Historical Sciences Studies
Year:2013 | Volume:5 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

Concentrating on the Najafqoli Khan family in Azerbaijan in the Qajar period, this article studies the importance of the marriage - based relations between the Iranian local notables and the royal family. Najafqoli Khan“II” was in favour of ‘Abbas Mirza due to his devotional services during the Russo-Persian War, which made him a great promotion in the Qajar’s bureaucratic monarchy and provided his marriage to Mehrjahan, the daughter of ‘Abbas Mirza. The author has analyzed one of Mohammad Shah’s personal correspondences to his sister, Mehrjahan, and pointed out that these correspondences, although seem personal and private, included administrative contents. Najafqoli Khan took advantage from the personal relation with monarch, and at the same time the monarch ordered him to resolve the problems of his local society. So the marriage relation between the royal family and the local notables was quite important to both of them and, in short, they utilized each other to achieve their own purposes.

Many studies have been accomplished on the subject of Cyrus Cylinder inscription, but mythological role of Mesopotamian Nabu on this cylinder has not been properly studied. The Cylinder is damaged on some parts and Nabu and Marduk are the only remained god-names in the inscription. Nabu was the god of writing, wisdom, and to some extent happiness who protected scribes and was believed to be the Marduk’s minister or son. The authors’ aim, in this article is to understand why Cyrus had Nabu be mentioned beside Marduk in his famous cylinder which was ordered to be carved on his peaceful triumph over Babylonia, and why no other god-name was inscribed there. Therefore, Nabu’s function, temple and origin are initially studied and then his different roles in kings’ inscriptions in different times and places, and also the importance of attendance of Marduk and Nabu beside each other are studied. Finally, Nabu will be analyzed in Cyrus Cylinder and it will be made clear, as the result, that Nabu had probably an important role in the said inscription as Marduk’s son and heir, and the one who empowered and protected kingdom of Cyrus and his successor, Cambyses, relying on wisdom, longevity and happiness.

The invention of higher tonnage steamships and the opening of the Suez Canal instead of the way of southern Africa, created significant changes on commercial affairs of 19th century. The Iranian Southern ports, accessing to the open seas through the Persian Gulf, had benefited such development. This article is indirectly trying to analyze the impact of the Suez Canal on Iranian ports on the basis of steamers’ traffics in the Persian Gulf. The best way to study this change is to calculate the number and the tonnage of the steamers which came into the Persian Gulf, especially to the ports of Bushehr, Lengeh, Bandar Abbas, and Khorramshahr. Present survey has been conducted on library and cliometrics methods and has been set in two phases. Firstly, a global pattern of commerce between West and East has being provided, and then the role of the Suez Canal on the increase of the number and the tonnage of steamers entered the Persian Gulf would be taken in to account comparing to ordinary galleasses. The cliometrics used in this research has been reflected in notes section.

When Muslim Arabs conquered Transoxiana, the eastern Turkistan and Semirchie remained unoccupied for two centuries by Qarluqs resistance. But Islamic teachings were gradually propagated in their area and in the second half of the fourth century A.H Islam became the dominant religion among them. On the basis of a descriptive-analytic method, this article is to clarify the process of propagation of Islam in Qarluq territory through criticizing available data. This study shows that although Qarluqs resisted against Muslim invaders, but they were gradually affected by Islamic teachings in different manners – such as religious propaganda by Muslim merchants and warriors, political relations and intercourses, and above all the efforts of Muslim propagandists- and converted to Islam.

The Seljuk branch of Kerman was established around 433 A.H. by the attempts of Ghavord Ibn Choghri Beig who had been sent to conquer Kerman by the order of Toghrol Beig. He could establish a new government in the conquered land, the one which was inherited in his family up to 583 A.H. The study of this part of Seljuk reign makes it clear that although there have been some discussions regarding the establishment of this governments and the political situation of the era, but there is little information about other related affairs such as cultural circumstances of Seljuk territory in Kerman and the social statues and alsoits bureaucracy. Therefore, the present article is an attempt to study the ministry, as one of Seljuk governmental agent, to determine its role and position in social and cultural structure of this government, introducing some of its rather infamous ministers.

The ground connection between Iran and Egypt was established long before the Achaemenid period. Many unsuccessful efforts were also made by Egyptian Pharaohs to establish maritime connections before the Achaemenids. With the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses (529-522 B.C), in the year 525 B.C, it was under the rule of Achaemenids. After the death of Cambyses, Darius I (522-486 B.C) defeated the Gaumat the Magush and became the King. Being informed of the activitie stook place about the digging of the Suez Canal before him, Darius decided to bring this great work to a conclusion. -Providing the necessary requirement he completed the Pharaohs unfinished works and successfully made the Suez Canal being dug during 10 years. The canal made the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Oman Sea and the Indian Ocean being connected and established the maritime relations between Iran, Egypt, and India and developed commercial relations between these three countries and all areas were located between them and the Suez Canal was then the main crossing of commercial goods were exchanged between western and eastern regions.

In historical sources and studies, among Abbasid caliphs, al-Amin (April 787- 24.25 September 813) characterized as a caliph with moral vices. This negative picture emerged from the accounts of Muslims historiographical texts, such as al-akhbar al-tiwal, in first centuries of Islam and the contemporary historical studies about Abbasid caliphate, based on that accounts, accept it as his real, historical picture, too. Using critical-interpretative approaches to criticizing the texts, however, it could be found that, due to the special features of the event, Dinawari has used the form of ‘narrative-telling’ to represent al-Amin’s personality and the events which led to his murder. Utilizing the educational features of narration and the historical lessons of Islamic culture, he tried to prove an interpretation of the problem of Determinism and Free Will philosophy and its relation to Islamic truths based on mo’tazelian theology. It seems that the very theological assumptions and choosing the narrative-telling form have made these events to be represented as ‘metaphorical realities’.

The Saudi historiography started by the rise of Saudi dynasty in central Arabia in 1744, when Muhammad ibn Saud, the tribal ruler of the town of Ad-Dir''iyyah near Riyadh, and Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, the religious leader were united. Several Paradigm shave been used to form such historiography in different periods. Firstly, the Najdian and the Baghdadian Paradigms can be discussed from locational–cultural point of view about the rise of Saudi dynasty. The Wahhabid and the Najd elements would be focused in the first and the second Paradigms, respectively. The differences between several periods have made different paradigms in Saudi historiography. So, in terms of identity, two kinds of Saudi historiography, the early (the first rule of Saudi dynasty) and the recent (after the third rule of Saudis), can be distinguished.

In the early 19th century and as a result of war circumstances, Iran and Britain experienced the formation and development of limited political intercourses. Emergence of Napoleon, as a serious danger made Britain to pay a special attention to Iran. On the other side, Iran welcomed the expansion of its ties with Britain due to its military conflicts with Russia. Although Britain was not interested to improve the contacts, Iran’s simultaneous approach toward France made Britain to revise its policy. So they tried, providing new-established Qajar government with some parts of military needs, to improve their position and influence in Iran during 1809-1812 AD (1224-1229 AH). So, British ambassadors were able to impact on the long and relatively discontinuous process of Russo-Persian negotiation to meet the interests of their own government. This article aimed to suggest a new attention to the nature of Anglo-Persian political relations during the first decades of 19/13th century. It deals with the last phases of Anglo-Persian political negotiations from 1809 to 1814 which finally resulted in the Definitive Treaty of 1814. Based on some new-found documentary materials gleaned from PRO unpublished documents as well as SSSA so far unknown Persian documents, it believes that the Qajar government succeeded to develop a relatively productive relation with Britain in this time. In other words, Qajar politicians and governors while encountered the Russian intrusion to Caucuses as well as many un-settled internal problems, found the Napoleonic wars an excellent opportunity to approach Great Britain. But the occasional nature of Britain policy toward Iran during this time prevented the contact to be more advantageous for Qajar state.

Facilitating the exchange of different experiences of nations which resulted in the growth and development of arts and sciences was one of the most important achievements of the Mongols and of interests of their kings. The textile and cloth-weaving industry in the Mongol era was not an exception. Historical evidences show an increase in the exchange and trade of fabrics and textiles between Iran and china during the Mongol rule, and additionally, Iranians and Chinese exchanged their technical experiences in such field, however Iranians had a more considerable share. Persian cloth-weaving techniques developed during the Mongols rule and Iran''s exports of textiles to China played a great role in commercial exchanges between these two countries in this period. Despite the importance of textile industry in this period, a competent study has not yet committed in such field because of the lack of information on historical resources. Accordingly, recognition and introducing of the sources can be considered as an effective element in progressing historical studies about several industries in Mongol era. It has been tried, in this article, to introduce one of the significant Ilkhanate sources to identify the names of its textiles comparing them with other historical sources. This study has been accomplished on the basis of “Al-Morshed fi al-hisab” manuscript and is presented in two sections. As the starting point,“Al-Morshed fi al-hisab” and its codicological descriptions are introduced and then, using other historical sources, the name of existing textiles in this manuscript would be surveyed.