Iranian Journal for the History of Islamic Civilization
Year:2020 | Volume:52 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

Ghazavāt-i sultān salīm khān of Ḳāḍīzade Ardebīlī/ Ghazizade Ardebili is a historical book on the Ottoman invasion of Egypt and Shām and the collaps of the Mamalik (1517 AD). In addition to valuable and reliable information on religious and historiographical aspects, the book reflects its author’s character. The Unique manuscript of this book is located in the Haci Selim Ağa Library in Istanbul. The author who became captive in the battle of chalduran, has implicitly included his national and religious tendencies in his book. This study investigates Ardebīlī’s Iranian and Shiite tendencies in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century. These tendencies could be identified in the reports related to Iran and its geography, his comments on contemporary Iranian writers, reports on Shia Safavids, and other Shiite symbols in the book.

At the same time that Safavids rose to power in Persia, Russians’ and Ottomans’ attention drawn to Guilan. Ottoman sultans were interested in the region as well as in Azerbaijan. Russians too sought to usurp the monopoly of trades in the southern and western coasts of the Caspian Sea. The latter nurtured plans for developing and expanding ties with Persians in order to perpetuate their expansionism and reinforce their puissance, both political and military. Russians and Ottomans, therefore, cemented strong ties with the rulers in Guilan to take the region under their influence. Following Shah Abbas’ s interest in the region, however, Russians stopped supporting the rulers and Ottomans chose to keep their friendship with Safavids for the profit that would earn them, despite providing refuge for the Karkiya Khan. The findings suggest that notwithstanding the fact that Russians and Ottomans failed to achieve their political goals through the local rulers in the long term, they contrived, in the short term, to pave the way for the permeation of these empires in the northern and north-western Persia.

The Position of attorney in the social and governmental structure of Iran during the Safavid era had a special place. With the collapse of the Safavid government, the abolished Official of vakil al-dawlah was restored by various monarchist claims and gradually gained authority in other civilian, governmental and military occupations. The question of the current research, is: which political-military relations in the Afshariyeh and Zandieh periods led to increasing the role of the office of Wakil al-Dawlah? Using the method of historical research and classification of political-military changes of Afshariyeh and Zandieh periods, the present study analyzes and interprets the features and their effects on the development of the office of Wakil al-Dawlah. The findings of the research show that the office of the vakil al-dawlah played an important role in weakness of the prince's rule as well as the Safavid bureaucracy, but help the growing authority of various claimants of the monarchy.

The main subject of this article is about two basic issues. Firstly, in finding the basic concepts of urban spaces planning and design, we have rarely been focusing on the characteristics of our traditional cities, and we began to recognize these concepts from Western literature. Secondly, the publicness of urban spaces has been increasingly noticed and challenged by scholars in recent years. Accordingly, and considering the necessity of providing an understanding of the status of the publicness of urban spaces in Iranian cities based on recent discussions, this research is carried out in a descriptive-analytical and comparative method. The main question of this research is that what are the main components of the publicness of urban spaces in Iranian-Islamic cities and western cities, and what are the differences? The findings of this research show that the most basic components of the publicness of urban spaces that have been mentioned in the western literature over the past few decades have existed centuries ago in traditional Iranian-Islamic cities and have been emphasized and implemented even in more detail.

The famous battle of Chalderan (920 AH / 1514 AD) had important consequences, a significant part of which were directed to the Kurdish regions. In this study, while exploring the contexts and factors involved in this battle, the role of the Kurd tribes in the descriptive-analytical manner has been described, and the implications of this battle for both sides and, more importantly, for the Kurdish areas have been explained. The findings of the study show that the Kurds did not play a central role in waging war, but took the Ottoman side in the midst of the battle. The short-term and long-term consequences of this battle have been on the Kurdish regions more than the governments involved. The separation of important parts of the Kurdish areas from the Iranian land, the entry of the Kurdish tribes and their leaders into the Safavid-Ottoman conflicts, the spread of internal disputes between the Kurdish tribes, economic and demographic losses in the Kurdish areas were part of the unfortunate consequences of this struggle for the Kurdish tribes.

A range of local histories was written in response to a plan enacted by the court and with the purpose of marking Iranian geographical kingdom in the Naseri era. On the one hand, these books indicate the literary traditions of local historiography discourse and reflected regional identities, but on the other hand, with a deeper view in the production of this great project, it should be analyzed as a conscious attempt with a sense of patriotism by the court and cultural elites to record the scope of political realm of the Qajar era under the term of “ Iran” as a homeland. Using historical method and descriptive – analytical approach, and relying on historical sources and researches, the present article has been answered the following questions; which factors were the most influential in writing of local histories with Iranianism approach in the Nasri period? What persons and institutions, and with what approach, were involved in the compilation of Iranian local histories? The results show that three historical processes including Literary Return Movement, new scientific developments, and the centralization policy of the Qajar government led to a revision on the idea of Iran as the homeland of Iranians by the court and elites. This transformation resulted in writing local histories, focusing on recording the geographical boundaries of Iran.

The book of al-Jamel was written to prove the legitimacy of Imam 'Ali in the Battle of Jamel. Theological views of Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid's contemporary sects on this event impressed and persuaded him to write about the Battle of Jamel and selecting of historical narratives about it. The question is what intellectual conditions influenced Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid to gathere the narratives of the Jamal and to write this book? Based on the textual analysis of al-Jamal's text, this study shows that Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid was against the two beliefs spreading in the society of the legitimacy of the performance of Companions of the Prophet at the head of the two armies as well as the theory of “ Legitimate heads/ Illegitimate companions” . He wrote his work on three axes: the explicit deviation of Jamel fighters from the orders of the Islamic religion; their insistence on war, their rejection of ijtihad and their repentance; the virtues and supereminence of Imam 'Ali.

Al-Tā rī kh al-Bā hir fī al-Dawlah al-Atā bakī yah written by ibn al-Athī r (d. 630 AH) is one of the distinguished examples of dynastic histories in Islamic historiography. The life, personality, and events of Zangī d Atā baks (Atabegs) at the Syria (Shā m) and Upper Mesopotamia (Jazī ra) have been reported in this book. In this article, all Ibn al-Athir's reports of Zangid Atā baks were evaluated one by one in order to show whether the image of Zangī ds is partial or impartial? According to the results of this study, Ibn al-Athī r's reports of Zangī ds" life and actions do not contain manipulation, but they include grandiosity and partiality. Two great Zangī d sultans, Imā d al-Dī n and Nū r al-Dī n, as the forerunners of Anti-Crusade, in the face of ideal ruler are pictured in the shape of the Rā shidū n Caliphs. Ibn al-Athī r's report of other Zangī d Emirs has no exaggeration, and it is included their dispraise and weaknesses in addition of praise and goodness.