BIANUUAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF IRAN LOCAL HISTORIES
Year:2016 | Volume:4 | Issue:2 (8) |Papers Count:12

The Safavid Tarighat ‘ Sufi Religious Order’ , experienced distinct religious events during its life. Sufi religious thought evolution of the Safavids, from Sheikh Junayd to Shah Ismail, has been reviewed in this article. The research relying on the resources from the Safavid period and religious resources of the orders under investigation, and through application of descriptive-analytical approach, examines the evolution of the Safavid Sufi religious thought. It can be said that all modern researches confirms the modern thought of the Safavid era. But the difference in origin is the beginning of the development of the new period. The main issue of this study was to evaluate the course of this evolution, the origin and their achieved results. The current study demonstrated that the changes undergone in the Safavid religious order, from Sheikh Junayd to Shah Ismail, have been influenced by the religious orders of Ahl-e Haq, Kakeyi, Shabaks and Alawiyan.

During the Safavid era, the Kurdish tribes and clans that play an important role in the political activities of the Safavid state, can be said that during the reign of Shah Abbas I increased their role. One of these tribes, was the Bradust Kurds whose residency placed in the northwesten Iran: Urumiyeh and Oshnaviyeh, However, before Shah Abbas I, the tribal territory of the Bradust Kurds was located in the Ottoman territory. The Bradust Kurds, during the rule of Shah Abbas I, reached the highest level of fame, since at that time, their governor, Amir Khan of Bradust was considered a favorite figure to Shah Abbas. Amir Khan Bradust was injured in one of the Safavid battles who, since then, was known as Amir Cholaq Bradust ‘ the lame Amir of Bradust’ . He declared an old and famous castle as his ruling residency, and after a while, he rebelled against the central state and start battling with the Safavid forces, Finally, he was suppressed with Shah Abbas’ order after a long period of time. This paper intends to investigate the reasons for the Bradust Kurds’ rebellion and the way of their suppression.

Iran, a country which has always been the center of attention due to its special geopolitical status and natural and historical attractions, has attracted a great number of visitors and tourists in the course of history all over the globe. In the Safavid period, as the history shown, a numerous European visitors and tourists who have been visit Isfahan, have written many itineraries in different areas. Some of them presented worthy descriptions about Isfahan's historical buildings and their architectural circumstances that reminded us of tailored viewpoints in addition to the comparison between Isfahan’ s architectural buildings and European ones; paying attention to them can help identifying the transmitted concepts and thoughts in this age. The reason of the visitors’ attraction towards these kinds of architectural styles in the Safavid period, the way of describing and exploring the buildings and their architectural elements and key concepts in itineraries that provided the way to study the artistic stylistics of later periods, are the questions for which this study is supposed to answer. The research results revealed that views and perspectives of European tourists toward Isfahan's art and architecture and their attention to identifying Iranian concepts and architectural thoughts in Safavid period itineraries, have provided the circumstance of these concepts by means of publishing itineraries in Europe; also, the pictures that some of the tourists have taken from Isfahan's historical works and the influence that these pictures have exerted on art and west architecture, have provided the penetration areas as well as transfer of ideas of Iran's architectural style in Europe. The present study, through application of the descriptive-analytical approach, examined the identification and conveying ideas of Isfahan’ s architecture of the Safavid era from the viewpoint of itineraries.

The city of Shiraz, in the Qajar era, although lost its former importance, following the selection of Tehran as the capital of Iran and Tabriz as the crown prince residence. The Fars province as the capital of Zand government and for its location as the Crown Prince residence in early period of Qajar domination as well as its closeness to the Persian Gulf, was of great significance in this era. Fars had special internal divisions and local organizational structure in the Qajar era that in course of this period changed. This paper, by using descriptive-analytical method, intends to answer the following questions: what were the most effective factors involving in the changing of the territorial area of the Fars state? and what type of political measures did the government take to stabilize power of the Qajar government in this state? In the reign of Mohammad Shah, because of the Fars governor’ s rebellion, The central government reduced the power of the rulers as well as Limiting the territory of Fars. Central government used the state's traditional powers such as the kalantar ‘ the officer’ , to balance the power in this state.

This study is aimed at investigating the social, medical, public and personal hygiene evolution during Naserian era. According to the fact that hygiene is one of the most significant concerns, health inevitably depends upon public and personal hygiene and living conditions. One of the most notable social obstacles in Iran is transferring corpses to sacred places in Mesopotamia or Iraq during the Ottoman era, to Mashhad and graves of Imamzades during the Qajar era leading to outbreak of epidemic diseases. The establishment of the scientific and public healthcare centres, specially Dar ul-Funun, Iran-Ottoman borderline quarantine centers, Iran-GBR quarantine centers in south Iranian ports, novel medicine centers and the policy of prevention during the late Naserian era nearly reformed the public attitude.

Great game or competition between imperial expansionists, Russia and Britain, in the nineteenth century, to get the thorough control of the Central Asia, was the fact that Iran was unwillingly involved in it. Strategy, rules and tactics of the game, which are defined over the period of time and changed in terms of conditional requirements, including the establishment of political representatives and consulates of the two powers in Iran. In the Qajar era, governments of Britain and Russia, after the establishment of the political representatives in Tehran, due to their benefits, attempted to inaugurate gradually the consulate in the city of Rasht which in the beginning of the twentieth century changed into the widespread networks throughout the country. The current study, through application of historical, descriptive, and analytical approaches as well as using library resources and archival documents, examines the causes of the establishment of the consulate in Rasht and functions assigned to it. This study shows that the inauguration of the consulate in Rasht by England or Russia are more due to the political and strategic goals of these two governments than any other elements.

During World War I, Iran was attacked by two countries: Britain and Germany. These two countries, in line with their own interests, arrived in the southern Iran and the Fars province as well, and the foresaid province changed into the chess game between these two superpowers, and both countries, by taking some measures, were trying to checkmate the opponent. Politically, in the Qajar Persia, there were various factors that facilitate the involvement of both Britain and Germany in Iran: Military failure in preserving the territorial integrity of the Qajar rule, geographical position of Iran, disrupting trade routes of the southern Iran, and the importance of India to British government. The current research, through benefiting from inductive and library approaches, attempts to study the policies of these two countries in the Fars province during World War I.

Gendarmerie brigade which organized by the effective support of Great Britain to secure the road from Bushehr to Shiraz, found their interests at the beginning stages of their arrival in Fars which in turn culminated in strenuous conflicts between the two forces at the break of World War I, Qashqai tribes leaned toward Germany while the central government had declared its neutrality. In the meantime, Gendarmerie appeared to show tendency to support Germany gradually and it established an independent committee known as Hafezin-e-Esteghlal (keepers of the independence); moreover, they made a close ties with Democrat Party of Fars. Eventually, Gendarmerie staged a coup against Great Britain’ s dominance over Shiraz on the 2th Muharram, 1334. During this period, Gendarmerie signed a treaty with Solat od-Dowleh which did not last long. The present essay is after answering the main question that what factors caused alliance and dissociation between Gendarmerie forcs and Qashqai tribes? Using the descriptive-analytic method, the present article seeks to answer the aforementioned question with reliance on historical texts and documents. Apparently, in the first places Solat od-Dowleh’ s need of a national force in line with his own interests trend him to enter into an alliance. However, changes such as internal weakness of Gendarmerie and the increased pressure from the new government weakend Solat od-Dowleh’ s efforts to maintain Qashqai’ s cooperation which finally caused them to turn away.

During the First World War, the Council of Islamic Unity Jangal Movement was formed in Gilan to deal with foreigners, maintaining independence and respect the Constitutional and Islamic principles. At this time, due to the weakness of the state cabinets and occupation of Iran as well as the weakness and pessimism of local authorities in the Mahal Salas (the western Mazandaran province), Some of the former Constitutional leaders as Salar Fateh, in order to weaken the Khalatbari’ s family and seize power in the Mahal Salas, cooperated with the Islamic Unity Movement which resulted in spreading out of this activity throughout this region. The current study seeks to answer the following question: what was the Mahal Salas’ s role in Tonekabon city during the Jangal Movement? following that this Hypothesis sets forth that Mahal Salas had profound effect in the formation and weakening of the so-called movement. The research findings suggest that the change in Britain’ s policy in Iran and formation of the Vosough od-Dowleh’ s cabinet and his support of the oppositions of the Jangal Movement as well as surrender of some leaders of the Islamic Unity Movement, unsuitable back up tactics towards Mahal Salas, particularly Tonekabone, and lack of information about the correct location, were the main factors involving in the destruction of the Islamic Unity of the Jungle Movement in the early period.

Gendarmerie force formation in the year 1912 and its expansion throughout the country caused the security establishment in the country, particularly in the borders and frontiers, but the local gunmen were used as reinforcement for establishing the security and fighting the robbery and encroachment, due to the extensiveness of area. In the recent investigation, the local gunmen's performance in the border area of Doroh that gets a very important position with regard to its location on the way of Herat-Farah highway to Sistan has been studied and explained. This investigation, by virtue of the village chief's public documents of Doroh area as a case study tries to answer this question that what was the role of local gunmen in establishing and stabilizing the security in the remote areas which are far from the center in the modern era? Such investigation claims that, the gunmen, due to the familiarity with their own area's climatic and geographical requirements and local integration, has had a very significant role in establishing the security, especially in the border areas. Other achievements of this investigation showed that using the local gunmen was very useful for the federal government because organizing and controlling them had been undertaken by the village heads of each place voluntarily and honorary.

Studying Iran’ s history, after Alexander’ s time period, which was called Hellenism, has no written primary resources. Hence, to reconstruct the history of local governments in this era, especially Pars, local available resources will be used. Without doubt, the most useful and reliable local sources in this era, are the coins minted by the local kings of Persia, that show the Fars state has enjoyed autonomy for a period of time and its wardens were from local governors in that area. This research encompasses the time range between 220 to 140 BC, with a regard to the first set of coins of Persian kings called "Frataraka". This paper have implemented by library and field researches that collected and studied from Persian kings’ coins in the museums of Bank-e Sepah, Iran-e Bastan and Tamashagah-e Pool. Obviously, these coins contain certain political and religious symbols that are rooted in its sublime past. Symbols used in Frataraka coins appear in manuscripts and various shapes such as Frataraka banner or flag, Worshiper, Kaaba of Zoroaster etc. The ideology of Persian kings’ government over society and implementing its political aims, is hidden behind these symbols and signs. The aim of this research is to investigate these symbols with descriptive – analytical method, with a view to concepts and its relationship with the ideology of the Persian kings to achieve their political and religious goals.

In the fourth century AD, the Islamic world is faced with a multiplicity of capitals that each of them plays an important role in political and cultural areas. The vast geography, the need for survival of independent and semi-independent Islamic governments and increased political, economic, military and even religious competition resulted in being changed some different cities into particular capitals in the Islamic world. Among the capitals of the same levels, two Shiite capitals of the Islamic world, Shiraz as the capital of Buyehian and Halab as the capital of the Hamdanids were examined in this study due to their considerable similarities and differences. The temporal coincidence, and the coincidence ofthe religious views, similar cultural activities, and great fame of Azad od-Dowleh-ye Buyehi and Seyf od-Dowleh-ye Hamdani, as rulers of these capitals, are considered as their common similarities among other concurrent governments of the fourth century. Another important aspect of similarities and differences between these two capitals is factors affecting their locating and the important roles of these capitals in the Islamic civilization of the fourth century. Therefore, in this study, the author aims to investigate the factors affecting the locating of capital of Azad od-Dowleh-ye Deylami in Shiraz in detail using descriptive method. Then, through using comparative method, we compare the factors affecting the locating of capital of Seyf od-dowleh-ye Hamdani in the city of Halab with these factors. This article investigates the similarities and differences of Shiraz and Halab as the capitals of Azad od-Dowleh-ye Deylami and Seyf od-dowleh-ye Hamdani. This article concluded that although the reasons for the selection of these two capitals are similar in many of the cases, role and importance of each of the capitals were different in the fourth century.