Qanun (newspaper)

File:Mirza Malkam Khan.jpg

Qanun was established by Mirza Malkam Khan in 1890, and the first issue appeared on 20 February 1890.{{cite book|author=Edward Granville Browne|title=The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1966|isbn=978-0-7222-2499-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugg4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA464|location=Cambridge|pages=35–36,464|author-link=Edward Granville Browne}}{{cite journal|author=Negin Nabavi|title=Spreading the Word: Iran's First Constitutional Press and the Shaping of a 'New Era'|journal=Middle East Critique|year=2005|volume=14|issue=3|page=309|doi=10.1080/10669920500280656|s2cid=144228247 }} Although Mirza Malkam Khan had been the envoy of Qajar Empire to London, at some point he became an ardent critic of Nasreddine Shah and started Qanun to attack him. Before his establishment of the paper Mirza Malkam Khan had been fired by the Shah from the post, but he did not return to Iran and stayed in London.{{cite journal|author=Homa Katouzian|title=The Revolution for Law: A Chronographic Analysis of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran|journal=International Journal of Economics and Politics|year=2021|volume=2|doi=10.29252/jep.2.1.63|issue=1|author-link=Homa Katouzian|page=66|doi-access=free}}{{cite book|author=Parvin Paidar|title=Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CP61Ke2cTQC&pg=PA47|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1997

|isbn=978-0-521-59572-8|page=47}} The predecessor of Qanun was Mirza Malkam Khan's work entitled Daftar-i Qanun (1860; Persian: Manual of Law).{{cite book|author=Abbas Amanat|title=Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896|year=1997

|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=978-0-520-08321-9|page=385|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdFu7X2UtpAC|author-link=Abbas Amanat}} Initial audience of Qanun was the members of a defunct secret society established by Mirza Malkam Khan in Tehran in 1858.{{cite journal|author=Hamid Algar|title=An Introduction to the History of Freemasonry in Iran|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|date=October 1970|volume=6|issue=3|page=281|doi=10.1080/00263207008700153|author-link=Hamid Algar}} The paper was published in a simple format and employed a plain version of Persian language. Between its start in 1890 and 1892 Qanun was published on a monthly basis.

Although the paper was banned in Iran because of its bitter criticism against the Qajar rule{{cite thesis|author=Ali Asghar Kia

|title=A review of journalism in Iran: the functions of the press and traditional communication channels in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran|url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1882/|degree=PhD|year=1996|location=University of Wollongong|pages=167–168}}{{cite journal

|author=Gholam Hossein Razi|title=The Press and Political Institutions of Iran: A Content Analysis of "Ettela'at" and "Keyhan"|journal=The Middle East Journal|date=Autumn 1968|volume=22|issue=4|pages=463–474|jstor=4324340}} it was clandestinely circulated there. However, its readers were arrested and punished when they were found to possess the paper. On the other hand, Qanun enjoyed popularity among Iranians living in various cities, including Istanbul, Nizir, Zanjan and Sarjan. The paper was first circulated in Istanbul shortly after its start in 1890.

In 1898 Mirza Malkam Khan was appointed the envoy of Qajar Iran to Italy and stopped the publication of Qanun after producing forty-two issues.{{cite book|author=Peter Avery|editor=Peter Avery|location=Cambridge|title=The Cambridge History of Iran|year=1991

|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=832|isbn=9781139054997|display-editors=et. al.|volume=7|author-link=Peter Avery|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521200950.023|chapter=Printing, the press and literature in modern Iran|doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521200950.023}} The issues of Qanun are archived by the Cambridge University Library.{{cite book|author=Nikki R. Keddie

|title=Iran: Religion, Politics and Society: Collected Essays|publisher=Frank Cass|year=2013|isbn=978-1-136-28034-4|location=Abingdon; New York

|pages=24–25,49|author-link=Nikki Keddie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_ArBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA49}}

Mirza Malkam Khan collaborated with two Qajar opponents, namely Jamal Al Din Al Afghani and Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, in his attacks against the Qajar rule in Qanun. Of them the former was a pan-Arabist and the latter was based in Istanbul. The paper also attacked Nasreddine Shah's Prime Minister Amin Al Sultan.{{cite book|editor=András Sajó|title=Human Rights with Modesty: The Problem of Universalism

|publisher=Springer|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5zpCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA332|year=2013|isbn=978-94-017-6172-7|author=Shiva Balaghi

|location=Leiden|pages=332,336,344|chapter=Constitutionalism and Islamic Law in Nineteenth Century Iran: Mirza Malkam Khan and Qanun}}{{cite thesis|author=Amir H. Ferdows|title=The origins and development of the Persian constitutional movement|degree=PhD|isbn=9781085446808

|year=1967|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/302266220|location=Indiana University|page=89|id={{ProQuest|302266220}}}} In addition, the paper harshly criticized policies of the Qajar administration such as the tobacco concession dated 1890.{{cite journal|author=Camron Michael Amin|title=The Press and Public Diplomacy in Iran, 1820–1940|journal=Iranian Studies|year=2015|volume=48|issue=2|page=273|s2cid=144328080

|doi=10.1080/00210862.2013.871145}} It frequently contained articles supporting a constitutional and fair rule in Iran. In this regard Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamit's regime was given as a potential model for Iran.{{cite book|author=Afshin Matin-Asgari|title=Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity

|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018|page=34|isbn=978-1-108-42853-8|location=Cambridge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_WFjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34}} The paper often praised Abdulhamit in other points, too.

Mirza Malkam Khan also published articles on the religion of humanity in an attempt to introduce Western ideas to Iranians in regard to religious matters. However, the paper supported Islamic unity,{{cite journal|author=Mehrdad Kia|title=Pan-Islamism in Late Nineteenth-Century Iran|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|doi=10.1080/00263209608701090|date=January 1996|volume=32|issue=1

|pages=36–38}} and each issue of the paper began with a prayer in Arabic and ended with a religious note stating that readers forgave the news and writings if they were erroneous or contrary to the premises of Islam.

Although Qanun contained secular and progressive articles, there was no specific reference to women-related issues and their rights.

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Category:1890 establishments in the United Kingdom

Category:1898 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Category:Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom

Category:Iran–United Kingdom relations

Category:Monthly newspapers

Category:Newspapers published in London

Category:Newspapers established in 1890

Category:Publications disestablished in 1898

Category:Defunct Persian-language newspapers