While British, Russian, American and Persian early twentieth century archival materials have been available in print since then, to date France has not published many of its government documents. Therefore, Nader Nasiri-Moghaddam’s book is appreciated as a significant effort to fill this lacuna. His carefully annotated compilation of A. L. M. Nicolas’ consular reports sent to the French foreign ministry constitutes an important contribution for historians of the constitutional movement in Tabriz during the period of the First Majles, the coup of 1908 ushering in the so-called “Lesser Despotism,” and the bloody resistance in Tabriz that led to the restoration of the constitution. Nicolas was an eminent French scholar/diplomat born in Rasht, who headed the French consulate in Tabriz throughout those fateful years and beyond. His perfect knowledge of the Persian language, culture and society enabled him to write insightful analyses of the major events that he witnessed in that important city in northern Iran. Throughout that particular period when he sympathized with the constitutionalists’ cause, he was often in contact with its leaders, especially the members of the local Anjoman. The reports are some of the most objective, though nuanced, of the foreign dispatches sent by other envoys in the country. For instance, in contrast to Nicolas, the French ambassador to Tehran at that time, Raymond Lecomte, was vehemently opposed to the entire movement, dismissing its leadership condescendingly as pathetic, incompetent imitators of the French 1879 revolutionaries, with no possible chance of success. He did not miss any opportunity to intrigue against them. With the possible exception of a very few British diplomats stationed in Iran at the same time, most diplomats and officials, especially the Russians, held equally negative opinions about the constitutionalists.

In a short but instructive biography, the author has gathered interesting information on Nicolas’ education, his scholarly interest in the Babi movement of the mid-nineteenth century, about which he published many books and essays, and his conversion to Azali Bābism, a fact that was not known heretofore, at least to this reviewer. Nicolas’ reports, and a few others written by his replacement in Tabriz during his leave of absence, including one report from Lecomte, form the main part of the volume, providing a precious primary source for the history of Tabriz covering the period 1906‒9. A lengthy biographical list of the main Iranian and foreign participants in these events usefully complements the information gathered from these diplomatic dispatches. In addition, Nasiri-Moghaddam has written an introductory survey of the history of the constitutional movement in the period under consideration. Here, the text leaves much to be desired.

Despite an impressive, comprehensive bibliography of both Persian and foreign primary and secondary sources that accompanies a short outline of the current research on the subject, the sixty-one-page historical narrative is outdated. Many if not most of the secondary sources published in the last two decades or so offer revisionist perspectives of the revolution and its conflicting ideological composition, often debunking parts of the earlier writings of Mirza Mohammad Nāzem al-Islam Kermani, Ahmad Kasravi, or E. G. Browne. Nasiri-Moghaddam’s introductory essay bears the mark of this latter group rather than more contemporary publications. The reader is not sufficiently informed about the ideological diversity that characterized the movement, especially in Tabriz where Russian social democracy had greatly influenced many of its leaders, who clashed with not only the traditionalist ulama, such as Mirza Hasan Aqa Mujtahid, but also with those who supported it, like the Shaikhi mujtahid, Mirza Ali Theqat al-Islam. Similarly, the “progressive” constitutionalists played a dominant role in defining the movement, as the author has noted in his expose but without distinguishing the more moderate elements, such as Yusef Khan Mostashār al-Dowleh, from radicals like Hasan Taqizādeh. In fact, the latter is hardly mentioned even though he is among the best known constitutionalist leaders in Tabriz, and had considerable impact on the events leading to the formation of the First and also the Second Majles, until his political demise in mid-1910.

This shortcoming, however, in no way detracts from the book’s outstanding contribution to the state of research on the constitutional revolution. The author’s intention, after all, was not to write another historical monograph. He has produced a valuable and highly reliable source of reference for historians and lay readers interested in the events that ushered in the era of modern Iran, referred to as Iran-e now (New Iran) by the intelligentsia of that time. We should look forward to Nasiri-Moghaddam’s future publications.