نشریه تاریخ و فرهنگ
سال چهل و ششم شماره 2 (پیاپی 93، پاییز و زمستان 1393)

Levant region (Eastern Mediterranean) has been of special importance in the history of commercial activities. In seventh/thirteenth century, two significant events influenced the development and prosperity of the commercial activities of this region, of which the most important were in the field of slave trade. First, the developments of the Crusades, especially the fourth Crusade (1204 CE) and the role of the involved countries. Second, the Mongols’ invasion and the conquest of vast areas of land extending from China to Europe. Simultaneous with the formation of the Mongol’s governments, the Mamālīk’s rising to power in Egypt also accelerated the development and expansion of this trade and influenced the relation between the European governments and the Crusaders, as well. Besides, the profitability of slave trade for the businesswise Italian state-cities, despite their presence in the Crusades, increased the trend of slave purchase from the Black Sea region and their transfer to the Mediterranean region had widespread consequences on the trend of the Crusades and the relation of these state-cities with the Muslim. World. With a descriptive-analytical method and with reliance on the Islamic and Western sources and modern researches, the issue of slave trade in Levant in seventh/thirteenth century as an activity with widespread impact on the governments and communities of this region and Europe has been studied and evaluated in this article.

The ruler-oriented attitude in the historiographical reports of the Ottoman period has caused the government to be portrayed as an impressive institution and the school, like most other institutions of the society, as impressionable in the portray presented of the relation between the Ottoman government and the school institution. Similarly, in the researches made, this same formal attitude of the traditional Ottoman historiography has been accepted due to lack of attention to this issue. Whereas, since the establishment of schools in the Ottoman territory from the middle of the first half of the eighth/fourteenth century and the formation of scholarly-religious trend resulting from it (the scholastic Islam) and its presence in the political arena, a considerable change gradually appeared in the conducts and policies of this government. Along with the development of their presence in the society, the graduates of the schools monopolized many of the important political, administrative, and judicial positions and by playing roles in policy-makings of the Ottoman government, they turned into important influential elements in this respect. According to the findings of the present research, it can be said that, contrary to the above-mentioned supposition, the impact of government and school in the Ottoman period (the early period of formation discussed in this article) was reciprocal and the school institution had tangible impact on both the structure of the government and its policies.

The scholarly character of Khālid b. Yazīd and his attempts in acquiring and spreading of knowledge has always been of doubt to researchers and, with the expansion in the field of research on roots of science, has taken a mythical form. In earlier centuries, Ibn Khaldūn, and in the modern age, such researchers as Ruska, Kraus, Ulman, Sarton, and Mieli have totally denied Khālid’s attempts in the formation of translation movement in the Muslim World, his scholarly activities, and ultimately, the writings attributed to him. In contrast, some researchers have shown by presenting some evidences that Khālid has been active in the field of acquisition and development of sciences. Also, according to the writings of the Iranian alchemists, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of this discipline. In case of the soundness of the documents denoting Khālid’s alchemy, some reasons can be enumerated for his practicing this discipline, among which is his attainment of financial affluence and, as a result, relative compensation of his lost power due to abandoning caliphate and mastery in medicine. In this article, the proximity of medicine to alchemy and the attempts of the Muslim physicians to attain the elixir of life are also addressed.

Belief in the impact of the celestial bodies on human destiny perhaps dates as long back as man’s own age. Such an attitude towards the stars has existed among all ancient civilization, including Iran. With the advent of Islam and given the human role and status, belief in the astrological judgments was forgotten for a while. With the victory of the Ash‘arite determinist school, which was simultaneous to the Turks rising to power and after that the coming of the Mongols, who strongly believed in the impact of heaven on human destiny, once again the astrological believes and determinist ideas became widespread in Iran in the form of decision-makings and functions in various state departments and throughout the society. Using the results of the astrological judgments in military expeditions, making treaties, war and peace, coronation, hunting, travelling, answer to prayer, and treatment of illnesses are but some examples of the impact of these beliefs in the life of the Muslims in middle centuries. The present article tries to explain how the astrological attitudes were revived between the fourth/eleventh to ninth/fifteenth centuries in Iran.

As one of the influential groups in the incidents of the early centuries AH, Khawārij appeared for the first time during the Caliphate of Imam ‘Alī (A.S.) and in the process of the Battle of Ṣaffain as an independent cult that stood up in opposition to arbitration (ḥakamiyyat). Upon the transfer of caliphate to the Umayyad, the Khawārij stood up against them from the very beginning and developed various uprisings against the Umayyad. For this reason, they were prosecuted by the Umayyad rulers and a group of them were forced to escape to the surrounding countries, including Iran. Sistan was regarded as one of the most important regions under the influence of the Khawārij in Iran during the Umayyad period. While examining the underlying factors of the uprisings of the Khawārij in the two regions of Sistan and Iraq, this article undertakes to make a comparative study of the factors of similarities and differences of the uprisings of the Khawārij in these two regions. Accordingly, the basic question of this article is: “What similarities and differences did the uprisings of the Khawārij have in Sistan and Iraq during the Umayyad period?” The finding of this article is that although the uprisings of the Khawārij in Sistan and Iraq were similar in battle style and were defeated for similar reasons, they had different ideologies, goals, structures, and core concepts and ultimately created different results in the society of the Umayyad caliphate era.

In Islamic period, Nayshabur was located on the connecting ways of east and west owing the major part of its political importance and economic prosperity to this specific geographical status. Every caravan that was intended to pass from east to west or the other way round had to pass through this city. In passing through Fars province and Jibāl to the east of Iran, there were two major ways leading to Nayshabur: Quhistan and Qumis. The course of Imam al-Riḍā’s (A.S.) caravan toward Merv from these two ways has only passed through Nayshabur. Despite scanty and unconvincing evidences on the passage of Imam al-Riḍā’s (A.S.) caravan through Qumis to Nashabur, it seems that this caravan has passed through Fars-Quhistan. In the present research, after a brief explanation of the geographical situation of Nayshabur in the Islamic period, the writer tries at first to show the ways of the provinces located in western Khurasan and specifically the Jibāl, Fars, and Gurgan provinces toward Nayshabur; and then to answer the Question as to which of the main ways of Fars and jibāl were more frequented toward Nayshabur in late second/seventh and early third/eighth centuries. The arrival of Imam al-Riḍā (A.S.) in Nayshabur in 200/815 falls in this same time-period. The present study to some extent denotes the relative prosperity in the traffic on the Quhistan way comparing to the Qumis way in this time, the relative prosperity of the same way through which Imam al-Riḍā (A.S.) entered Nayshabur.