JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES (UNIVERSITY OF ISFAHAN)
Year:2008 | Volume:- | Issue:53|Papers Count:7

From the earliest days of their history, Iranians have shown a great interest towards jewelry and the art of jewelry making. Whenever powerful dynasties came to rule, dynamism in economy increased and as a result the treasury’s wealth grew, including collections of precious jewelry and ornaments. The magnificent Safavid era was not an exception to this rule and manifestation of original Iranian art is visible in a variety of areas. Jewelry and goldsmithing is one such area.Travelers like Kempfer, Tavernier, Chardin, the Sherley brothers, and Sunson have recorded valuable material in their travel diaries. In their descriptions of the Safavid kings’ treasures, they provided specifications of precious stones and methods of workmanship, setting, and polishing. The Safavid kings not only made effort to safeguard existing holdings of jewelry and precious stones, but also endeavored to build their collections. They bought jewelry from India, Ottoman Turkey, Italy, and France, brought them to Isfahan and used them to produce exquisite works. With the fall of Isfahan to the Afghans, the treasury was plundered as the Treasury and other royal buildings were destroyed.This paper makes use of the above-mentioned sources in an effort to shine light upon the jewelry and goldsmithing of this period, their use in Safavid Iran, and their greater role in civilization and policy making. In this article, the library method of research is put to work, comparing and analyzing the available sources, with special attention to original documents, and then drawing relevant conclusions.

The establishment of the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1304 H.sh. created some political outcomes. One of these outcomes was the social suppression of political ideologists especially during the second half of his reign up to the year 1320. During these years, a group of political activists were imprisoned for various reasons such as ideas which were against Reza Shah’s personal dictatorship. They remained in prison until the end of his reign.The memories and notes of three of these prisoners, that is, B. Alavi, A. Khame and Kh. Maleki are delineated in this article and special attention will be given to book reading and prison library services during this period, and questions concerning reading tendency of prisoners, provision of reading materials, and the confrontation of the regime with reading tendency of prisoners will be answered.

Ebn-e- Khaldoon is one of the most important theoreticians of Islam who has studied many different aspects of human life. He is known as the founder of sociology because he has analyzed the society and the Islamic government. But his studies on economy and political economy are not enough debated. He believes that economic laws are stable just like other laws of society and they should be recognized and used for the society. Ebn-e-Khaldoon's view about different social institutions (such as economic institutions) makes the reader interested. Ebn-e-Khaldoon believed that people had a primary civilization when Islam appeared. They experienced urbanism civilization in the next period. Vast trade and social associations were the two principles of this civilization. Islamic governors were busy in luxury and wealth until the decline of the urbanism civilization by Moguls.Ebn-e-Khaldoon has studied and criticized the political, economic and social principles of the Islamic society. His ideas resemble institutional economists so we can compare their viewpoints and find some possible resemblances. This would make it possible to investigate the universality of economic laws and the possibility of using them for our society.

Khwarazmiye are the remained army of Jalaleding Khwarazmsh who were scattered in Sham, Egypt and Asia minory after his death in 1230. They were divided into two groups. The first group went to war and plunder under their aggressive leaders such as Hesamodin Ghirkan Hesamodin Barakat Khan. They joined Almaleko Zaher Bibers from 628 to 658 A.H. They tried to get power for 30 years, but they were not so successful. The second group acted moderately and was reconciled with the government of the region especially with Salajeghe in Asiaminor. They got familiar with civic policy and civil government principles and established the Garmiyan, Saruxeyan and Ale Ottoman. This paper attempts to argue that unlike the popular belief, Kharazmiye did not lose their power after Jalaledin Kharazmshah but managed to establish some governments.

The "Mosafira trade" or whole trade exchange between various commercial centers is one of specialties of economic trade in Saljukids period of Iran. In this paper, the trade relations of Iranian society in Saljukids period, in two spheres of agrarian and marine trade centers have been studied. The trade in the agrarian commercial centers was more between the city centers, and the marine trade was acted across trade seaports of south and north of Iran, the seaports of Fars and Omman Sea in south, and the seaport of Khazar in north. In this paper, the trade events and commercial relations among various trade centers and the causes of rise and decline of the situation of agrarian and marine trade centers, in contexts, have been studied.

The Deccan society under Bahmanids included various groups belonging to different nations and tribes. Iranian emigrants and the emigrants from Iraq and Arabian Peninsula, native Hindus whose numbers were more than others, Mongols and Turks who formed the main trunk of the army, Abyssinians and Europeans who were brought into the Deccan as the slaves were the most important groups in this period. These groups politically had been divided into two main categories: Afaghids and Dakanids. Political and social history of Deccan in this period was the consequence of the cooperation of these groups. This article will study these groups and their cooperation.

Looking at the maps representing Middle Asia in 6th and the beginning of 7th centuries (12th and beginning of 13th centuries A.D), one comes up to a land ruled by a government whose name was not seen in the maps related to previous centuries. The government was a tribe with different names, including "Kara-Khitai", "Kara Kedanni" and "Khitai" in Persia maps and texts. English, Chinese and Mongol reference use the name "Kara-Khitai Khannat", "Western Liao", "Xi Liao" and "Hala Qidan" for this tribe. Kara Khitai (a name used by Moslem historians) first inhabited on the borders of northern China. Invading Tang territory, their ancestors defeated the great Chinese Empire, and established a vast empire called Liao or Kitan. Their empire which covered a vast area of northern China lasted over two centuries. However, from the beginning of the second decade of 12th century a new tribe called "Jorchen" or "Jorjet" appeared and started to fight against the ruling government. The newly arrived tribe defeated Liao government and forced them to retreat. From that time on, the remainders of Liao government were pushed back out of China. Then they settled in Middle Asia. Afterward, they got into neighborhood with Qara-khanids, Seljuks, Khwarazmshahids and Ghurid's government that resided at northern and eastern Iran. It was at that time when Muslim historians recognized them as Kara-Khitai. The main approach of this essay is to state the Kara-Khitai’ source and the howness of their migration from China towards areas in their west until they became a neighbor of Islamic governments.