نشریه جستارهای تاریخی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1390)

This paper deals with a challenging concept in Perso-Islamic medieval politics: the political status of caliph and sultan as maintained by Iranian cultural elite in medieval periods. To give an explanation of the concept, it has concentrated on the Iranian medieval history writers and the historical texts produced by them during early and medieval Islamic periods. As the author put it, the first generation of these Iranian historians mostly concerned with the concept of Islamic caliphate and who would be qualified to enjoy this authority. But in later periods historians tried to set a distinction between the concepts of caliphate and sultanate. In other words, they begin to make a new definition of caliphs’ ubiquitous authority through dividing it into two parts: political and religious. Then, they gradually transmitted a part of the political part to the sultans and emirs who managed the country’s material sources as actual governors. In this theoretical manipulation they employed a vast and divers range of sources including Islamic law and traditions and pre-Islamic Persian political thought which reflected mostly in the Persian genre of mirrors for princes. The main purpose of this paper is to show how Iranian medieval history writers affected by the social and intellectual context in which they has been writing and the ways through which this mentality expressed in their texts.

Traditional celebrations and religious cults are among the main characteristics of every civilization and culture. In Iran, the case has been even more interesting. Pre-Islamic Iranian culture treated celebrations and ceremonials with a special regard. There were several monthly celebrations most of them related with religion and agriculture. After converting Iranian people to Islam, a good number of these celebrations, particularly Nawrūz and Mehrgān survived and continued to being performed at due dates. Abbasid caliphs in contrary to their Umayyad predecessors, who used to maintain a strong bias for Arab race and culture, were interested in Persian culture and ceremonials. Their affecting by Persian mirror for princes as well as the influential presence of Iranian viziers like Ibn Muqaffa’, the Barmakides, etc. in Abbasid court has contributed to this cultural survival. This study has touched upon the situation of Iranian celebrations during early Abbasid period as a subject which needs more investigation. In this way, it mainly relied on sparse textual materials which are mostly gleaned from different library sources. It proceeded through an analytical method in order to compose these textual materials into an explanative narration. The results show that the primary purpose of the Abbasid caliphs’ tolerance for Iranian celebration was of political and expedient nature. Nawrūz, Mehrgān and Sedeh were more customary celebrations which their holding was of financial importance.

An introductory evaluation of Iran’s history during Qājār period shows that the problem of succession was a field of Russian interference in political matters of Iran. The history of foreign interference in successional problems of Persian throne might be traced as long as Achaemenid and Arsacid periods. Nonetheless, for the first time in early Qājār period and through the Gulistān and Turkman Chāy treaties, a foreign power, namely Imperial Russia, interfered formally in successional problem of Qājār dynasty. According to the seventh chapter of Turkman Chāy treaty, the Tsar guaranteed the right of Abbās Mīrzā and his house for the Persian throne. It seems there were serious challenges which threatened Abbās Mīrzā’s elevation to kingship of Iran and these challenges played an effective role for Russian formal interference in the problem of succession. This paper aims to give an explanation of this problem through analyzing the range of causes which paved way for Russian interventional activities. According to its main hypothesis, a number of causes such as lack of a firm and clear succession law, its dependence on the King’s arbitrary will and, a destroying rivalry between Qājār princes and the Vicegerent prepared the favorite ground for Russian interference.

Transoxiana had been a fertile ground for growth of a variety of religious cultures such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity (Nestorian), Jewish and even some pagan tendencies like Shamanism. Such an exceptional multi-cultural environment calls for a special consideration. The main focus of this brief survey is on the situation of this multi-cultural region during pre-Islamic periods. Its basic question is that what made it possible for this mosaic environment to tolerate such a colorful culture? From a post-Islamic point of view, it asks that what characteristics have been resulted by this coexistence of various religions and dissents in a situation of toleration and indulgence. This survey is based on an analytical research of a volume of textual data which is gleaned from different library sources and archeological findings. The results of this research show that the pre-Islamic Transoxiana has given birth to an interesting composition of religions and cultures. Due to this dynamic situation, pre-Islamic Tranxoianian civilization has been witnessed to a spectacular cultural efflorescence. These various cultural elements were mixed into a composition so integrated that distinguishing them is something impossible.

Following the emergence of the Constitutional Revolution, the political and social atmospheres of Iran were affected so seriously that for a long time did not restore its desirable peace. Political instability and continuous fall of passive cabinets intensified the vehemence of this critical situation. World War I and its catastrophic aftermath caused a very turbulent condition in Iran. Central government’s inability to control the crisis resulted in an emergence of some self-motivated social associations. These groups were mainly concerned with the improvement of this critical situation. Their approach to this problem was a reformist and nationalist one. The Junbish-e Jangal (Jungle Movement) was one of these social associations that was activating in Guilan province in northern Iran. Having been led by Mīrzā Kūchak khān, a religious-nationalist prominent figure of contemporary Iran, but composed of very eclectic elements, it grew enormously throughout that region. Following the extension of the movement’s activities, its operational wing started the publication of a newspaper called Jangal (“Jungle”). The purpose behind the publication of this newspaper was to promulgate Jangalī’s reformist ideas and critical thoughts. However Jangal did not last for a long time, during its short period of publication (just one year) it criticized central government as well as politicians. It also criticized the interventional activities of Britain and Imperial Russia in Iran which was presumed by Jangalī’s as offensive and destructive. This article has touched upon the most important concerns of Jangal’s writers and their delineation of the social situation during this time.

Traditional formations of dominance in continental lands were mainly based on gathering taxes and direct application of power. In contrary, the most current of their modern alternatives, i.e. colonization used science and technology as its structural bases of power. So, it has been able to change more effectively the structure of thought and life of the colonized people. This study addressed an indigenous case of confrontation with modern civilization of the west that is Qājāri elite’s encountering with modern European colonization. Its purpose is to show how these Qājār elite understood modern western civilization and explain the main characteristics of their attitude to it as well. Its primary focus is on that part of aforementioned elite which in decades following the military defeats from Russia were sent to Europe to acquire some new information. Basing on textual analyzing method, this study aims to be able to present an explanation of this elite’s contribution to the approaches of Qājār government to modern European colonization. The results show that these Qajari elite were not able to attain a sound understanding of Iranian society’s situation in comparison with Europe. Their best achievement was a superficial grasp of European modern material culture which its strong focus was on military technology. They didn’t have a serious concern for political and social bases of this civilization with which they were dealing. Their understanding of modern European civilization did not proceed further than a sensational level. Therefore, they failed to understand and explain law and constitution as the crucial bases of this civilization.

Social movements are among the main subjects of contemporary sociology so that sociologists like Alain Touraine introduce sociology as the science of social movements. This paper has a special concern for the importance of these social movements and their theoretical dimensions. It has addressed the Jangal movement, a very distinguished popular movement in contemporary Iran, as a case study and tried to present a typology of the main political trends which were active in this movement. At the same time, it attempts to draw an explanatory model capable of specifying the extension of the social bases of each trend. Bearing this in mind, the author distinguished three main trends in Jangal movement: religious-national, collusive rightist, and leftist. The social bases of these three essential trends have been analyzed according to two parameters: their social background and the geographical domain of them. The bulk of the data which have been the base of this analytical survey is gathered from scattered textual sources in different libraries. The results show that among the three main trends, the religious-national one has had the most degree of functionality and integration. However, in final phases of the movement’s activities and due to some internal dissents, this integral solidarity experienced a kind of exhaustion. In comparison, the collusive rightist part suffering a lack of integral unity and due to its ideology didn’t meet cohesion in its social base. So, it failed to attain a vast and strong popular acceptance. Finally, the leftist part failed to gain a considerable social base mostly because of its imported nature as well as strange ideology. Thus, it had a negative effect on the movement’s social base.