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Oriental Despotism: The Case of Qajar Iran*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Ervand Abrahamian
Affiliation:
Baruch College, City University of New York

Extract

As R. H. Tawney once remarked, ‘the past reveals to the presenr what the present is capable of seeing’. Present political scientists who are interested in comparing past power structures have been the first observers to reveral methodically the fundaqmental differences between feudalism and oriental despotism. They have shown how the feudal monarchies of Europe, in their ideal form, were restricted by hereditary and independent aristocrats, by institutions representing the estates of the real, and with civil societies with corporate rights, immunities, and inalienable privileges. And they have shown how despots in the East, in their ideal form, ruled through patrimonial bureaucracies, did not contend with estate institutions, could withdraw concessions granted previously, and were unhampered by independent intermediaries between themselves and their subjects.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

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page 28 note 1 Malcolm, , History of Persia, vol. 2, p. 429.Google Scholar Also Shamim, op. cit. p. 297.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 Kasravi, A., Tarikh-i Pansad Salah–i Khuzistan [Five Hundred Year History of Khuzistan] (Tehran, 1950), pp. 149–51, 240–1.Google Scholar

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page 30 note 1 Mustawfi, op. cit vol. II, p. 660.Google Scholar

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page 30 note 5 Curzon, op. cit. vol. II, p. 472.Ibid.

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