Journal of Historical Perspective & Historiography
Year:2020 | Volume:30 | Issue:25 (110)|Papers Count:12

The Fotuhat-i Gitisitan was composed in verse three years before the fall of the Safavid monarchy. A rich historical epic, its focus is on the battles of the most famous kings of the dynasty and provided valuable information in regards to the social, cultural and political history of the Safavid dynasty. The poet is the grandson of the famous grand vizier, Khalifah Sultan, who traces his lineage to a branch of the Mar'ashi family of Mazandaran. The family had immigrated to Isfahan during the reign of Shah Tahmasb and held different imperial positions during the Safavid period, especially in the clerical establishment. Despite the rationalism that marks the poet’ s writing, fatalism colors his world-view where fate is understood to be the main cause for victory or defeat. His language and the selected topics of his composition reveal the poet's nostalgia for the glorious age of Shah Abbas I. The main intellectual challenge of the poet is to show the importance of his epic and the unique perspective of the poet. This article is a synopsis and analysis of the content of the Fotuhat-i Gitisitan and to outline what it has to offer to the historians of the Safavi world.

Holding the ritual of ʿ Ashura mourning and the tendency of Shiʿ ite scholars to write about ʿ Ashura in the Safavid period was very effective in strengthening the integration of Shiism in Iran. One of the most impressive works in this issue is Haeri's book called Tasliyat-Al-Mojales. To realize the scientific status of this work, examining its references to Shiʿ ite and Sunni sources is very important and is the primary purpose of this article. This paper tries to study the Shiʿ ite and Sunni references of Tasliyat-Al-Mojales with a descriptive-analytical approach and the method of collecting data in a library manner to clarify the number of citations to Shiʿ ite and Sunni sources. The result of this examination is that this book has 66% citation of Shiʿ ite sources and 21% citation of Sunni sources. Having the most citation to 6th century sources such as Maghatel of Kharazmi with 46 citations and then 4th century sources such as Kamel Al-Ziyarā t Ibn Qulwiya with 34 cases, This work has had a very influential place. The citation to the Middle Ages sources shows its appropriate scientific position. The study of the book's text indicates that the reference to Sunni sources has taken place with a comprehensive perspective on Sunni narrative sources. Additionally, different types of citation sources show that the most references have been given to interpretive sources of Shiʿ ite texts and the Maghatel of Sunni texts.

In the new centuries, human beings' intellectual progress and the insightful and methodical developments of various sciences also made the thinkers in history redefine this knowledge's identity and science. These developments began in the West. After many challenges and the creation of new historiography schools, it led to establishing the science of history's prestige and position among other sciences. Iranian historians did not shy away from these developments. So, Iranian historians sought to transfer new ideas by putting contemporary Iranian historiography in the transition from a traditional to a modern mode. One of these historians in academic circles is ʿ Abbā s Zaryā b Khoii, among whose historical works see scientific historiography signs. The present study mainly aims to critique Zaryā b Khoii's methodological historiography and explain his historiography's components by providing clear and precise examples. It seems that this historian has taken reasonable steps in applying the principles of scientific historiography in his works and, with a combination of scientific, intellectual, and critical approaches, seeks to provide a new explanation of some historical narratives and traditional views. Among Zaryā b Khoii's historiography components are the rigorous modification of narratives, the critique of Orientalists' essential history, the neutrality of historical analysis as much as possible, using other sciences' achievements, and the attempt to present a multifaceted picture of historical phenomena. Of course, in some cases, he still has not gone beyond the scope of traditional descriptive historiography. Hence, perhaps, he can be described as a neoclassical historian.

Narratology enables historians to study and critique different historical narratives and understand them. This knowledge helps researchers understand narratives by examining elements such as Time (in the form of order, duration, and frequency), Character and Characterization, Angle of vision and Focalization, Semantic levels, and so on. This article uses narrative critique to show the difference between Saqī fe Narrative in terms of time duration and frequency in History of Tabarī and History of Bal'amī . It shows that Tabarī , using repetitive frequency and presenting six narratives of Saqī fe, provides the possibility of representing Abū bakr and 'Umar as the center of the narrative, and while doing this, ignores some of the voices in Saqī fe. Quite contrary, by expanding the duration of the Saqī fe narrative, the history of Bal'amī allows more characters to include. In this way, on the one hand, it adds more voices in the narrative, and on the other hand, it challenges Tabarī narrative. Therefore Bal'amī can introduce the voices of Ali and Abbᾱ s᾿ advocates in the Saqī fe Narrative. In this way, Bal'amī and Tabarī can be considered independent narratives about Saqī fe. That shows historians as actors of history.

Time is one of the essential and important elements in historical narratives, which together with components such as historical places and characters, form the consistency of an object and a historical event. Historians have used the element of time in various ways to narrate historical narratives. Gerard Genet proposed the theory of "narrative timeliness" and examined the indicators for measuring narrative time to better understand the function of time in narrations by considering the element of time in narration. The present study intends to use Genet's timing theory to evaluate a historical book's narrative form, namely the Exir Al-Tavarikh, and the relationships between the narrative components that make up this structure and explain the general pattern of levels and narrative components of the book. Given the importance of the time element in historical texts, it is clear that in addition to chronological order dominance over the author's narrative, time irregularities such as the historian's retrospective or futurism have led his narrative to "untimely or timeless. " Simultaneously, the singular frequency of events as the dominant frequency is one of the most crucial time techniques that the historian has used in the category of narrative timeliness.

The scripts' final word is generally known as the ending, the completion, the signature, and the word "Anjameh. " This section's significance is because it provides a brief overview of the author, version features, time, location, and political and social conditions of Writing. "Jong" (codex) is also referred to as a manuscript or a set of documents containing a selection of historical, literary, religious, and scientific documents and texts. With this explanation, the present paper's main issue is to examine the importance of colophon in recognizing "Jong-e Ahmad Gholam's" historical values from the late Safavid era and the time of the Afghan uprising. This research suggests that study the content and form of the colophons of this manuscript is the first step of correct recognition of the author's identity, spatial and temporal identity, historical context, and comparative and critical examination. The method used in this research is the formal and content analysis with phenomenological approach extracted and discovered data from the manuscript mentioned above along with documentary and library sources.

Amongst the lithographic pictorial books is the one named "expressing the story of His Highness Solomon" that, meanwhile narrating in the Qajar Era's colloquial language, possesses the visual feature of grotesque. The present article adopts an iconological approach and uses a descriptive-elaborative method to answer how these strange creatures were depicted in the pictures of the book mentioned above, and what has been the source of their formation? The results indicated that the strange imaginary creatures displayed in the pictures had been drawn along with the other visual elements within the good and evil forces' format. The source of their formation has been the arts of the Jiroft and China civilizations, the Achaemenid and Sassanid reliefs and inscriptions, the Mesopotamian, Chinese, Indian and Egyptian myths, and additionally symbols of the civilizations in Elam, Lorestan, medieval European art and later eras. all of which have been applied for the embodiment of these forces. Amongst the symbols evident in the paintings, there are creatures with four hands or horned hands, creatures with one eye and with hands in gloves as well as things like stars, bells, trumpet, idols and also persons like clown and Pan, a woman, all of which are rooted in the Hebrew and Greek arts' thoughts. They have been utilized consciously in terms of both form and visual principles and regulations and semantic load to be the narrator of this book.

This research analyzes the geographical writing method, geographical features, and methodological school of two Iranian geographers (Ibn Khordadbeh and Istakhri) based on library studies and historical methods with a descriptive-analytical approach. Findings show that Ibn Khordadbeh, is a follower of the Iraqi school, according to the global and Iranshahri approach in geography writing, using the Iranian geographical method, features such as not using the map, report of wonders, exceptional attention to patriotic identity, non-interference of religious attitude to geography writing. But Istakhri follows the Balkhi school due to his involvement of religious insights in geography and disregard for the geography of non-Islamic lands, choosing the method of 20 climates (areas) and also features such as using the map, avoidance From the writing of wonders, paying particular attention to religious identity versus patriotic identity. Although Istakhri had access to Ibn Khordadbeh's book, he most likely did not use it.

An analysis of the nature of the Shu'uabiyyah movement is one of the fields of the study investigated by scholars of Islamic history, Iranian studies, and the history of literature. Therefore, a vast amount of research has been conducted in books, articles, and dissertations in different languages, which have focused their attention on the study of the Shu'uabiyyah movement. However, each group of scholars has come to a different conclusion on this movement's nature, depending on whether they have viewed Shu'uabiyyah from the perspective of history, literature, or the political ideology of the time. The present study investigates the typology of studies on Shu'uabiyyah in the contemporary era, which can be divided into three different areas, namely the West, the Arab world, and Iran. This typology is not based solely on geographical and ethnic issues but rather on scholars' different views and interpretations of the movement presented in the fields mentioned above. Western scholars regard the Shu'uabiyyah movement as a purely literary one and limit it to an intellectual movement presented in texts. Many Arab scholars have faced the movement at both scientific and political-ideological levels because it was anti-Islamic in the early centuries. In the first level, Arab scholars have attempted to provide a historical explanation of the movement, whereas, in the second level, they have associated it with the changes in the contemporary Middle East and Iranians' role in regional politics. Iranian-based studies on the Shu'uabiyyah movement in the Persian language are the last category. From the beginning, Iranian-based studies have been influenced by translations provided by the Western and Arabic worlds, and except in very few cases, they have failed to understand the various dimensions of the movement.

Local histories are one of the most basic forms of Iranian-Islamic historiography that, along with various types of history, help understand the past developments. Among such works is the honorary letter written by Amir Sharaf-Khan Badlisi, dealing with the issue of Kurdistan as the first work of his kind. While Sharaf-Khan deals with Kurds and Kurdistan's problem, most of the region has fallen out of the control of the Iranian governments and has been handed over to the Ottomans. Therefore, the analysis of Sharafkhan's main problem in his Kurdish studies is especially important for the great chapter. In this article, in order to explain his insight and method of historiography in considering the issue of the Kurds and Kurdistan, first a brief about the Ottoman and Safavid policies as a balancing element of the region, then the characteristics of Sharf-Khan's historiography, and finally his method in writing history. This research examines the dimensions and components of Sharaf-khan's historiographical and historiographical thought using historical analysis and the descriptive-analytical method. The results show that Sharafkhan's intellectual system has characteristics such as elitism, sharia-oriented, critical, and at the same time, a praiseworthy approach to the Kurds. Highlighting the Kurds and Kurdistan's role and position, particularly the ruling Kurdish families, in Iran-Ottoman relations, emphasizing the territorial position of Kurdistan, and expressing the characteristics of the Kurdish community are other components of Sharafkhan's historiography.

Shiite and Sunni Hadith sources have reported numerous narrations on the news of Imam Husayn's martyrdom (A. S. ) and his Turbat (the soil of the grave of Imam). A number of these narrations were also about the Imamate of Imam Sajjad (A. S. ) and his Successorship, narrated by Umm Salama. The present paper's question is: Which of these reports have been narrated by Umm Salama? Can historical evidences prove that she narrated all these reports? Regarding the contrasts and differences of these reports, and analyzing historical reports on the time of Umm Salama's demise, we can conclude that all these reports cannot be attributed to her. As a result, through historical, Rijal, and Hadith analyses on Shi'ite and Sunni sources, it is concluded that several of these narrations have historical anachronism, which means that all of them cannot be ascribed to Umm Salama.

The surviving part of the Tarī ḵ al-Mū ṣ el by abū Zakarī ya Azdī (d. 334 AH. ), contains reports of the late Umayyad caliphs and notes from the ʿ Alids and Shiʿ ite Imams, in addition to mentioning local accounts and events in Mosul and the Jazī ra (Northern Mesopotamia). This article focuses on these reports and remarks to answer the question of how Azdī 's beliefs and attitudes were reflected in the Tarī ḵ al-Mū ṣ el and where did they originate? An analysis of Azdi's reports and memoirs of the Alids and Umayyads reveals the author "s Shiʿ ite leanings. We can see the positive image of the ʿ Alids and the Umayyads' negative image through the Azdī reports. The Commemoration of Shiʿ ite Imams, from Imam ʿ Alī (A. S. ) to Imam Reż ā (A. S. ), according to Shiʿ ite tradition and belief, has been accompanied by the disdain of the Umayyads. Also, the comparison of the Umayyads to the House of Pharaoh (ā l-e Ferʿ on) in the Tarī ḵ al-Mū ṣ el is a reflection and repetition of the discourse that was explained by the Shiʿ ite Imams, especially Imam Sajjā d (A. S. ) after the event of ʿ Ā š ū rā ʾ , and was propagated by the Shiʿ ites.