The head of state formally appoints the prime minister, who in turn selects the other cabinet ministers. In practice, however, the choice exercised by the head of state is often quite limited (except in semipresidential systems); it is restricted generally to the head of the largest party or coalition in the legislature (typically the lower house in a bicameral system). Although the origin of the title lies in 17th-century France, where Cardinal de Richelieu was acknowledged in 1624 as principal or premier ministre, the office essentially developed in Britain in the 18th century, when the king ceased to attend and chair meetings of his ministers.
The collected essays of Mohammad Ali Foroughi not only present a portrait of the multifaceted and complex character of one of the most influential cultural, academic, and political figures of modern Iran, but also depict the cultural issues and political and social conditions of the country during the turbulent years of Foroughi’s cultural and political life—from the first Constitutional Assembly to the early years of the reign of the second Pahlavi. Mohammad Ali Foroughi was among the most brilliant figures of a generation of Iranian scholars, historians, men of letters, and researchers who emerged from the Constitutional Revolution. During the tumultuous years of that revolution, World War I, and throughout the two-decade reign of the first Pahlavi monarch, they published their works and were so rich and creative in their fields that, apart from perhaps one or two exceptions, no one in later generations managed to take their place.
