Fazlullah Nouri

Sheikh Fazlollah bin Abbas Mazindarani (Persian: فضل‌الله بن عباس مازندرانی; 24 December 1843 – 31 July 1909), also known as Fazlollah Nouri (Persian: فضل‌الله نوری), was a prominent Twelver Shia cleric and influential political figure during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911). Initially a supporter of constitutionalism, he later turned against the movement following a shift in royal leadership from a pro-constitutional to an anti-constitutional Shah. Nouri ultimately aligned himself with the monarchy's opposition to constitutional reforms and was executed by the constitutionalist government in 1909, having been convicted of "sowing corruption and sedition on earth." Since the Islamic revolution, he is celebrated for defending Sharia law and Islam against so-called agents of the West, and portrayed in school textbooks as a martyr for Islam and the motherland by the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has also been criticized by historians for his opposition to constitutional government and for inciting violence. Nouri was a financially successful court official responsible for collected religious funds, for conducting marriages and contracts, including the wills of wealthy men. Under the monarch Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, who accepted demands for democratic reforms and agreed to surrender political powers to the parliament, he sided with the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. However, Nouri turned against the revolution after al-Din's death and his successor, Muhammad Ali Shah Qajar moved to close the parliament and return to the country to absolute monarchy. He joined the Shah in a vigorous propaganda campaign against the modern parliamentary system, arguing that the elected parliament (majles) should serve only as a forum for consultation, while laws ought to derive exclusively from Sharia.