49
development with complimentary words for Iran and other
eastern countries. In an unsigned article in 2
nd
January 1877
edition of Ahter, it was stated that Kanun-i Esasi helped
people grow confidence for the state and unified different
fractions in the community on the basis of citizenship and
suggested that Iran should have made its own version of
Kanun-i Esasi. Highlighting the importance of representing
different ideas,
Ahter elaborated on numerous advantages of
expressing these opinions freely under sultan’s supervision.
In another article, it suggested that Muslims be united
against Russian threat and Iran be sided with the Ottoman
Empire and comply with the Sultan’s policies.
Not featuring political ideas openly and having an
ideological base for the first ten years after its release,
Ahter
mainly responded to writings in
Ottoman newspapers against
Iran, expressed commercial concerns, reported on arrivals
from and departures to Iran as well as developments in Iran
and provided a platform for Iranians to express their
opinions on the ongoing debate about the alphabet. Although
it was not very remarkable,
Ahter also informed readers
about science and technology with excerpts from foreign
press and worked for achieving to mold the public opinion.
Ahter found itself at the center of political
discussion and became the voice of the opposition since
mid-1880s as intellectuals such as Mehdi Khan Ahter, Mirza
Habib İsfehani, Mirza Aga Khan Kirmani
95
, Sheikh Ahmed
Ruhi, Malkom Khan, Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, Mirza Hasan
Habirülmülk, Mirza Ali Mohammad Khan Kasani wrote
about political modernization. Featuring scholarly, literary
and political writings and criticizing the Iranian government,
Ahter was found threatening by Iranian state, Iranian
embassy in Istanbul and Abdul Hamid II administration.
However, Abdul Hamid II saw an opportunity to utilize the
newspaper as a trump card against the Iranian government
and did not interfere, which allowed the newspaper to
continue its activities. Ahter’s most remarkable opposition
act was reporting on tobacco prerogative and being the sole
Kia, “Pan-Islamism in Late Nineteenth-Century”,
Middle Eastern Studies,
Vol.: 32, No.: 1 (January 1996), p. 33.
95
About Muhsin Khan’s invitation for Kirmani to write for
Ahter on non-
political issues, see Ademiyet,
Endişeha-yi Mirza Ağa Han Kirmanî, p.
19.
50
voice of the opposition. Sources indicate that readers of
Ahter in Iran refer to themselves as “mezheb-i ahter” (sect of
ahter).
96
Iranian government imposed a strict ban on
importing, buying and reading
Ahter and Malkom Khan’s
Kanun in Iran. Aiming to establish better relations with the
Iranian government and doing this by assassinating the Shah
(1
st
May 1896), Abdul Hamid II changed his approach
towards the newspaper and it was closed or was forced to
close a few months later after pressure intensified. As the
first newspaper to be published outside Iran and the Persian
newspaper to have the longest period of circulation,
Ahter
holds a special place in modern Iranian history.
Besides arrival of modernist Iranian intelligentsia
including Malkom Khan,
Ahter’s owner Mehmed Tahir
Tabrizi, Aga Khan Kirmani, Zeynel Abidin Meragai in
Istanbul literary circles since the second part of the 19
th
century, the number of Iranian intellectuals in Istanbul rose
significantly by the last decade of the 19
th
century. Their
ideas had gone through drastic changes during the time they
resided in Istanbul. Many opponents such as Sadık
Tabatabai, Resulzâde, Takizâde, Devletabadi, Terbiyet,
Dihuda who played active role in political opposition and
constitutional reform process since 1908 thus ending up as
exiles or illegal aliens and joined the Iranian intellectuals in
Istanbul Mirza Habib Isfehani
97
, Mirza Ali Mohammad
Khan Kasani, Muallim Feyzi Tabrizi (1842-1910)
98
,
96
This term is used in many sources and it was originated by Browne.
Edward G. Browne,
The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, reprint, Los
Angeles, 1983, p. 17, 5. footnote
97
For more information about İsfehanî, see Ariyanpur,
Ez Saba Ta Nima,
Vol: I, pp. 395- 405; Bamdad,
op.cit., Vol: I, pp. 313- 314; Resniye,
op.cit., p. 497-516; Riyahi,
op.cit, pp. 254- 255, 260, 262; Kanar,
op.cit,
pp. 105- 107. For the debate on the translation of
Merdum-guriz, see
Maryam B. Sanjabi, “Mardum-guriz: An Early Persian Translation of
Moliere’s Le Misanthrope”,
International Journal of Middle East Studies,
Vol.: 30 (1998), pp. 251- 270. For drawing attention to Ahmet Vefik
Pasha’s translation of Moliere in the same period, see Edward G. Browne,
A Literary History of Persia, 1997, ss. 461- 462; about a poem on Istanbul
(Constantinople)
see Sasani,
Yadbudha-yı Sefaret-i İstanbul; pp. 192- 195.
98
For his life and works in Ottoman lands, see İbnülemin Mahmut Kemal
(İnal),
Son Asır Türk Şairleri, İstanbul, 1930, pp. 419- 421; Ahmed Rasim,
op.cit., p. 123 et al.; Ahmet Bedevi Kuran,
İnkılap Tarihimiz ve
Jöntürkler, 2. Edition, İstanbul: Kaynak, 2000, p. 84.