Historical Sciences Studies
Year:2020 | Volume:11 | Issue:2|Papers Count:13

The Great Game of Russia and Britain, which began in the early nineteenth century, led to the confrontation of the two powers in Iran until the early twentieth century. The Russian-British rivalry in Iran intensified after the second round of Iran-Russia wars in the Caucasus, when the restoration of Iran’ s historical rule over Herat was on the agenda of the Iranian government, resulting in the siege of Herat in 1837, an incident that caused British politicians to worry about Russia’ s expansion in the western borders of India. The findings of this study indicate that the idea of capturing Herat was partly influenced by Russians’ support to divert the Iranian government’ s attention from the Caucasus. In addition, with the Herat crisis and Britain’ s concern about the expansion of Russia’ s influence on the borders of India, the creation of a buffer state became vital in the framework of India’ s defense strategy. Under the circumstances that Russians were supporting the Iranian court during the siege of Herat, Palmerston’ s regional and extra-regional aggressive policy, followed by Russians’ passive stance, led to the rapid deployment of force to the Persian Gulf and ended the campaign in Herat in favor of Britain. Afterwards, Britain stabilized its position in today’ s Afghanistan. Contrary to other studies that mostly examine the issue of Herat in the framework of Iran’ s relations with Britain, Russia, or the Emirate of Afghanistan, this article examines the issue of Herat’ s siege in the context of the Great Game.

Scholars, in their study of Parthian numismatics, mostly emphasize the Hellenistic and Persian-Achaemenid heritage and ignore Scythian cultural elements. One of the most important motifs on these coins is the upright headgear of the king. The main purpose of this research is to examine the origin of early Arsacid kings’ headgear which is generally assumed to be an imitation of Achaemenid satrapal coins and Persian culture. Due to the Scythian background of the Arsacids, however, the article proposes a Scythian origin for this headgear. It examines the origin of this headgear by comparing Arsacid coins with Achaemenid, Scythian, and Greek motifs and classical sources. The result of our comparison indicates that the Arsacid headgear, unlike the soft and loose Persian one, has a striking resemblance with the stiff pointed Scythian headgear which is depicted in Achaemenid and Greek art. Consequently, it can be argued that the early Arsacid headgear was probably a sort of Scythian headgear belonging to Aparni or Dahaean tribes. The trace of this headgear can be found in some classical texts in which it is refered to as “ kurbasia. ” The study of the terms used for headgears in these texts illustrates that the word kurbasia, which was initially used for the Scythian headgear, in later periods, was confused with an upright ridged Persian headgear exclusively for the Achaemenid great king. Apart from their similar stiffness, it seems that both headgears had a common neck protection which further caused their misidentification.

Sasanians’ converting to Zoroastrianism and their relations with Zoroastrian clerics have been important issues of the history studies on the Sasanians. In the past one and a half century, a number of scholars, referring to a report on Sasan by Tabari, the eponymous ancestor of the Sasanians, have assumed religious office such as mobed, hē rbed, or the guardian of the fire temple for him, and have taken it as evidence for the Sasanians’ presumed priestly lineage. Some have even considered the success of the Sasanians in overcoming the Arsacid Empire as an outcome of their new religious tendency. In addition, Agathias’ s report on Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, has also been used by some scholars as another piece of evidence to suppose a clerical rank for him. Reexamining Tabari’ s report and evaluating it in the context of the Zoroastrian legal system, this study demonstrates that Sasan’ s office in Anahit’ s fire temple was not a priestly one, and Agathias’ s report on Ardashir has nothing to do with priestly ranks. To the contrary, these reports, when considered together with all other evidence, confirm Sasanians’ connection with the local nobility of Fars region.

The title Cannoneer (Tū pchibā shi) became widespread with the increasing use of firearms since the early Safavid Era. According to the first references to this position during the reign of Shah Tahmasb I, a cannoneer was a skilled professional who was able to both cast (Tū pRizi) and fire (Tū pAndā zi) cannons. Since cannons were essentially in the hands of the central government, cannoneers soon became important people in the court. With the military reforms of Shah Abbas I, Cannoneer, maintaining the two aforementioned responsibilities, entered the military hierarchy and became one of the leaders of the army. After the two important wars of Yerevan (1635) and Qandahar (1648), both of which were won by means of the artillery, the standing of the artillery improved so that the office of cannoneer and the artillery unit were officially created in 1654. Since then, until the end of the Safavid Era, a cannoneer was a military official who commanded the artillery in war. Thus, Cannoneer and three other offices, namely Qurchibā shi (Commander of the Royal Bodyguards), Qullar Ā ghā si (Commander of the Royal Slaves), and Tofangchi Ā ghā si (Commander of the Royal Musketeers), became the four pillars of the Safavid army. This paper studies the emergence of Cannoneer in the army of the Safavid dynasty to clarify its position and tasks in the military ranks of that era.

The conflict between reason and religion in the Iranian medieval history is an issue affected by the scientific sources of Muslims from the early centuries of the Islamic Era. Regardless of their commonalities, reason and religion are generally known to be opposing forces, as the observance of one undermines the other. Rational knowledge and religious science have each been either declining or growing depending on the historical circumstances. Ever since the emergence of Islam and through the course of its solidification, intellectuality, too, underwent an evolutionary process. Such evolution, however, can be interpreted neither as concordance or compromise between reason and religion, nor as absolute disagreement. Rather, it is a course towards supremacy resulting from the historical circumstances. The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed continuous conflicts between religion and intellect, as it is reflected in Ghazali’ s books and Averroes’ s rebuttals to them. Regardless of the abstract issues involved, the conflicts between Averroes and Ghazali provide an in-depth understanding of the historical context of intellect and Sharia in the course of the Islamic history. This confrontation is in fact the result of the development of rationality and the socio-political circumstances.

In the final years of the First World War, the Jungle Movement went into a battle against the English troops resulted from the military changes of the Caucasian region. The English troops needed a quick passage to the Caucasus through Gilan, but the Jungle Movement prevented them and this culminated in a battle. This battle is one of the most important events in the history of the movement and it had a strong effect on its destiny. Hence, the study and analysis of it, particularly thetactics adopted by the movement and their effects, is very important. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to answer the questions as to what tactics the movement employed in the battle against the English and what the results of these tactics were for the movement. In general, four tactics are distinguished in this battle: regular warfare, partisan warfare, urban warfare, and peace. The analysis of the quality of these tactics demonstrates that, except for the partisan warfare, other tactics had negative results for the movement.

There were few governments in ancient Iran that were completely protected from political turmoil and instability. The studies on the history of the Achaemenid Empire two centuries after the death of Cyrus the Great indicate that they faced many revolts and rebellions. When the Egyptians were informed of the death of Xerxes and the conflict that had arisen over his replacement, they decided to fight for their independence. Therefore, they immediately provided an army and from 460 to 454 BCE they rebelled against the Persians. The purpose of the present study is to examine the process of Egyptians’ insurrection during the reign of Artaxerxes I and to identify the factors that were effective in creating stability/instability or convergence/ divergence in the Egyptian territory under the rule of the Achaemenid. The results of the article indicate that in the satrapy of Egypt, there was an instability in the established political power and a temporary change of the positions of the politicians.

Onomastics (or onomatology) refers to the study of proper names of any kind including the names of people (anthroponyms) and places (toponyms). The purpose of this article is to explain different aspects of onomastics and its related knowledge, as well as its necessity and importance. Scrutinizing onomastics research background and the status of this knowledge in scientific studies of Iran is the other purpose of this article. Since names change with geography, language, religion, and time, studying the process of these changes at different historical periods and geographical areas can answer many questions. In fact, the importance of Onomastics is its secondary functions, such as cultural, social, political, and historical ones, which can have important results. For instance, it can determine the reasons for the changes in the names of people and places in different historical periods as well as the extent of the influence of different languages in a particular geographical area. It is important to consider that onomastics in Iran requires further research in various branches; because most of the studies on names are devoted to the contemporary period and the names before this period have been given less attention.

Revision of the genealogy and chronology of the Arsacid dynasty has been the pivot of Farhad Assar’ s studies in recent years. Simonetta, who finds errors in Assar’ s schema, has himself ignored several key numismatic parameters and his proposed chronology is, thus, in contrast with the widely accepted Sellwood-Mø rkholm schema. Sellwood and Mø rkholm had already established a meticulous chronology of the drachms and tetradrachms of the “ Dark Age” of the Arsacid. Although their schema has some minor defections, it rarely contradicts the extant documents from the Dark Age. This research compares the proposed schemas of Simonetta and Assar to determine which one is reliable. The results reveal inconsistencies between Simonetta’ s ideas and the extant historical and numismatic documents. Furthermore, Simonetta ignores the political circumstances of the first months of the reign of Orodes I. Assar’ s proposed chronology of the coins agrees well with extant documents from the Dark Age. Simonetta’ s conclusions, however, should be used with caution and those who are willing to adopt them in further studies should ensure their reliability.

The poetic and mystical aspects of Rumi’ s Masnavi are very striking, but, as in other texts, the influence of the poet’ s historical era is detectible so that it reflects the social realities of its period. Therefore, Masnavi could also be considered as historical evidence that may be used by contemporary historians as a source of information about the time of the poet. “ Tabriz’ s Muhtasib” is a poem in Masnavi that apparently reveals some of the poet’ s viewpoints on his time. This research argues that the changes in the character Muhtasib and in the location of the story correspond with the abolition of the establishment of Hisbah and the election of Tabriz as the capital of the Ilkhanate Empire on the one hand and the importance of Omar, the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, in Hisbah affairs and Rumi’ s interest in him on the other. These events influenced Rumi’ s recreation of this ancient story and caused it to contain historical connotations.

The city of Vladikavkaz, founded during the expansion of the Russian Empire to the Caucasus in the late eighteenth century, gradually attracted immigrants from inside and outside the empire. This city, especially since the second half of the nineteenth century, became one of the destinations for permanent and temporary migrations from Persia. With the increase of the Iranian population in Vladikavkaz and the surrounding areas, the Iranian consulate was established there in 1897. The aim of this study is to provide a general overview of the activities of Iranian officials and immigrants in Vladikavkaz since the establishment of the Iranian consulate in 1897 until the collapse of the Tsarist Empire and the outbreak of civil war in Russia based on the consular records in the archive of Iran’ s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through its efforts to establish and maintain a Shia mosque, Nowruz School, and Hemmat Association, the Iranian consulate played an important role in supporting solidarity among the Iranian diaspora in the city and protecting the rights of the Iranian citizens. However, the affairs with the Russian Empire, hostility and rivalry inside the Iranian Foreign Ministry, and financial problems were the main challenges faced by the Persian consul in Vladikavkaz.

The Safavid government, like many other monarchies in the history of Iran, had a bureaucratic and patrimonial structure. Although such a political system appears at first glance to be an absolute monarchy in which all decisions are made by the head of the hierarchy of political power, because of the existence of bureaucracy there was an opportunity of forming assemblies of advisers. In fact, besides the seeming role of the ruling king in making all decisions, there were some decision-making institutions in between the internal layers of the monarchy. These institutions finalized and then issued decisions in the form of the king’ s orders or other high-level seniors’ instructions. Considering the frequent use of the term “ Majles-e Behesht-Ayin” (The Royal Assembly of the Safavid Senior Officials) in historical texts of the Safavid Era, which mostly refers to the consultation gatherings in the Safavid royal court, there seems to be evidence for the existence of a royal assembly in such gatherings. Therefore, this research aims at proving the existence of a royal assembly of the Safavid senior officials and illustrating a clear image of its status and functions in the decision-making system of the Safavid royal court.