Document Type : Original Article
Author
PhD student, History of Iran after Islam, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The development of public law in Iran during its Constitutional era is inseparable from the influence of farang raftagān Iranian intellectuals and officials educated or residing in Europe, especially France. This article examines how these individuals, through their direct engagement with Western civilization and political thought, introduced modern concepts like sovereignty, law, separation of powers, and the social contract into Iran. As conduits of modern public law, the farang raftagān played a crucial role in translating, adapting, and localizing these foreign ideas. Drawing upon both Persian sources (writings by Mostashar al Doleh, Talebof, Malkom Khan, and Taqizadeh) and contemporary French texts (Montesquieu, Rousseau, and the French Constitutions of 1789 and 1791), this research uses a descriptive-analytical, library-based
approach. It traces how public law concepts moved from Paris to Tehran. The central argument is that the transmission of public law ideas to Iran was not solely through text but primarily through the lived experiences of the farang raftagān. Their immersion in French intellectual life and its educational, cultural, and political systems was key. Upon returning to Iran, through writing, translation, and institution-building, they provided the intellectual foundation for the Constitutional Revolution. They acted as cultural intermediaries, bridging Iran’s traditional juristic-monarchical system with France’s republican ideals. Ultimately, by selectively interpreting and translating the French Constitution, the farang raftagān laid the theoretical groundwork for a state governed by law in Iran, connecting Iran’s existing bureaucratic structures with modern governance.
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