فصلنامه گنجینه اسناد
پیاپی 77 (بهار 1389)

One of the chronicles of the late years of Fat’h Ali Shah Qajar’s reign – which has yet not been introduced, reviewed, and critically edited and has been left unknown and anonymous – is a manuscript titled (the History of Fat’h Ali Shah Qajar) by an author called Mohammad Hossein Badaye’ Negar Oorjani. The author has written this book by order of Fat’h Ali Shah in 1833 and only one copy of it exists which is kept at the Central Library of Tabriz. Oorjani was a traditional courtier and secretary in the early Qajar and wrote this book several years after Ma’aser-al-Soltanieh by Abolrazzaq Danbali and Tarikh-e Jahan-Ara by Mirza Mohammadsadeq Vaqaye’-Negar Marvazi and one year before Tarikh-e Zolqarnein by Mirza Fazlollah Khavari were written. Oorjani followed Abolfazl Abdollah Vassaf’s style in chronology and his reports of historical events were accompanied with complexities and tedious wording, and plenty of Arabic and Persian poems. The book content includes an introduction and a brief genealogy of Qajar up to the second wars of Iran and Russia. This article introduces this manuscript and its author, and critically analyses its content. It tries, for the first time, to introduce Oorjani’s writing style, method for writing history, his calquing and imitations and his position among the historians of the early Qajar Era by a comparative study.

The Persian Gulf area, as a strategic region, has always had a special importance and historical position. From ancient times to the present, this region has been noticed by other nations and ethnicities due to its commerce and its valuable resources. That is why it has been subject to competition and struggle among other countries. Booshehr is one of the ports on the Persian Gulf which came to the attention of foreign governments after the fall of the Safavid Dynasty and during the Afsharid and Zand eras when the commercial significance of Bandar Abbas Port had decreased. Also, in the Qajar Era this port had a special position among the ports of the south of Iran due to its coastal location, administrative organization and connection to Shiraz. These factors led many countries to set up commercial corporations and even consulates in this coastal city. This paper aims to study the why and how of the growth and recession of BooshehrPort’s economy from 1914 to 1945, to discuss its commerce, and consider problems which existed in the commerce of Booshehr and its trade routes during this period. It is based on library resources and uses the descriptive-analytic method.

Although gelim-weaving is not one of the outstanding crafts in comparison to other handicrafts of Gilan, gelims woven in this region have an astonishing colour and pattern. Reviewing and examining the features of Gilan’s gelims may lead to understanding and decoding many undiscovered facts about the origins of the people of this region. Basically, the motifs of gelims woven in each region of Iran show its social and cultural relations in addition to the beliefs and wishes of the people of that region, and are specifically important in anthropological research. Motifs of gelims are obvious expressions of the interests, beliefs, tastes and wishes, as well as the pain and sufferings of the weaving masters, and express the local, regional and climatic conditions of their living places. Many similarities may be found between the motifs of the gelims of Gilan and those of other regions in Iran. These motifs hold many secrets, from public aesthetics to narrative expressions of love, like a hidden treasure, and they may be considered as important records of public art and culture. This paper considers the diversity of motifs of Gilan’s gelims and demonstrates the public aesthetic view of the region. Furthermore, it indicates the creative taste of the local artists. Moreover, the motifs of gelims woven in Gilan are classified into three categories i.e. abstract motifs, decorative motifs, and figurative motifs. Undoubtedly, understanding these motifs stimulates the creativity and innovation of those looking for pure art, and it is also an effort to give identity to this spiritual and cultural heritage of our dear country, Iran.

Academies of language are products of the growth and development of nationalistic thoughts, the formation of modern government in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the dominance of the “national language” issue. But in Iran the Academy of Persian Language, as the academy of the national language of Iran, was not just the product of choosing and introducing Persian as the national language of Iran. It came into existence as a result of the prevalence of excessive “pure” -writing, which was always a serious manifestation of archaic nationalism in the field of language and literature. The history of pure-writing is traced back to the era of the Mughals of India and Safavids, and production of distorted books such as “Dasatir” written by Zoroastrians of India. Furthermore, the history of forming a council for creating words and preventing disorder in the dictation of words dates back to the era of Naser-al-Din Shah Qajar. In the late Qajar Era and during the Constitutional Era this process became one of the serious concerns of the archaist intelligentsia, and its heritage was passed on to the first Pahlavi era. During Reza Shah’s reign, and in the cultural atmosphere of that era – in which nationalism was dominant over all reformations and sociocultural activities – pure-writing, which involves the avoidance of foreign words, especially Arabic and Turkish words, received serious official endorsement. The chaos which followed led to the formation of a scientific society, and eventually to the Academy of Persian Language, charged with selecting and coining Persian words in a precise way. In this paper the progress of these developments is studied and analysed, based on resources of the first Pahlavi era.

In this paper, with a historical-analytical approach based on the elite theory of Pareto and Mosca, we analyse the function of elites of the Pahlavi Era in Iran’s development. The elites of Iran during this era are classified into three categories: 1. that part of the governing elites which fundamentally were not in favour of the country’s development 2. those who supported reform and reconstruction 3. intellectual elites. The first group, who are referred to as anti-development elites, functioned as one of the main obstacles to development and thwarted the power of reformists. The second group was not successful in leading the country to harmonious and comprehensive development because of (a) their own characteristics and deficient functioning and (b) the unsuitable politicaleconomic structures and the sabotage caused by anti-development elites. Thirdly, the intellectuals were likewise hampered by the autocratic political structure, their alienation from the culture of the society and their one-dimensional view of development. The question this paper aims to answer is: what factors and attitudes led to the failure of the elites of the Pahlavi Era in the development process of Iran? The assumption of this article is that factors such as autocratic political structure, undeveloped culture, the interference of foreign countries in Iran’s affairs, the poor performance of kings and rulers, the destructive role of the world economic structure, and the operation of elites in reconstruction and development in a western way have all contributed to the failure of the elites of the Pahlavi Era in Iran’s development process.

The purpose of the present research, carried out as a descriptive survey, is to improve the appraisal methods in Iran's archives by analyzing the process of appraisal in the National Archives of Iran and Canada. The appraisal activity is studied in two aspects i.e. the "Process of Appraisal" and the "Criteria for Appraisal". The percentage of indicators met regarding the process of appraisal in Iran’s National Archives yields a frequency of 30.80 percent in comparison to that of Canada’s National Archives with a frequency of 84 percent, and so leaves a lot to be desired. Considering the criteria for appraisal in the functional analysis index, the National Archives of Iran with a frequency of 33 percent in comparison to that of Canada with a frequency of 100 percent is, again, far from the optimum condition. Yet both institutes have fully developed criteria for appraisal in content analysis index and are well organised.

The traditional view of archives is changing. One of the issues considered today by archives is enabling users of archival resources to access the information they require in the minimum of time. Therefore choosing software suitable for archival centres is a challenging task for archivists. This research carries out a comparative study of Iranian and non-Iranian archival software.An evident characteristic of Iranian programs which claim to be designed for management of archival resources is that most of them insist and focus on library material. They deal with requirements of archivists to only a very limited extent and don’t meet standards of archival resources management. Therefore it is suggested to either expand the capabilities and features of library programs so that they may be used for the management of archival resources, or to prepare programs specifically designed for management of archival resources, based on existing standards and needs of archival centres, and to provide these centres with such programs. This paper finally suggests some criteria that archival centres in Iran should consider for developing a comprehensive and integrative program in the field of archival resources’ management.

Archival records and resources are a part of the identity of each country. Archives are vital because they preserve historical memory and evidence, and their financial administration is a matter of key concern.This paper considers the topic of financial administration in archives. It reviews the nature and process of financial administration in archives, budgeting and related topics. The findings of a study on the National Library and Archives of Iran and the Library Archives Canada are reported to demonstrate the financial administration of these two archives. In this research, the required data was collected through interview, observation and review of existing resources. Findings show that the Library Archives Canada focuses most of its budget and energy on planning and activities required for the management of Canada’s recorded history, while the National Archives of Iran has spent most of its budget on goods and services.