The Mossadegh Prize 2013
Citation
The Mossadegh Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2013 recipient of the biennial Mossadegh Prize is Dr Hadi Enayat, Visiting Lecturer at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations at the Aga Khan University (London), for his book Law, State, and Society in Modern Iran: Constitutionalism, Autocracy, and Legal Reform, 1906-1941 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
In the judgment of the Foundation this book is a major intellectual achievement and contribution to modern Iranian history in a subject, central to the ideas upon which the Foundation rests: namely the quest to establish a rule of law, leading first to the Constitutional Revolution and continuing through the early twentieth century. Dr Enayat provides a lucid and fascinating account of the long, and to date ill-understood, political struggles faced by the reformers of the constitutionalist movement in their efforts to establish a modern judiciary and law codes. His work combines a wide range of sources and sound historical scholarship with insights from other disciplines to throw unique light on a cumulative, if sometimes fractured, process of legal development from the 1906 Constitutional Revolution onwards. In the view of our selection committee, the book also furnishes an unrivaled historical perspective on the contributions of figures such as Mirza Hassan Moshir-ed-Dowleh, Seyyed Hassan Modarres and Ali Akbar Davar, as well as myriad others; major, often surprising insight, into the ways in which opposition to the reform among some clerics was overcome, and sober evaluation of the position of the judiciary and its evolution through the 1930s.
The Mossadegh Prize is awarded to recognize distinguished accomplishments in the field of Iranian studies. The Foundation considers it an honour to bestow this award upon Dr Enayat in recognition of his outstanding scholarship and a work that will remain an enduring reference for students of twentieth century Iran.
