Iranian Journal for the History of Islamic Civilization
Year:2012 | Volume:44 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:7

Investigating the heritage of the Islamic historiography requires case studies of Muslim historian`s works in an inductive way so as to be able to show the process and procedure of its appearance, formation, development and finally its stagnancy. The development of Islamic historiography has occurred through the three following stages: the first century, the stage of oral narration; the second one, the stage of collection and writing; and the third century, the stage of compilation and formulation of historical resources of different topics in diverse approaches. Yaqubi who lived in the third century was among the founders of the school of Islamic historiography in the stage of formulating general history of the world with a cultural approach. The basic subject of this paper is to recognize resources of the history of world`s general culture until the third century, which has been used by yaqubi. Moreover, this paper seeks to prove the hypothesis that by pivoting on quran and reling on wisdom, he has firmly taken the first step in presenting the pattern of universal history of culture among the Muslim historians.

Aggregation of Ash'ari theology and pre-Islamic practical wisdom of Iranians is one of the characteristics of historiography during Seljuq Period. Indeed, the Iranshahri’ s political thought had been revived and regarded as a practical model for Seljuq sultans in Siyar al-Muluk (Statesmanship manners of Kings) and historical texts. The beginning of the Nezam al-Mulk’ s ministry was also the extremity of the Ash'ari theology in Iran and influenced most of the historical writings. This article is going to answer these questions: why and how two thoughts of Ash'ari and Iranian practical wisdom appeared in the historiography of this period. Do the presence and aggregation of two thoughts foreshadow a balance and counterpoise? Or it was a metamorphosis or the domination of one over another? The present survey will demonstrate that historical view of the historians during Seljuq period is marked by some collaborative views of these two thoughts. In some cases, the historians of the Seljuq period caused an evolution in pre-Islamic thought of Iranians and brought an Islamic sense to it. In some other cases, regardless of the Ash'ari’ s views, they used the Iranian practical wisdom to clarify the status of independent kingdoms.

Old province Sogdiana, comprising two major city states-Samarkand and Bukhara which had ancient civilization and brilliant cultural heritage, was the most important province of Transoxian. Achaemenids, Seleucids, Kushaniyan, Hayateleh, Turks and Sasanians rule in this region at a time. At the interval between fall of the Sassanid (652 A. D) and conquest of Transoxiana by Muslim (second half of the first century A. H), Sogdian cities states flourished and took Sassanid cultural heritage. At this time, Sogdiana was devided into Bokhara Sogdiana and Samarkand Sogdiana. At the time of Muslims entry, Transoxiana were ruled by local rulers who enjoyed relative political independence. They were named Soghdshah, Ekhshid, Warkhuman, Tarkhun and Ghurak. By formation of Samanian sovereignty, the states of Sogdiana went uniformly under their rule (279-389 A. H). Until the Mogul raid, Sogdiana was a splendid state, but after, it lost its important status. But in the time of Timur the interregnum continued. The presen article investigates natural situation and political, economic, social and cultural background of Sogdiana by presenting its historical geography.

The mass production of Silk and its importance as goods exportable and strategic caused its monopoly by the Shah-Abbas I (996-1038 A. H. ) and then the recruitment of the Armenians merchants in his monopoly. Therefore, the question is what function had the three related factors (Silk, Monopoly politics and Armenians) in Safavids economy and politics. For a careful investigation, after a review of the Silk production, this article is going to study the causes of adoption of the monopoly politics and the role of Armenians in its performance. The Armenians, as an experienced trader people, were able to find the new Markets for Silk in all around the World. Hence, the investigation and evaluation of their activities in this field form another part of this study. In the end, the situation of the Silk trade and Armenians merchants will be investigated until the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722. On the whole, study of the three mentioned factors shows that they affected Safavids foreign economic-political relations, developed external trade, increased import of the monay and coins and brought about the foreign trade in a balance.

The Shiites role in the general genealogy in which they have engaged to all Arabs genealogies, all of the northern (Adnanids) and southern (Qahtanids), Koreyshite, Talibids, Abbasids and Omayyad, is basic. They were pioneers of this science and started to write genealogies through sources like early genealogists, interview with scholars and elders of the tribes, predecessors’ books, inscriptions and epitaph. Their books, especially Bin Kalbi’ s books have been useful for both Shiite and Sunni genealogists. Al-Hamadani’ s book, Al-Eklil, however was been ignorant, has especial innovation in usage of early sources like inscriptions and epitaph in the genealogy field. This survey, beside analysis of Shiite important and basic works in the general genealogy, attempts to explain the prominent and efficient points of these works in this field.

Wiraqah as one of the common jobs among Muslims had an important role in producing and popularity of the Books. One who works in this Occupation have called Warraq (scribe, illuminator, bookbinder, etc. simultaneously). The first Question comes to mind on this profession is how the Wiraqah had begun as a job and who were the First Warraqs. According to a common view, making paper by Muslims was started in the Middle of the second Century A. H. So some scholars believe the Wiraqah was shaped by entrance of Chinese papermaker prisoners to Samarqand after battle of talas (751 A. D. ) and the word Wiraqah is derivative from Waraq meaning paper. There is another view saying the entrance of paper happened some years earlier. This research tries to show a clear picture from the beginning of the profession among Muslims by studying the sources and remained reports and by restudying two mentioned views. Accordingly, in spite of proving that paper was entered to Muslim world in the middle of second century, there is no clear connection between this event and beginning of wiraqah. According to existed reports, wiraqah actually shaped in the second half of the first century A. H.

Introducing three principal methods of determining the solar orbital eccentricity in the ancient and medieval astronomy (i. e., the method of seasons, of mid-signs, of three– points), the accuracy of the results obtained from each is being investigated. In doing so, two main goals have been targeted: (1) to determine the accuracy and the intrinsic limitation of each method with regard to their structural sensitivities to the input data; (2) to determine the accuracy of the historical magnitudes measured by each method for the solar eccentricity during the Islamic medieval period. For the first, it has quantitatively been resulted that the method of three– points is the most accurate, while the method of seasons is the most sensitive. Being aware of this fact, the medieval astronomers attempted, with the passage of time, to substitute the more accurate method for the less accurate one. As a result, the method of three– points became the standard method of determining the solar eccentricity. For the latter, comparing the historical values for the solar eccentricity with the true ones, it may be seen, as desired, that the mean errors and the divergences of the values resulted from the method of seasons are much more, while two other methods keep the results convergent and congruent. Nevertheless, the method of three points is of high accuracy, but, surprisingly, the most accurate recorded value for the solar eccentricity during Islamic period, measured by Abū Rayhā n al-Bī rū nī in the year 385 Yazdigird 1016 A. D., comes from the method of season. The values attributed to Marwarū dhī and Nayrī zī , and that mentioned by Khā zinī are of less accuracy. The more accurate value adopted in the Islamic astronomical tables (Zī j literature) is of Ulugh Beg’ s Sultā nī Zī j. Nevertheless, the majority of the solar eccentricity measurements by the medieval astronomers are more accurate than that of Copernicus in the sixteenth century.