DAWLATĀBĀDĪ, SAYYED ʿALĪ-MOḤAMMAD

 

DAWLATĀBĀDĪ,SAYYED ʿALĪ-MOḤAMMAD (b. Dawlatābād, 1341/1868, d. Tehran, Šawwāl 1341/May-June 1923), prominent politician and deputy of the Persian parliament. He was the third son of Ḥājj Sayyed Mīrzā Hādī Dawlatābādī, reputed to have been leader of the Azalī Babis (Tārīḵ-e bīdārī, ed. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, 2nd ed., I, p. 649), and a younger brother of Yaḥyā Dawlatābādī. ʿAlī-Moḥammad received his first formal schooling in Najaf, where his father had gone to continue his own religious studies, in 1292-94/1875-77. His family then returned to Isfahan, where he studied with Mollā Moḥammad Kāšī and Jahāngīr Khan Qašqāʾī and then with Hājj Mīrzā Badīʿ and ʿAlam-al-Hodā Kalbāsī. It is unclear from the sources what intellectual currents these men represented and therefore the kinds of ideas to which ʿAlī-Moḥammad was exposed under their tutelage. Later, in Tehran, both ʿAlī-Moḥammad and his brother Yaḥyā seem to have been students of the philosopher Āqā Mīrzā Abu’l-Ḥasan Jelwa, suggesting the heterodox tendencies with which both have been identified (Dawlatābādī, p. 17; Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā I, p. 112).

The oppression of the prince Ẓell-al-Solṭān’s government in Isfahan and his animosity toward the Dawlatābādī family (Dawlatābādī, pp. 13-15; Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā I, pp. 39-44, 111-17) did much to shape ʿAlī-Moḥammad’s political outlook. He became active in the constitutional movement and a key figure in several important episodes. He seems to have played a role, through his friend the Ottoman ambassador Šams-al-Dīn Beg, in obtaining from the Qajar court accession to the demands of the clerics who had taken sanctuary (bast) in the shrine of Shah ʿAbd-al-ʿAẓīm in December 1905 (Tārīḵ-e bīdārī, ed. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, I, pp. 357-59; Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā II, pp. 19-21; Šarīf Kāšānī, I, p. 33; see CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION ii); he may also have participated in the exodus to Qom in July 1906 (Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā II, p. 71).

After going underground in the wake of the coup by Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah (1324-27/1907-09) in 1326/1908 (Šarīf Kāšānī, I, p. 194), ʿAlī-Moḥammad emerged as one of the leaders of the Moderate party Ḥezb-e eʿtedāl during the Second Majles. Though bitter rivals of the Democrats (Ḥezb-e demokrāt), ʿAlī-Moḥammad and his colleagues joined them in forming the National defense committee(Komīta-ye defāʿ-e mellī) in the wake of Russian and British occupation of Persia during World War I (Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā III, pp. 120, 332). The committee, which became a provisional government, with ʿAlī-Moḥammad as an integral member, was based in Kermānšāh. From the small number of references to him in the memoirs of his brother Yaḥyā and Yaḥyā’s own detachment from political parties in this period, it appears that the brothers were not closely associated in their public lives; indeed, there may have been some coolness between them (see, e.g., Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā III, pp. 120-21).

ʿAlī-Moḥammad was elected to represent consituency of Lorestān in the Fourth Majles, which convened in 1299/1921; he served as deputy until his death two years later.

 

Bibliography:

Sayyed ʿAlī-Moḥammad Daw-latābādī, Kāṭerāt-e Sayyed ʿAlī-Moḥammad Dawlatābādī, ed. Ḥ. Dawlatābādī, Tehran, 1362 Š./1983.

M. Etteḥādīya, Peydāyeš wa taḥawwol-e aḥzāb-e sīāsī-e mašrūṭīyat, Tehran, 1361 Š./1982.

M. Malekzāda, Tārīḵ-e enqelāb-e mašrūṭīyat-e Īrān, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.

Moḥammad-Mahdī Šarīf Kāšānī, Wāqeʿāt-e ettefāqīya dar rūzgār, Tehran, 1362 Š./1983.

(Cyrus Amir-Mokri)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 18, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 2, pp. 141-143