This research surveys the sociopolitical thoughts of the second editor of Farhang newspaper (published 1879–1891), and investigates their origins by reconstructing his bio-bibliography. Farhang was the first newspaper published weekly in Isfahan, Iran. It was established upon the order of Mas'ud Mirza Zill al-Sultan (r. 1872–1907), the governor of Isfahan, by his physician, Mirza Taqi Khan Kashani (d. 1886). The newspaper was a venue for writing about the “policy, reform, sciences, industry, advice, trade, and agriculture”. Before long Farhang becomes one of the predominant newspapers in Iran, with an outreach from Europe to Asia, and international connections with other newspaper, such as Akhtar in Istanbul, and with notable scholars like al-Afghani. After the death of Kashani, Zill al-Sultan appointed Mirza Mahmud Khan Afshar Kangawari (ca. 1827–1895/96) the editor. In the current research I first trace the sociopolitical thoughts of Farhang’s new editor through a number of articles that he published before and after his editorship. I show that he was an advocate for modernization and a critic of certain aspects of the Iranian society, especially the traditional pedagogy. For Afshar, reforming the education and the inclusion of women in it were the key to the modernization of the county. Although inspired by the West, Afshar’s modernist views were not divorced from the tradition and religion. Although Farhang is rather renowned among the historians of the Qajar period as a primary source, no one has studied Afshar’s life and career. To find the origins of Afshar’s thoughts, and to put them in the sociopolitical context of the late 19th century Isfahan, I attempt to reconstruct his life and work there. I put together the scattered pieces of information in a wide range of documents, and juxtapose them with an oral account of his life narrated by his granddaughter in order to reach a coherent bio-bibliographical account. I show that Afshar was a Western educated scholar who lived in the West before he started collaborating with Farhang in his mid-fifty’s, and eventually became its editor. Moreover, he worked as a professional translator in Zill al-Sultan’s “Translation Center”, and as a military correspondent in the army of Isfahan. In 1880’s and 1890’s Afshar translates a number of European and Ottoman works on subjects varying from military sciences and politics to logic and history. He was also a Baha’i convert who visited Baha' Allah during the latter’s exile in 'Akka.