Bilingual Lecture Series: Ali Gheissari

Hasan Pirnia and Constitutional Experience: Articulation of Public Law and the Prospects of Modern State in Iran, 1905-1925

Ali Gheissari

University of San Diego

Monday, January 26, 2026

Lecture in English

Bunche Hall 10383, 11:00am

Zoom link for hybrid online viewing both days: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92182697630

The topic of this presentation will be an assessment of the role of Hasan Pirnia (Moshir al-Dowleh) in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and his contribution to articulating a theory of public law and the institutional requisites of the modern state in Iran. Given the limitations of time—and setting aside biographical details and the extensive accounts of the political events of the period—we shall focus specifically on two interrelated topics concerning the theoretical aspects of Pirnia’s political thought that also reflect the experience of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. First, the question of public law; and second, the institutions necessary for the creation of a modern state. The Constitutional Revolution in Iran was not merely a political event but a transformation in the political mindset of Iranian society. A society that had lived for centuries under the notion of autocratic monarchy was, at the beginning of the twentieth century, attempting to experience the idea of a state governed by law and accountable to the nation. In this process, there were a few statesmen—such as Hasan Pirnia—who, under Iran’s circumstances at the time, sought to open a challenging path between traditional structures and the creation of a modern state in Iran.

Ali Gheissari studied law and political science at Tehran University and history at Oxford and later taught at the University of San Diego. He has held visiting appointments at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, Brown University, and the University of California, Irvine, and has written extensively in Persian and English on the intellectual history and politics of modern Iran and on modern philosophy and social theory. More recent publications include Iranian Studies: Selected Writings (Brill, 2026); “Lost and found in translation: Kant in Persian Philosophical Prose” (Sophia Perennis, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, 2025); “Fruits of the Gardens: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Textual Pleasures in late Qajar Iran” (Journal of Persianate Studies, 2024); and “Unequal Treaties and the Question of Sovereignty in Qajar and early Pahlavi Iran” (Ann Lambton Memorial Lecture, 2023). Professor Gheissari has been the Editor-in-Chief of Iranian Studies; is on the Editorial Board of Iran Studies book series (published by Brill); and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Persian Heritage Foundation. His current research is on aspects of legal and constitutional history of modern Iran.