فصلنامه تاریخ فرهنگ و تمدن اسلامی
پیاپی 22 (بهار 1395)

In studies of Islamic civilization¡ «Commander of the Faithful¡» is one of the most important and frequently used words. It is generally referred to someone who has the political leadership of the Muslim community. Did it mean the same at the beginning or change has happened in its meaning? Did it have any particular meaning or did it emerge by the passage of time and the needs of the Islamic community? These issues have always been at the center of attention. Apart from the ideological theories¡ with a scientific approach this article tries to examine its position over time with the assumption that despite its religious origin¡ under the rule of the Islamic government¡ this word has adopted a political meaning which has even been cited and approved by the Imams. Soon it adopted a third meaning¡ however they are close in terms of concept.

Analytical and Comparative investigation of the Islamic ophthalmology books¡ such as Al-Murshid by Ghafeqi provides the researcher with an opportunity to extract the fixed principles which have been accepted and used by the most Muslim ophthalmologists. The main purpose of this research is to extract these principles. It secondary objective is to examine the Ghafeqi’s educational methods in this book. The results support the assumption that Ghafeqi had a clear and distinct understanding of the eye diseases. The accurate classification of diseases based on the particular parts of the eye such as eyelids¡ cornea and so on is the first sign of it. Ghafeqi’s principles before surgery include distinct and accurate diagnosis of the diseases based on their appearance¡ location¡ and possible cause as well as familiarity with the surgical instruments. Ghafeqi’s principles during surgery involve observing the precautions. Principles after the surgery comprise stopping the bleeding and suturing. The book starts with the theoretical medicine. After the pathology¡ it discusses the practical (experimental) medicine.

An investigation of the narratives of the renowned historians (Ibn Sa''d in Tabaqat al-Kubra¡ Al-Baladhuri in Genealogies of the Nobles¡ Ya''qubi in Tarikh al-Yaqubi¡ Al-Tabari in History of the Prophets and Kings and Al-Masudi in The Meadows of Gold) reveals that they were selective in reporting about the lives of Imams and they tried to have some influences on the minds of the audience. The virtues of the Imams are not exceptions. This article tries to examine the reflection and the composition of the virtues of Imams as indicated in these sources. Moreover¡ it tries to investigate the special approach of each individual source in inducing a particular mentality in the minds of people. The common point in all the resources is mentioning about the virtues of the very first Imams and inattending to other Imams (AS). Apparently virtue has a close hidden relationship with the time affinity with the Messenger of Allah and as the distance increases¡ the virtues of Imams (AS) become more invisible. Each of the five sources adopts a different approach in reflecting the virtues of Imams.

Confronting with religious scholars and limiting the scope of their actions and views and finally the removal of religious aspects from the politics and government and fighting with the religious manifestations and religious assemblies in society¡ have been the main purposes of the tyrant and secular empires in the political history of Iran. Reza Shah dealt with these issues more than the others. He became the King of Iran in the year 1333 AH and gradually tried to destroy or at least loosen the foundation of the clerics and Shia religion. Apart from his opposing actions and behaviors against the Shia religion and its main manifestations¡ his efforts in confining religious scholars need to be taken into consideration. After reviewing the deeds of the first Pahlavi (educational reforms¡ the establishment of customary courts and justice organization¡ etc.)¡ research findings suggest that¡ Reza Shah was seeking to undermine Shia religion in Iran and to marginalize the religious scholars from the arenas of politics and society.

A large part of the propositions contained in the interpretations is related to history. However¡ since the Quran commentators do not consider themselves as historians¡ usually they adopt a uniform style in narrating the historical events. This style which is an imitation of the predecessors’ scientific interpretation caused the renderings of the historical events to be in a uniform and repetitive shape in the present era. When this traditional attitude towards history is compared with the present history approaches¡ simply one can conclude about the reasons of the stagnation of interpretation in this particular arena which is accompanied with some damages. This article critically examines the historical attitudes of the commentators and tries to express the damages contained in this kind of attitudes. It also pinpoints a need for the substantial changes in the way of implementing history in Quran interpretations.

The pilgrimage as a religious duty was a difficult¡ dangerous and sometimes irreversible journey¡ and it was accompanied with many problems. At the time of the Seljuk rule in Iran (429 -590 BC)¡ on the one hand sometimes the difficult economic conditions affected the pilgrimage and on the other hand¡ the pilgrims were faced with many problems including the insecurity caused by the marauding Bedouin Arabs¡ Isma''ilis’ sudden attacks¡ lack of food and water¡ famine and deadly diseases like Cholera. Political differences such as the differences among the Seljuk sultans¡ some of the Iraqi Emirs’ sence of independence¡ and the differences between the Emirs of Mecca with the head of the pilgrimage (Emir Al-Hojaj)¡ would increase the problems of the pilgrims. This article uses historical reports to investigate the obstacles on the way of pilgrimage in the Seljuk period implementing a descriptive-analytic approach.