Iranian Journal for the History of Islamic Civilization
Year:2014 | Volume:46 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:6

Sultan is a Concept which was in Circulation in Political Literature of Islamic World from 4th A. H onwards; The Term almost referred to Governor and Occasionally Government (Sultanate). However, until 4th Century, It endured a lot of Conceptual/ Applicable Evolutions. After Abbasid Caliphate Fall and Weakness of Dependent and Independent Dynasties, Sultan endured Scholarly and Mystical Implications too. In this Study, through Analytical-Descriptive Method, we will review the process of conceptual-applicable changes of Sultan with a special reference to its Hadith and Quranic implications and Political, Scholarly and even Mystical ones. Historical facts show that political implication is the most fundamental implications which repeated in other implications of the term Sultan.

The multiplicity of Safavid religious and cultural buildings such as mosques, through their functions suggests that the focus of this reign is on apply of religious policies to social behavior management. Such religious managements are one of the factors of consolidation of power and its further survival. Although such policies, are applied in previous reigns, but Shi'ism formalization is marked by different functions in this period that show its distinctions. The provided statistics from mosques in this period, especially in the first half, show the fact that the religion had a basic function in social and political affairs of Iranian society and Safavids managed to achieve their religious, political and social purposes by using available potentials and capacities in such places. The results of this research illustrate that shia juris consults manage to spread Shi’ ism in Iranian society through devotional and didactic practices and partly controlled social manners. Performing such shia sermons as Friday Prayer, mourning for the Shiite Imams shows that Safavids has provided different conditions for mosque’ s functions.

The pioneering understanding of civilization, which Ibn Khaldun has introduced in Muqaddimah, was a dim of light which did not receive attention in Muslim world for several centuries. A century later, a new understanding of civilization emerged among European thinkers, which was developed during 17th and 18th and flourished maturely in 19th and 20th centuries with publication of books on the history civilizations and theories of civilization. The problem of this research is when the new understanding of civilization emerged among Muslim thinkers and when they resumed totalk about concept of civilization? Reviewing literature of works by Muslim thinkers on civilization has come to conclusion that latter understanding of civilization in Islamic world was formed in 19th century by thinkers such as Tahtawi, Malkam Khan, Akhundzade, Tunesi, Syed Ahmad Khan, Ameer Ali, Sayyid Jamā l, AqaKhan Kermani, Talibov, etc. These thinkers have, in various works, discussed the definition of civilization, its significance and the necessity of being civilized.

One of the most important issues in the Safavids landholding system is the economic situation of the farmers that its different aspects were not perfectly studied. Hence, the question is: what were the most important effective factors on the economic situation of the farmers? To answer this question, the most effective factors on the farmers’ economic conditions were investigated: The kind of their ownership, their conditions in the “ Contract of lease” system, the tax’ s regime and the gratis services. The investigation of these factors shows that the farmers couldn’ t be owner of the land, and their share was-in the “ Contract of lease” system-less than the half of the product. This difficult situation and pressure of forced taxes, brought about the poverty of farmers by the end of Safavids era.

In every type of religious and non-religious buildings in Kashan during Qā jā r period, a certain elements have had essential effect on design and structure of architectures. The entrances of Kashan's both religious and non-religious buildings, in the Qā jā r period possess sections that have been designed in their main plans and mostly include forecourt (Jelokhan), platform (Sakkoo), the door of entrance, portal (Sardar), vestibule (Hashti) and corridor (Dalan). The entrances have similarities as well as differences that originate from their architects’ and builders’ viewpoints. Since the traditional religious architecture is indicative to the Islamic identity, religious buildings certainly have spiritual effect on their spectators at first glance. Hence, in designing the entrances of these buildings, the religious and traditional concepts and ideas have seriously been considered by their architects.

The present article discusses and criticizes the chapter two of Bahā durkkhā nī ’ s Jā mī ‘ on optics. The basic question is the extent to which this book is influenced by old book of optics. The main hypothesis is that despite all scientific advances in new optics, Bahā durkkhā nī ’ s Jā mī ‘ still relies on optics of ancient Greece and his Islamic era and does not step beyond Euclidean mathematics. According to his references to geometric relationships and the last astronomical discoveries we can say that Bahā durkkhā nī probably was aware of the latest advances in new geometric optics. As a result, optics and mathematics had a strong geometric aspect in the India of 19th century without deep philosophical aspects.