Historical Sciences Studies
Year:2019 | Volume:11 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:12

The challenging relations between Iran and Transoxiana from Safavid-Shi'bani era resulted in a tradition in the border areas of Khorasan and continued up to the Maghnits period through war, peace, deployment of military forces, predatory aggressions and taking the frontiersmen captive. Searching for the causes, several factors such as a set of developmental and economic interests, social traditions and political inadequacies with a covering of religious differences are recognizable that had several impacts along with ups and downs under the ruling years of Shibanid dynasty and then Ashtarkhanids. The present study has been conducted focusing on the period after Nader Shah was assassinated and the Manghit dynasty started to rule over a part of Transoxiana. The main question of the research is of how the situation of the people of Khorasan was under the ruling of Manghits during the reign of Qajar dynasty alongside the historical process of the mutual confrontations of Iranians and Uzbeks in the northeast and what factors affected it? The foremost answer and the claim is that there can be found a chain of incidents in relations between Uzbeks and Shiite frontiersmen of Khorasan and the immigrants such as military expeditions, political collaboration with the Qajar administration that was dependent on the political and social conditions of Transoxiana, the Iranian government policies, the changes occurred in the world of Islam (the Movement of Unity of Islam and Confrontation with Colonialism) and the social conditions of the Khorasanis who lived in Transoxiana as immigrants.

Khwadā y-Nā mags are the result of the Sassanid Empire chronicling during the last centuries of their government. Although the genuine Khwadā y-Nā mags have been demolished, but the resources derived from them, such as the Shahnameh and the Islamic chronicles, show the Sassanid approach to the Parthians. So, to obtain the latest reports of the Sassanid era about the Parthians' history, it can be said that the most important sources are the works of Islamic historians who lived between the third to the fifth Hijri centuries and used the Khwadā y-Nā mags and other historical records produced in the mentioned era. The dual and paradoxical view of the Sasanians about the Parthians is distinguishable in these sources; on the one hand, according to the ancient Iranian political thoughts and the kingdom traditions, the Parthians stood in the genealogic dynasty of Iran's mythical kings, who had deserved to take the political power due to the possession of power in central Iran, and, the type of their government and their religious attitude have been criticized and denounced in these resources, on the other hand. According to many evidences, however, in the late centuries of the Sassanid rule, the famous Parthian families were among the high-ranking civil and military officials who provided important services. Through a descriptive-analytic approach to remaining narratives, the present study is to analyze the dual and paradoxical viewpoint of the Sassanians about the Parthians. The results show that the falsification and distortion of the Parthian history events and what can be recognized as an exaggerated and extreme confrontation between the natures of these governmental systems in Sassanian history are because of the chronicling manners the Sassanians used during the last centuries of their rule.

Under the title of “ Fadaiyan-e Shah” , some militia groups were formed in some regions of the country to support the Shah during the reign of Pahlavi II. These groups were different from the other similar groups of government supporters, such as urban thugs or temporary partisans, in terms of formation, function, organization and their relations with the government. The Fadaiyan-e Shah supported the shah and the army in some of events caused by World War II and the coup of August 19, 1953. The main issue, here, is the study of organizing process of such groups with a relatively permanent nature in terms of history and the impact of institutional factors. To obtain descriptive findings, the historical data has been extracted from military and governmental documents, interviews with some individuals associated with militias and other sources, and they have been used in this study, through a historical method, to provide an interpretative plan. The results show that these organizations had initially tried to strengthen government forces in the form of temporary partisan groups at the beginning of the World War II and afterwards, and the government gave them an informal legitimacy after the crisis in Azerbaijan. They succeeded in achieving an organizational system through the provocation of the army and the radical wing, when Mosaddeqh was serving as Iran's prime minister. After the coup, the government used their ideological and organizational experiences as a model to create a comprehensive militia organization.

Land tax had been one of the most important tax categories and one of the main income sources for Iranian governments during the Middle Ages; therefore, surveying cultivated lands attracted the special attention of the rulers and court agents in that period. Since knowing the units of the survey and measuring the levels and area can increase one's understanding of each period's governmental and state affairs, the present study is initially to introduce a short manuscript containing rules in account science and area measurement firstly, a 15th century treatise on mathematics and geometric education, and then to answer following questions: "What were the units for measuring levels and determining the area during the Timurid period? ", and, " What was the relationship between the selection of these measurement units and the Timurid bureaucracy? " And also, according to aforementioned manuscript information and on the basis of the metric measurement method, it has been tried in present study to determine the amount of "acre" and to prove that as a measurement unit it is independent of other variables, including the types of cultivating, irrigation and seed. The findings show that "the king acre" (Djarib-e-shahi) and "the peasant acre" (Djarib-e-dehqani) have been the general units used to survey area, and also other units such as "Dhira", "Qabda" and "Ashl", which were directly related to the Timurids ruling policy of uniformity of length and weight units, were used in land surveying. They also show that the theories of scholars such as Lambton and Hinz that this unit were determined, in Timurid period, upon the types of land cultivation or irrigation are not acceptable.

The year 301 AH (913/4 AD) should be considered a dangerous year for the Samanids. Because, after Ahmad-ibn Ismail (295-301 AH) was murdered, a conflict and subsequently a battle happened between his eight-years-old son, Nasr-ibn Ahmad and his uncle Ishā q-ibn Ahmad who was, at that time, the doyen of Samanids, to take the throne which finally led to the victory of the little Nasr. Due to the dispersion and variety of the content of historical books, numismatics seem to be able to provide the researchers with valuable information. Therefore, the numismatic data especially what has gotten of two indicative coins of Nasr II, minted in 301 AH in Samarkand, is the main source of the present study. In addition to introducing the mentioned coins, it has been tried in present paper to analyze the causes of some of the events of this period using numismatic data and information has gathered out of historical texts. The attempts have been made to clarify some unknown matters such as the purposes were behind the minting of the coins, the one who had the coins being minted and the opinion of the Abbasid Caliphate on power claimers, and to make it clear that the coinage purpose was to indicate the consolidation of Nasr's power over the territory of the Samanids, particularly Samarkand. The results show that the coins had been likely minted by Hamooyat-ibn Ali (the conqueror of Samarkand), or by Omar-ibn Nasr-ibn Muhammad-ibn Ismail or even by one of ’ Amr-ibn Nasr-ibn Ahmad’ s son (the new governor of Samarkand), and finally the Caliph preferred initially Isaac to Nasr and confirmed his government.

The judiciary has been always considered as one of the important aspects of the administrative systems of the governments, and all rulers need the Court of Justice and judges who can help them to eliminate the causes of corruption and to establish justice. The Qara-Khitai government of Kerman province cannot be considered as an exception. So, it has been tried, in present paper, to study the importance and the position of their judiciary system and the function of judges for Qara-Khitai government in Kerman to show how the Supreme Court worked during their period, and finally to introduce the most famous judges who interpreted and applied laws when Qara-Khitais were ruling in Kerman. In this regard, the main questions are: "How was judiciary organization of Kerman in the era of Qara-Khitai government? ", and "Who were the most important judges of this period? " The present study has been conducted through a descriptive-analytic method on the basis of library documents. The results show that the judges held some other different and important responsibilities in addition to the task of judgment during the reign of Qara-Khitai dynasty. The other issue was that along with the Qara-Khitai's judiciary system, there were other judicial systems in Kerman such as Yarghu Court (Divan-e Yarghu) and public prosecutor's office (Divan-e Mazalem), and also, the Qara-Khitai rulers' opinion and, even in some cases, the orders of ruling Mongol Ilkhan could be effective on the final judgments.

Based on the contents of Khorshid, an old local newspaper printed in Khorasan, northeastern of Iran, it has been tried, in present study, to examine various aspects of the social life in this area on the eve of the Constitutional Revolution. Accordingly, its content has been at the heart of a comprehensive review from the point of a historical view to answer the questions that in what social issues and crises the people of Khorasan were involved at that time, and what their conception of constitutionalism and its goals was. The results show that, affected by the political sphere and the situation of the country during the Constitutional Revolution, two issues are recognizable. Firstly, the newspaper's managers attempted to make the demands of the people highlighted, against the newly-formed political system and to reduce the burden of traditional tyranny on the people, focusing on social deficiencies such as: the absence of an efficient judicial system, poor performances of the rulers and the heavy domination of their ineffective ruling system on people, the situation of women and children, and the unfortunate health condition; and secondly, the crisis created against the Constitutionalism and newly established parliament and, ultimately, the dominance of the long standing political regime and the consolidation of the Mohammad Ali Shah's coup acted as serious obstacles against a state-owned association and, specifically, the Khorshid newspaper to reduce social deficiencies. The fear of more political constraints, the dominance of the ancient system and the domination of foreigners on Iran were also expanded to Khorasan, and through a pervasive discourse the newspaper began to propagate the need to strengthen and consolidate the army to protect the country.

Since 1956, the results of the periodic general census have been the main official sources of statistics for the unemployed population. Based on the results of the census, the Iranian society was in a full employment situation in 1956. This is while the development investments had led to non-productive or inefficient sectors of the country in the 1940s and the 1950s, on the one hand, and the rural population which was the majority at that time had overtaken the sources and the production facilities of the villages, on the other hand. Hence, a large part of the active population of the country was faced to apparent and hidden unemployment. So, the research question is why the 1956 Iranian general census was unable to show the rate of this unemployment? And the claim is that the categorization or classification which the census of unemployed people had been implemented on made the statistics altered or concealed. This type of classification of the workforce were based on wage labor, whereas in Iranian society at that time, peasantry (raʿ ī yatī ) prevailed over the other forms of laboring. Accordingly, the quality of unemployment representation is initially discussed in the mentioned census, and then, the method through which the agricultural land were being utilized before the land reform will be examined to show how the unemployment figures remained hidden or were not counted in the 1956 general census.

Seals are of the most valuable things that enjoy a long history. According to the archaeological evidences, their antiquity goes back to the 6th century BC. As it comes out of the documents, the seals have experienced many changes during the historical periods, in a way that their designs, their shapes, their colors and the words or signs inscribed on them have been the subject of changes based on the conditions of times, and each of these alterations holds complex concepts. Numerous applications such as administrative, political, economic, religious, judicial, etc. are imaginable for seals. So, the analysis and interpretation of their alterations can make some of the political, social, economic, religious, cultural and linguistic aspects of each historical period clear, and due to the scope of obtained data in several areas, it has been tried in present study to clarify some of its aspects through examining a newly-discovered seal in China to find out what kind of data it contains and what it was used for? Why kings, rulers and even other people used it? The preliminary studies have been conducted in the field of graphology show that this valuable tool belongs to the Sassanid era, however its exact function is unknown.

Due to the military and economic threats of modern civilization, the Qajar rulers were forced, at some stages, to adapt new sciences and techniques to modify and refurbish parts of their state administration. In addition, due to the acquaintance of Iranians with new changes and modern thoughts of this period, critical thoughts and progressive discourses were formed in society. Printed in Kolkata during the ending decades of Qajar era, Habl al-Matin was one of the most important newspapers which used to emphasize the adaptation of modern sciences in its progressive discourse. Based on a descriptive-analytical method and through a paradigm of critical theory, it has been tried, in present study, to criticize the approach of this newspaper to progress and modern sciences to find answers to these fundamental questions of what were the shortcomings and problems of Habl al-Matin to explore the relation between progress and modern sciences and what was its "of-modern-sciences-derived" solution to get development? Findings show that Habl al-Matin did not have a comprehensive understanding of new civilization and the ways it developed on the basis of dialectical relation of political, economic, social and cultural changes and processes, and it tried, through a positivist approach, to explain the advancement of Europe and all other societies using modern sciences, and it propagated the adoption of these sciences as a strategy for the Iran's progress, regardless of the necessity of making changes and creating capacity for bringing the country's different structures together and forming appropriate processes.

The fall of the Qajars and the rising of the Pahlavi regime were the beginning of important changes in Iran. Influenced by either internal or external conditions of the country, these changes were different. Meanwhile, the Pahlavi government sought to justify the principles of its regime by promoting the nationalism and a relative exploitation of modern world technologies. So, they set up "the Organization for Development of Thoughts" (ODT) in 1938, which as a very influential institution held an important role in designing and implementation of Pahlavi's propaganda policies. Responsible for broadcasting news, speeches and music through a scheduled program, the Radio Commission got a special position with the launch of radio in Iran among different commissions of this organization. The question is that "How was relation between ODT and Radio Commission? " On the basis of several historical documents and through a descriptive-analytical methods, it has been tried in this paper, to study some effects of Radio on Iranian society by examining the mutual relations of ODT and Radio Commission. The results show that the commission acted as an executor of ODT's policies, produced artistic and literary programs, trained musicians and speakers, and, subsequently promoted the nationalist thoughts in Iranian society to consolidate the Pahlavi regime.

The inscriptions of Derbent, a city in Dagestan, Caucasus, are among the most important Sassanid inscriptions. They have been inscribed on the defensive wall of Derbent. Derbent's defense fortifications consist of walls that were built to defend against the invasion of nomadic tribes, usually located on the upper borderlands of the Sassanid Caucasus. The construction of defensive walls, promotion of their quality and strength, and the maintenance and restoration of these fortifications have been the main and primary tasks of Sassanid rulers against the invasion of these tribes. The construction phases of Derbent's defensive wall and its dating have been controversial among the researchers of this field. There are some inscriptions, in some parts of this wall, inscribed by the language of Sassanid Pahlavi. Of the 32 inscriptions on the Derbent's wall, the 3rd one has a historical significance due to a number that seems referring to a year with an unknown epoch. A variety of theories have been proposed about the reading of the number as well as its possible epoch. By reviewing some of these theories, it has been concluded that the mentioned number means the year 37. Considering the historical evidences, presented in the text of this paper, and based on our information about the king calendar of the Sassanians that its epoch was the year a Sassanid king sat on the throne, it can be guessed that the calendar epoch of the year 37, mentioned in the inscription, points the year Khosrow I crowned as the king. It can be claimed, accepting the suggestion, that the time for inscribing this historic record was the 37th anniversary of Khosrow Anushirvan's reign which coincides with 568-569 AD.