JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES
Year:2002 | Volume:12 | Issue:43|Papers Count:9

At the beginning of conquering different parts of the world, the strong and young Mongol government was mesmerized by the habitable lands and civilized centers of far west Asia and the Mediterranean domain. Dominating the Iranian plateau, Mesopotamia (present Iraq), Damascus and Egypt, was one of the most important objects of the Mongols. Although the mongol dominance was not established in Iran and Mesopotamia in the first destructive raids of Mongols to Central Asia and Iran, and although the conquest of Damascus and Egypt did not take place then, yet one of the main plans of Holacos mission to,the west was continuing to move forward to Damascus and Egypt, and dominating the Mediterranean domain. It was one of the most important military operations of the Mongol Empire to strengthen the western conquered lands after repressing the resistant centers in Iran and Mesopotamia. During the Ilkhans governing Iran, following up the military targets in the west took on different fonns because of internal changes of the Mongols vast empire, and the internal modifications of the flkhani political system; however, it was always a main concern of the Ilkhan government and wealthy tribal people to access and to have control over Damascus and Egypt. The political collapse of the Mongol Empire, the forming of the authoritative Mamalic governments in Egypt, and the reforms of the Abbassid caliphate in Cairo were among the important factors in changing historical conditions during the first period of the Ilkhani government; these factors led to important internal changes in the Ilkhani government and, at the same time, were important in foreign relationships. For this reason, ihe relationships with Egypt will be studied and evaluated as an important domain in Ilkhanian foreign relationships because of its special links with the internal changes of the Ilkhan government, and some main approaches will be investigated in this regard. This article, due to the conditions and some of the characteristics of the llkhani period--especially the serious occurence of mutual influences of foreign and internalfactors during the reign of Ahmad Tagodar (681-683 A. H)-- examines the main approaches in the llkhanian period based on existing sources, especially the cOlTespondences between Muslim ilkhan and Sultan Mamluk

This article is a survey on endowment, and management of pious inistitutions duringthe Safavid era. The fundamental tasks, the responsibilities of its managers, and the attitude of endowments to thefunction of pious fundations aresome of the other subjects discussedin this article.

The Mongols confronted an economic crisis thirty years after the fonnation of the Ilkhans rule in Iran. In order to overcome this crisis, the governments high functionaries ordered their subjects to deliver their golden and silver coins--the main instrument of transaction--to the government and instead receive "Chao"paper money. This article intends to investigate the main causes of the economic crisis during the Gikhatoo era (690-694 A. H). Some scholars maintain that the cause of the crisis was Gikhatoos behavior; that is, his lavishness, extravagance, and wastefulness, in addition to the death of herds caused by severe cold. This research doesnt completely refute these causes; however, it attempts to show that the circulation of "Chao" and the resistance of people against it, which finally sealed the fate of the Ilkhans rule, had deep political and social roots. Chao is in fact a symbol which, if properly studied, will shed light on the numerous social, political, economic and religio-cultural confrontations between Mongols and the people of Iran from the very beginning of the Mongol invasion to Iran. The implementation of unwise strategies regarding the religio-cultural domains by the first Ilkhans was a main factor which brought about a crisis of legitimacy and eventually led to the economic Crisis.

This paper will look at some of the Quranic, dua (invocations) and hadith (traditions) texts of great popularity for inscriptions, and their location and Quaranic definitions in the Timurid and Safavid periods. It is noteworthy that from the earliest times the written word has been used as an important and sometimes the sole form of decoration in mosques and for religious objects to tally lacking figural decoration. In Islam, Quran, the literal word of God, has always been employed by Muslim artists for inscription in mosques, madrasas (religious schools) and holy places, such as imamzadehs (shrines) and khanqahs (monastries). In addition to employing the Quranic texts for inscription, Muslim artists also used dua and hadith inscription also considered in this paper. Apart from their beauty and physical attractiveness, these spiritual inscriptions help man to feel the Divine Presence everywhere, such as in mosques, schools, shrines, and monastries, and to attend to the effusion of elegance emerging from the spirit. So these selected verses were meant to encourage the minds of Muslims to consider and praise God alone. But one question has still not been answered: By whom and how have these verses of Quran, dua and hadith been selected? And why did artists decorate and fill religious places with these sort of writings? The discussion which follows will consider this question and three branches of religious inscriptions (Qur anic, du a and hadith inscriptions) will be dealt with in relative detail.

Ismailite Nizaris activities in Iran started with Hassan-e Sabbahs uprising and the conquest of Alamut. The presentation of the theory of ghiyamat (the Resurrection) by Hassan ibn Muhammad known as Hassan Ala Zekreh Islam (Imam Niz IV) resulted in an outstanding development in the Ismailite ideology and history. The essence of his theory was that the Shariah (holy law) has deteriorated and is no more valid, and consequently, ghiyamat (the Resurrection) has started. He believed that time is infinite and that the Ressurrection has to be understood through thinking on the basis of observation, and that since there is no burden of acts of devotion (Ta"at) in heaven, there is no need to cany out religious duties (the Faraiz). Hassan II was killed one-and-a- half years after Eid-e Ghiyamat (feast of the Resurrection). Noor Addin II and Hassan III, known as Jalal Addin Hassan Nomosalman succeeded Hassan II. Hassan Nomosalman considered his grandfathers ideas wrong and denied his ancestors beliefs. He denounced the Ismailites ideas and converted to Sunnism. In this article, an attempt is made to investigate the motives and the characteristics of this development during the time of Jalal Addin Nomosalman, his successor Aladin Mohammad, and in general the development of the Ismailite society.

In the social, economic, cultural and political reports of the world, special emphasis is placed on the Islamic world, Islamic countries, and Islamic powers. This is because nearly 22% of the world population, 25% of world countries, and 19% of the land areas of the earth belong to the Islamic world; consequently, the Islamic world has gained ever-increasing significance in. world affairs. Hence, studying and analysing the social, ideological and environmental positions of the Islamic world deserves special attention at present. The present paper, although brief, attempts to provide a survey of 8 geographical study regions, and 49 Islamic countries of Asia, Europe and African continents. It is believed that it is necessary to study the relationship of other Islamic countries that house about 1,357,553,000 Moslems to the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is also important to find out how unevenly Moslems are distributed throughout the world and how much economic and cultural power they hold in the world at large.

In this article we have tried to examine the rotating (orbital) spiral movement through scientific, aesthetic, historic and symbolic approaches. In this study, we have used both the archives and actual observation methodology to describe the origin and the meaning of this symbolic art, known as Islimi. As the result of our study, the following findings were obtained: 1. The harmony of the nature of spiral movement (especially those in Islamic art) with the definition of beauty in its Islamic forms. The spiral movement in its ultimate shape is very close indeed to the notions of balance, and rhythm. 2. The spiral painting (miniature) is a kind of holy and decorative art, especially in Islam and Christianity. The repetitions of these symbols remind us of the freedom of the decent world, and show us the unity and similarities of Islamic and Christian art as an artistic heritage of all humankind.

Knowing the main effective chains in Islamic historiography before Ibn Ishagh is of special importance in order to precisely understand the history of Islam and the validity of the narrations presented in the references of the early centuries of Islam In order to provide an explanation for the development of Islamic historiography during this period, some speak of the different schools of Islamic historiography and divide it into four diffrent schools: Iraq, Hijaz, Sham (Syria) and Yemen. In this article, the above-mentioned attitude has been challenged. The writer intends to put forward another framework in this research, in order to achieve a better understanding of the development of Islamic historiography in this period and two centuries after it. The intenningling of the charactristics of the historiography schools is so much that confonning facts on the schools seems almost impossible. While a clear perspective of the development of Islamic historiography can not be presented, what is put forth in this article tends to present the most suitable classification of attitudes in Islamic historiography within the early centuries, which is based on the family (house) interests and the deposits of the religions of the Neophyte Muslims.