47
Sadık Khan Müstesir üd-Devle
84
, Faracullah Khan,
Abdulhamid Khan Gaffari Kaşani, Bahaeddin Mirza,
Huseyin Ahter Tabrizi, Hakim Lali, Doctor Aga Mirza Ali,
Ali Mohammad Kaşani
85
, Huseyin Danis
86
, Taki Rifat
87
who
held government posts in both countries and some ran their
own businesses in Iran, Caucasia and Ottoman lands. Doctor
Aga Mirza Ali, Huseyin Ahter Tabrizi, Taki Rifat, Ali
Mohammad Kasani and Huseyin Danis were involved in
political opposition movements while Taki Rifat and Ali
Mohammad Kasani
88
contributed to literary world by
publishing newspapers and magazines.
Diplomatic representatives who worked in Ottoman
state were particularly influential in Iran’s reform process
towards westernization. Islamic identity of the Ottoman
state
89
, the fact that it saw the need to modernize the country
in order not to be exploited like Iran were enough reasons to
take Ottoman model as an example. Muhsin Khan (1819-
1900)
90
was one typical example after Mirza Huseyin Khan
Sipehsalar. Having resided in the Ottoman capital for many
years (1872-1892) and developing close ties with the
intelligentsia,
Muhsin
Khan
internalized
Ottoman
84
For more information, see Mehdi Bamdad,
Şerhal-ie Rical-e İran der
Kurn-e 12, 13 va 14 Hicri, 3. Çap, Tahran
, 1363, Vol: II, pp. 166-168;
Yunus Mirverid,
Ez Meşrutiyet ta Cumhuri- Nagehe ba Edvar-e Meclis-e
Kanungüzari der Devran-e Meşrutiyet, Tahran, 1377, Vol: I, s. 225 et al.
85
For his Kasani’s education in Istanbul in 1316 (1898) as stated in
Süreyya newspaper, see Rahim Resniye,
İran va Osmani der Estane-yi
Kern-i Bistom, Tebriz, 1995, s. 81 et al.
86
John Gurney, “A. G. Browne and The Iranian Community in Istanbul”,
Les Iraniens D’Istanbul, p. 154.
87
He was educated in Taki Rifat’s Trabzon madrasah, joined Hiyabanî
movement that advocated Azerbaijan’s independence in 1918-1910 and
published a newspaper titled
Azerbaycan, see Riyahi,
op.cit., p. 269.
88
Kasani travelled to Cairo after leaving Ahter newspaper and published
two newspapers titled Süreyya and Perveriş in 1898-1901 in Cairo.
Süreyya particularly stands out as one of the pioneering opposition
newspapers who was circulated among Iranian intellectuals before Iranian
constitutional reform.
See Ahmed Kesrevi,
Tarih-i Meşruta-ye İran, 20. Çap, Tahran, 1381, p.
41 et al.
89
Feridun Ademiyet,
İdeoloji-yi Nehzat-ı Meşrutiyet-i İran, Tahran, 1357,
p. 13.
90
For his life and works, see Bamdad,
op.cit., Vol: III, pp. 204- 212;
Sasani,
Yadbudha-yı Sefaret-i İran, pp. 255- 265; Shaul Bakhash,
Iran,
London: Ithaca Press, 1978, p. 383; Resniye,
op.cit., p. 243 et al.. for his
relationship with Masons, see Hamid Algar, “Participation by Iranian
Diplomats in The Masonic Lodges of Istanbul”,
Les Iraniens D’Istanbul,
p. 38 et al.