Research Journal of Islamic History
Year:2018 | Volume:8 | Issue:30 |Papers Count:6

Economic attractions of Arabian Peninsula had brought about residence of some followers of divine religions in Yemen, Najran, north of the peninsula, and partly in Oman. Some Arab tribes in Bahrain also had converted to Christianity before Islam. The appearance of Islam required new relationships with Christian communities and lead to a different interaction with them under a new order. The political and military positions of the Prophet (PBUH) in confrontations with Christians were obviously in accordance with different approaches of Christian communities against the Islamic state. In this study, the spectrum of political and military positions and policies of the Prophet of Islam towards the Christian communities of the peninsula are examined to answer the question that why there were diversities in some positions of this kind. To study the subject according to the historical method, after investigating relevant sources, the relevant data were collected and used in evaluation the hypotheses and test of the variables involved in the subject. The research findings suggest that during the Prophet era, the policies of interaction with or opposition to Christians were based on the Quran laws and the kinds of Christians' behaviors. On this basis, the Christians in south and west of the peninsula, who surrendered to prophet's superiority, enjoyed religious freedoms just by paying tribute and maintained their role in the economy of the Najran. But the Christians in north of the peninsula took hostile positions against the Prophet (PBUH) and consequently, faced with Muslims' military encounters and eventually forced to adopt peace contracts and to pay tribute.

Baghawi's Mo'jaem al-Sahabah is one of the most important sources of 3rd and 4th century AH which like other epistemological resources in the field of history, is not a transparent and neutral work reflecting social, political and religious realities, but is a book that has hidden or distorted facts. These sorts of sources are not accurate and objective in reflecting the facts, but are somehow representations of the historian's wills and thoughts and are influenced by the texts of the author's time. At the Baghawi's work as well, the reflection of author's thoughts about the narrations of Rashidun califs, that themselves supported new thoughts in their era, is greater. The present study, based on the critical discourse analyzing method of Norman Fairclough, seeks to analyze the problem that which meanings of the political-religious discourses of the society are reflected in the pattern and manner of representing the narrations of Mo'jam al-Sahabah. Therefore, this research is a text-based one that interprets and formulates the formation of power (political-religious, etc. ), which has been emphasized by some thoughts and strengthened by rejecting some others in Baghawi's work.

In this research, the Gairdner’ s new strategy in characterization of Prophet of Islam is being explored. The research question is how a biased approach to description of Prophet of Islam, despite its scientific and academic appearance, has presented a distorted account of the Prophet’ s life. The ideas produced by this approach don’ t aim to show features of Islam and its prophet to the west, but have purposed to prove for some Muslims that Muhammad’ s system of faith has not ever been qualified for being a universal religion. Most works written before Gairdner for European Christians also reflected kinds of hostility to the prophet, but Gairdner, who worked and lived in Egypt, paying attention to the social texture of Egypt, chose a different way which without insult and insolence, has endeavored to confirm that Islam just belongs to his time and Muhammad’ s teachings, unlike those of Christ, are not applicable to all places and all ages.

Idris ibn Abdullah, the survivor of the martyr Fakhkh movement, founded a government in Maghrib al-Aqsa (172-375 AD). Historical reports on the essence of the religious nature of the Idrisids are different. The family bond of the founder of this government to the Prophet's family has been considered as a sign of Shi'ite beliefs of the dynasty. The prevalence of Maliki and Mu'tazilite beliefs in Idrisids domain on one hand, and their advocacies of some Zaidi beliefs on the other, as well as the compromises with the Umayyads of Andalusia and 'Ubaydids and preaching sermons to patronage them, and accompanying with the Kharijites have added more complexities to the reports. This paper, by collecting library data and evaluating the narrations of speeches and behaviors of Idrisids based on "Shi'ite governing criteria" of Shi'ite governments, such as Idrisids' conducts towards Shi'ite scholars, has investigated their tendencies towards Shi'ism, E'tezal and Malikis.

The Transoxiana area in the northeastern part of Khorasan was part of the realm of the Islamic world, which its inhabitants gradually embraced Islam in the first century AH. Subsequently, religious approaches influenced most of the political developments in the region so that politicians and religious service providers considered themselves responsible for religious practices. In the thirteenth century, political structures titled as Khan Neshin used to rule on this land and they used to strive to control the political and religious affairs at the same time. Another part of the community’ s religious functions was under the control of the clerical class. This article seeks to investigate the type of religious governance practiced by the Khans of the Transoxiana region before being occupied by the Russians. Accordingly, the main question of the forthcoming article is “ What was the religious situation of the political and demographic structures of Transoxiana before the invasion of Russia? ” The results of the research show that all elements of power and formal structures followed the implementation of religious teachings in the executive mechanisms of the society. Additionally, religious leaders who did not have official position, as a complementary force, tried to preserve and maintain the religious traditions of the community.

Establishing the Shi'ite dynasty of Safavid within historical-geographic range of Iran brought about the formation of a special Shi'ite historiography. One of the main features of this historiography has been using the religious concepts, particularly the Qur'anic verses and hadiths, in proving the Safavids' legitimacy. The mentioned feature can be seen in the historiographical sources of Safavid era such as history of Alam Aray – e-Abbasi. Eskandar Beig Monshi-e-Turkaman, the author of Alam Aray – e-Abbasi, has used the Qur'anic verses to prove the authenticity of Shi'ah and Safavids' precedence over the surrounding sovereignties, and to propagate some religious doctrines and beliefs. Additionally, impressed by Iranian-Islamic historiography, he also used the Qur'anic words and terms frequently in his work. The aim of this study is analyzing this Eskandar Beig's approach. In line with this, answering the question of why the use of verses within Alam Ara has been strikingly high, the article tries to survey this hypothesis that Eskandar beig's mentioned approach has aimed the authentication of Safavids' authority with confirmation of Shi'ite doctrines. The study has been based on librarian and analytic method.