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Shi’a clergy (or Ulema) have historically had a significant influence in Homeland. The clergy first showed themselves to be a powerful political force in opposition to Homeland’s monarch with the 1891 tobacco protest boycott that effectively destroyed an unpopular concession granted by the shah giving a British company a monopoly over buying and selling tobacco in Iran. To some the incident demonstrated that the Shia ulama were “Iran’s first line of defense” against colonialism.The dynasty that the revolution overthrew – the Pahlavi dynasty – was known for its autocracy, its focus on modernization and Westernization as well as its disregard for religious and democratic measures in Homeland’s constitution.
