Journal of Historical Perspective & Historiography
Year:2009 | Volume:19 | Issue:1 (76)|Papers Count:8

The Mongol Ilkhanid Rule over Iran which began after the conquest of Bagdad and the collapse of the five hundred year reign under Abbassi Dynasty which had an important of all, the revival Iranian identity and awareness of intellectuals and officials regarding the historicalcondition and state of affaires and within the restriction of their own territories. Hamdallah Mustaufi Qazvini is one of the well known writers and has valuable writings to his acclaim on subjects such as history, geography and epics.These have helped in clarifying Iran! s historical identity.In his book "Nuzhat-al-Qulub", he has illustrated Iran as an ancient country with distinct borders and has explained about its provinces.In his "Zafarnama"which is epic poem using the Firdausi style, he has given very much significance to the concept and identity of Iran.In this remarkable works, Mustaufi has persistently acclaimed and mentioned "Iran" and "Iranians" and following the Juwainids and Rashid-alddin Fazl allah centering upon the concept of Iran, he has tried to assimilate the Mongol rulers in to the life style and policy of ancient Iranian kings.The Zafarnama reveals Mustaufi! s thoughts about the continuation of the concepts of Iran according to the ancient royalty during the Islamic epoch and the construction of the Iranian-Islamic Renaissance.

Regardless of the fact that such an invasion entailed political, social, economic, and cultural consequences in the post Islamic period of Iranian history, the devastative Mongol invasion and the fall of Baghdad mark an important phase of history from cultural point of view, due to the fact that this invasion played a crucial role on the process of the reconstruction of the identity and political integrity of Iran. Typical characteristics of this period include reappearance of the concept of Iran in historical, geographical and literary texts of the period, theoretical and practical reflection of Iranian political culture and land-holder-ship patterns and structures.Undoubtedly the scripts and writing of prominent historians of this period are considered very important in displaying thoughts and concepts in such a period.Naser-al-din Monshi Kermani is among major historians who is known as an important historian of Mongol era of Iran because of his great works such as Semt-al-ola –lelhazrat-alolia and Nasaem-al–ashar-men-lataem-al-akhbar.In these important works of him -as one of the most prominent mid - history historiographers- there are some traits historiography and thematic presentation that could be considered more than special facts on historical data and recognize serious concepts about Iran and Iranian thought and reflection of the pattern of Iranian political system. Thus present paper attempts to study reflection of the concept of Iran and Iranian notion in the period of Naser-al-din Monshi Kermani by descriptive and analytical method which based on attributive and library studies. This article after an introduction, describing method and concepts and revision on life of Naser-al-din Monshi Kermani and his works, investigates the reflection of Iran and Iranian identity in this period and his theory is about kingdom institution, its traits and functions, ministry, political and social order and balance of effective elements in power structure based on logic of his historical expression in Semt-ol-ola and Nasaem-al-ashar.

It’s not an enigma that story and history have the same fate. A little attention to the concept of history could be helpful. It’s acceptable that the world is consisted of several events. But there’s a huge difference between considered and unconsidered events.History means research on events that at a certain time have been considered, observed and kept in mind by researchers and has built a structure of the story about same events. Reality is greater than history and in terms of number exceeds it highly. This leads into identity generating. In this sense, identity is a criterion that historical event can be studied based on it. As we speak of identity as a process, indeed, we have spoke of the continuity of phenomenon having become historical in response to the questions of a person, a group, an ethical group or a nation about his past. When we speak of identity as a process, we indeed talk about the continuity of historized phenomena when answering the questions rose respecting about past. With reviewing five historical works, the writer has sought to study the factor of Farang (West) on Iranian identity in historical reports in Qajar era.

The book Tajziah-al- Amsar wa Tazjiah-al-Aasar known as Tarikh-e-Vassaf compiled by Abdallah Shirazi titled as Vassaf-al-Hazreh `is one of the most important texts of Iranian historiography. In addition to historical events, this work also encompasses historical viewpoints of the writer about basis and principles of history knowledge.This writing tries to reach Vassaf’s viewpoints through, his historiogra-phy style and his direct and indirect signs.The following question is designed in order to meet this objective: What are the knowledgeable viewpoints of Vassaf-e-Shirazi about the principles of history science and how could it affect on his historiography manner.In response to this question, the following hypothesis is given: Knowledgeable insight of Vassaf -e- Shirazi about the principles of history science led to using the causal and critical method based on historical impartiality and improved his historiography from event-graphy level to a level close to a very scientific one.Besides reviewing of Vassaf-e-Shirazi biography and his viewpoints about history entity, this article also studies the historical knowledge and methodological remarks in his work. Vassaf believed that history was a part of philosophy. In historiography method, he has paid attention to two causal and critical approaches and has tried to use these approaches in his history by considering historical impartiality. Therefore, he took step far away from mere event-graphy and took the historical knowledge beyond its widespread and traditional frontiers.

By referring to the history of university in western civilization and the thoughts of French Philosopher, Jacques Derrida, concerning the definition of University, this paper briefly examines the problem concerning university as an institution and as an idea (The way it’s been learnt by philosophy). By doing this he put current situation of university against what has been called “University on the way” or "Coming University". To do this, I argue that the history of the university intimately follows the history of western culture. Described it in 5 chapters, in the first chapter the collapse of the Western Roman Empire it was the Christian church that held western culture as one. The University of Paris was the medieval university par excellence and established by developing cathedrals’ schools during medieval ages. In 1694 a new type of university came to existence that separated from the ways of the past. Established approximately five centuries after the University of Paris, the University of Halle departed from the Parisian idea that higher education must be comprehended inside the framework of the Christian faith and introduced the idea of the university as a secular institution, existing to assist the secular state. This idea is the essential element of the modern university. If the universities of Paris and Halle emphasize that aspect of the university that has represented the interest of the wider society, the University of Berlin was founded for very different reasons. The University of Berlin was founded in order that a few, academically capable individuals could pursue knowledge. The age of globalization, however, which has been formed around the idea of economism will necessitate a new type of university, one extremely alike to the University of Phoenix. The University of Phoenix, founded in 1976, is a business-related university compelled by law to make the most financial gain for its financiers. The idea forming the foundation of this university is that the most significant purpose of higher education is to teach functional skills and knowledge to its "customers"-the word it prefers to"students" While the term university as an institution has tended to have limited connotations, Derrida argues that university as an idea has a boundless, unrestricted and unconditional implication. Thus, he questions the common connotation of university as an exclusively institutional term. The conclusion summarizes the major themes articulated in those discussions, and suggests further directions to explore toward the constructive conceptualizing of university, based on the "Inclusion of the Other."

One of the most important aspects of historiography in the Indian subcontinent was Iranians and Persian language assistance to exalting the field in the region. Important part of this art was carried out by the Iranians who migrated to India for different reasons. One of these Iranian immigrants who played a significant role in development of historiography in India was Asad Bayg Qazvini. He wrote a compact and beneficial work entitled Tarikh-e-Asad Bayg. In his book he explained social and political situation of India in a short course of the late reign of Akbar Shah and early reign of Jahangir Shah. In historiography, he was under the influence of ideas, beliefs, and certain restrictions of his living environment. This impression prevents optimal representation of reality and facts; however, with Enlightenment and providing some valuable information his help was fundamental to restoration of Indian history. In this article, first of all we try briefly introduce author of Tarikh-e-Asad Bayg, his character and way of thinking. Then we go through content of this historical book and review historiography style of it, make clear how Asad Bayg dealt with power, his bravery and frankness in expressing the facts, his commitment to the limits of documentary and cause of writing and examine events, chronological order of the book, not to be bounded to political history and considering on social and economic representation of the era, and including other tips on writing such historical books that all will be considered in our article.

Without a doubt educational system is one of the most important pillars of every society. Although it influences other societal systems, at the same time it is also under influence of them. With the goal of modernization of country, first Pahlavid government also paid attention to it. Since each political system has its characteristics, one of the main characteristics of the Pahlavi 1st, era was nationalism, which in this period appeared in the shape of, "Patriotism", "worship of the king", and "Attention to the Arian race and archaism". In this era Patriotism was linked closely with worship of king and archaism and influenced different sections of the society such as educational system, especially in the form of textbooks compilation.This article has based its research on fomation of the nationalism phenomena on history textbooks, particularly in elementary schools, and tries to answer the question on, how nationalism influenced the contents of history textbooks in this period. The answer is searched in "archaism", "worship of king", and "Patriotism" as manifestation of nationalism in history textbooks.