HISTORICAL STUDY OF WAR
Year:2018 | Volume:2 | Issue:3 (5) |Papers Count:8

United Nations Charter, relying on historical events, absolutely prohibited the use of force in international law and relations. In spite of this, the need for predicting the cases of using force in order to keep international peace and security requires it that through systematizing the possibility of resorting to force and institutionalizing it within the system of the Security Council of the United Nations, the use of force be allowed in cases where the realities of the international community not only logically explains but also authorizes the use of force. Although the right of self-defense and the authority of the Security Council are the two exceptions contained in the UN Charter to materialize the mentioned goal, in recent decades, a concept, known as humanitarian intervention, has emerged, and has been considered by some states as the third exception to the principle of prohibition of the use of force. The question the present study asks in this regard is that if NATO's intervention in Kosovo War can be considered as legitimate within the definition of humanitarian intervention of the international law. Can one claim that a new tradition, or put differently, a new exception to the principle of the prohibition of resorting to force is being formed? The response to this question is that currently no exception to the aforementioned principle has been accepted under the title of humanitarian intervention. This article discusses the concept of humanitarian intervention and the legitimacy of such a claim.

Considering the great position of the Holy Qur'an in the Islamic society, analyzing the Qur'anic references made by the Muslims of early Islam to the Qur'an, centered on military occurrences, is the subject of the present study. Therefore, this paper intends to clarify the extent to which the Holy Qur'an has been cited and used by Muslims with respect to the subject of Jihad. The findings indicate that the leaders of the Islamic community and military commanders, and even the Mujahideen at various stages of the battles, reminded the Muslims of and referred them to the Qur'anic ayahs. These included the cases of obeying orders from commanders and emirs, the need to preserve unity and to avoid divisions, inciting to war and tolerating its difficulties, and ultimately strengthening the spirit of resistance and endurance. Due to the occurrence of many jihad battles, especially during the Rashidun Caliphs, such Qur'anic citations are seen in abundance in historical sources and texts.

Townscape has valuable features that can engender the formation of collective memories. Some of the memories of the historical period of Iran-Iraq War are related to the townscape of Khorramshahr and preserving those memories plays a significant role in the representation of that period. The present study chiefly aims to provide a model for strengthening the collective memories of war in Khorramshahr's townscape. The aim was to find a response to the question of how the townscape of this city played a role in promoting and reinforcing the collective memories of war in Khorramshahr. This descriptive-analytic study offered a new classification of townscape, based on the five senses, and using the documents of the memories of war in Khorramshahr, tabulated them. Then, the criteria were analyzed and evaluated and four effective criteria, as the finding of the research, in the promotion of collective memories in that historical period were identified to be collective beliefs, past functions, signs, and ceremonies, and finally visual signs and past functions were determined as the most important factors of the townscape.

J. K. Choksy evaluated the relationship between Zoroastrians and Muslims in Conflict and Cooperation; Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. In this paper, we tried to critically review Choksy's book and clarify its position in Islamic and Iranian studies. It seems that his work suffers from major weaknesses in terms of historical insight and methodology because he is primarily a scholar of religions, not a historian. However, his work is admirable for using Zoroastrian resources, its evaluating end of time literature and overviewing the mutual influences of Zoroastrian and Islamic texts from each other in writing the life conducts of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Zoroaster. Nevertheless, Choksy's sympathy for Zoroastrians, low proficiency in Arabic, weakness of historical methodology and recognition of resources as well as of his sometimes false historical views and analyses are of the most important shortcomings of Conflict and Cooperation.

The present article examines the Russians' concern about Germany's influence in Iran during World War I based on Achiq Soz newspaper. Considering that this newspaper was one of the most important newspapers of the Caucasus in the years 1915 to 1918, analyzing its approach to the issue of Russians' concern about Germany's influence in Iran can provide firsthand information on this issue. The purpose of the present research is thus analyzing how the aforementioned concern is reflected in one of the most important publications of the Caucasus in the first decade of the 20th century, in addition to attempting at a rereading of the newspaper. To achieve these goals, this study seeks to answer this question that how the Achiq Soz newspaper reflects Russians' concerns about Germany's influence in Iran? And what was the most important of these concerns? It is assumed that the newspaper Achiq Soz and its editor Mohammad Amin Rasulzadeh had a German-oriented approach to reflect Russia's concerns about the German influence in Iran. The results show that, despite all the pressure from the censorship office, Achig Soz newspaper did not spare any attempt to expose Russia's colonial policy in Iran and to indirectly accompany the German supporters in Iran. The Achig Soz newspaper also had examined the most important Russian concerns about Germany's influence in Iran in the years 1915 to 1916 in five areas: Russia's lack of confidence in the neutrality of Iran's political and social structure, the mobilizations of the Germans in Hamedan and Kermanshah, Germans' use of Pan-Islamism weapon, Gendarmerie's cooperation with the Germans and Russia's mistakes in its relations with Iran.

At the end of the third century of the Hijra, using the Qarmati-Ismaili beliefs, Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi established the Qarmatian state in Bahrain. This state was often confronted with the Abbasid caliphate and Sunnis due to religious disputes with neighboring states. The Qarmatian rulers of Bahrain sought to achieve their goals by utilizing the power of their followers' faith. They believed that with the advent of their long-awaited Qa'im, Islam would become obsolete. They strived to provide the basis for his emergence by being enduring in battles. Moreover, the pursuit of unique warfare techniques that drew on their inventive styles provided them with more success. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the Qarmatian warfare practices and tactics given their saviorist beliefs. The main question is, what methods did the Qarmatians of Bahrain use to achieve success in battlefields? The findings of this study indicate that the familiarity of Qarmatian with military practices and tactics, on the one hand, and the proper use of these tactics had a profound positive effect on their victories. On the other hand, by examining the Qarmatian warfare techniques, it is concluded that they were familiar with their contemporary combat methods and tactics in confronting their enemies. They considered the right methodology taking the climatic and geographical conditions of the battlefield into account, hence applying maritime techniques for the seizure of coastal areas and the camouflage or ambush in mountainous and desert areas.

The evolution of the power of the Safavids was largely ingrained in Anatolia's geography. Concurrent with the Safavids' first activities for gaining power, the majoriy of their efforts focused on the Anatolian border region, where, on the other hand, the Ottomans, from the middle of the Bayezid II period, were struggling hard to dominate. Therefore, with the serious attempt of the Safavids to gain more power since the time of King Isma'il and a special consideration for Anatolia, it was natural that the Ottomans strived to confront the Safavids and their avarice to regin these areas, resulting in the efforts during Selim I, which led to the Battle of Chaldiran (920 AH / 1514 AD). Accordingly, the main question of this paper is what were the political, social, and cultural, factors and consequences of the Battle of Chaldiran between Iran and the Ottoman from the perspective of the Ottoman Turkic historians and scholars? The research findings indicate that the expansionism of Shah Isma'il in Diyarbakir resorting to theocracy (Shi'ism) led Sultan Salim to plan the Battle of Chaldiran on the western Iranian border to preserve his own monarchy by having recourse to Ottoman Sheikh al-Islam and a strong religious base. His success would bring him domination over the world trade's thorougfare from the East to the West, but he failed to acheive his main goals.

The Portuguese colonizers' invading Iran and taking control of a part of the country prompted some of the inhabitants of Iran to confront the invaders, using any kind of weapons including military and cultural ones. Among them were the poets of the epic works Jangnama-i Kishm (1032 AH) and Jirun Namah (1042 AH) attributed to Ghadri whose poetry properly reflect the valuable manifestations of resistance to the enemy. The present research seeks to answer this question that what themes and motives of resistance literature can be found in the Jangnama-i Kishm and Jirun Namah? The finding of the study indicate that the most important manifestations and motifs of the resistance literature in the two works are: patriotism, revealing the true identity of the colonists, hatred of foreigners, religious zeal, justice-demanding and injustice-fighting, elegy for the martyrs of the motherland, taking pride in the kings and Iranian ideal legendary characters, unity and solidarity. The poets employed tow direct and indirect ways of expression while using a colloquial language to make their poetry understandable for the general public. In some couplets, the prevailing tone and atmosphere is an amalgam of epic, irony, satire on and objection to the Portuguese colonizers.