Historical Sciences Studies
Year:2018 | Volume:10 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:7

Yazd, a city in central Iran, has experienced one of its brilliant and prosperous periods during the in Timurid era. Local historiographies written in this era, in addition to being a product of this welfare, provide much evidence of the abundance of wealth and developed economy. The mainstay of the city's economy was the production and trade of textiles. Although Yazd did not enjoy a self-sufficient agricultural system, it could play a significant role in the trade of that era due to its geographical location and standing on commercial routes, especially the southern route to Hormuz. Yazd's dynamic economy was due to its short distance to the harbor, as well as the skill and expertise of its people in producing high quality cotton and silk fabrics were sold on the domestic and foreign markets. The relative long-term political stability during the reign of Amir Chakhmaq provided the basis for this economic growth. Of course, the political turmoil of late Shahrokh's rule, the strife and clashes between the successors to conquer his monarchy, tax extortions and natural disasters caused the recession and even pausing of this development for a while. Through a descriptive-analytic method, the urban economy of Yazd in this period and the factors led to its prosperity have been studied.

Since its inception in 224 AD, the Sassanid government adopted a policy of aggressive against its western neighbor; so that at the time of the first kings of this state (especially Shapur I), the Romans suffered several defeats against it. Although during the reign of his successors, up to the time of Shapur II this policy lost its strength the Sassanid Empire faced crises that affected its foreign policy. Considering the importance of the issue, this study is to find the reasons for the crisis in the late third century of the Sassanid government and their passivity in foreign policy. The findings show that after the Shapur I, the Sassanid government faced a succession crisis and its consequences (internal turmoil and fratricide). In fact, during this time when weak kings came to the power, the aristocrats and the Zoroastrian priests were the true rulers of Iran; So, the conflicts at the highest levels of the society and the competitive approach to power were among the factors contributing to the tensions within the structure of the Sasanian political system at the end of the third century. Such issues not only weakened the government's ability to resolve domestic crises within the power sector, but also exacerbated external crises and ultimately caused undeniable destructive effects on the structure of government and society. Under such circumstances, some Roman Caesars, having been aware of the devastation of the Sassanid government, arranged some attacks against the country and succeeded, to some extent.

In Iran, during the Zandieh era, the military organization there was not much difference from the Afsharid and Safavid era, so the methods and tactics used by the military forces were in fact an overview of previous courses. In this period the old warfare method was based on the supremacy of the manpower and the brave and heroic warfare. But the use of proper and appropriate methods of battle also played a major role in the victory or defeat of the troops. During the Zandieh era, various methods were used to win the battle such as: therumors of wounding, capturing or killing the commander of the opposing forces, the plundering of the enemy soldiers by giving money andother gifts, starting the war inthe spring, avoiding thebattle in plains and open spaces, using walls and ditches to protect the cities, building fortifications to break the siege andnight attack. If used the methods correctly and appropriately, would have led to victory inthe battles. Zandieh's troops tried to use all of these methods to win the battles. This ledto their success in many conflicts. In the present research, it will be tried to answer the question with using the descriptive-analytical method and reference tothe first-handresources, which has contributed to the success of the military forces of the Zandia forces, especially during the period of Karim Khan Zand. The research'sachievement is that Zandieh army, with the presence of commanding commanders like Karim Khan, was ableto achieve the greatest success in the battle with the proper and timely use of various methods ofbattle.

Anti-colonial sentiments and nationalist ideas embraced many 3rd-world countries after the World War II. Trying to eliminate the dominance and the monopolistic privileges of foreigners, some countries in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf also sought to catch the management of their natural resources and national wealth. The nationalization movement of Iranian oil, led by Dr. Mosaddeq, caused an intense reaction from the governments in Britain and the United States at the beginning of the 1950s, so that everyone was aware of the Western sensitivity of the huge oil resources in the Persian Gulf. A few years later, Egyptian Gamal Abdel Nasser's efforts to nationalize the Suez Canal resulted in Western military intervention and disruptions in the flow of Persian Gulf oil to Europe. Although the Western governments and the oil companies succeeded, due to precise planning and extensive logistics, to overcome the oil crisis caused by the Suez War, but the thoughts and the actions of Mosaddeq and Nasser left permanent effects on the Persian Gulf oil industry. Pointing out the importance of the Suez Canal in transferring the Persian Gulf oil to Europe, the measures were taken to provide the needed oil of the West during the Suez crisis and the international and regional impacts of the crisis on the issues of Persian Gulf oil have been studied in present paper.

After Over 80 years of publishing Olmstead's essays and book, his hypothesis upon which "Darius I's Claim in Behistun (Bī stū n) Inscription that tells Bardya was assassinated by Cambodia and the kingdom was usurped by Gaumatay the Magi was not true" is not absolutely proven as well as not rejected. To verify Darius's claims and skeptics' doubts, it has been tried in present study to examine the commonly used literary and political patterns in ancient Near East's inscriptions and comparing it with Greek history. The method used in this study is exploring the probability of the propaganda of the Achaemenid government on Greek historiography and to examine the positive or negative impacts of contradictions and exaggerations in the Greek histories on the credibility of the Behistun report. Based on the results, it seems that the logical defects of the case refer more to Greek reports than to Behistun's. And even in comparison, the Iranian narrative of the story seems more reasonable and more acceptable. The contradiction between the Greek and the Behistun sources can be a reason, instead of recognizing the totality of the story untrue, to prove that the Greek narratives were not the results of a government propaganda and they were produced on the basis of independent sources. The contradiction between the Greek and the Behistun sources, instead of recognizing the totality of the story as a non-historical, shows that Greek narratives were not the result of governmental propaganda, and they utilized scattered and independent sources. It also became clear that the Behistun's Inscription should be seen as a manifestation of a literary and epic tradition in continuation of the Iranian religious and Mesopotamian political patterns.

The collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate led to the expansion of the Shia religion. Many local governments also emerged in most of the regions of Iran after the fall of Il-khā nids. The dynasties of Sā dā t-e Kā rkiyā and Marʾ aš iyā n were born in Gilā n and Mā zandarā n just in the same period. Malik Keyumars Ibn-e Bī sotū n (1404-1454), a famed ruler of Pā dusbā nians dynasty, came to the throne in Rū yā n during this period. He changed his religion to Shia Imamieh after gaining the power and encouraged the people of Rustamdar to act like him. By adopting this policy and through unifying the religion of the people of Rustamdar and their neighbors, he strengthened the authority of the Badouspan dynasty and prevented the expansion of the Mara’ shi and Karkia dynasties territory to this area. The study of the works produced in this period, especially the inscriptions made by his orders, are of special importance due to his effective role in spreading the Shiite religion in this region and his influence on the power relations between the local governments of Gilā n and Mā zandarā n. Considering the importance of above-mentioned inscriptions in understanding the history of this period and the dynasty, the influence of the political and religious circumstances of Gilā n and Mā zandarā n on the inscriptions of Malik Keyumars in 15th century is explored in present study through a historical viewpoint.

Related to each other, village and city are two main habitation and human society. Their relationship is associated with a kind of dichotomy, defined by the elements of difference and contradiction, which has been shaped throughout the history and has made the urban community to take an arrogant look to the village and villagers. This is despite the fact that the Iranian villager had a form of self-sufficiency before the beginning of capitalism and the city was, in return, more dependent on the village. Accordingly, the present study is to make the reality of village-city relation clear and to determine what role the Persian classical poetry plays meanwhile. The answer highlights the background and the roots of the urban community's view; so, the Persian poetry has been studied over the centuries and, due to the discursive nature of the subject, it has been examined on the basis of discourse analysis theory of Laclau and Mouffe. The results show that the village-city dichotomy has its roots in the ancient period and is the product of the city expansion and the power concentration in it. Islam, as a religion with urban desires, has also helped the urban discourse to be dominant. To keep its superiority, the discourse has utilized different tools such as poetry, which in some cases helped continuing the dominance of urban discourse through representing the village.