پژوهش نامه تاریخ اسلام
سال پنجم شماره 17 (بهار 1394)

Iranian Muslims, while laying foundations of Iranian-Islamic civilization and transferring that to other societies, including Indian subcontinent, played a significant role in cultural and civilizational improvements. Iranian elites, who immigrated to Gurkani court as a result of a number of impulsive forces in Iran and attractive forces in India, could make great contributions to Gurkani government, particularly with regard to its administrative and political structures, given their numerous assets as high-ranking officials. Adopting a descriptive-analytic research method and using reliable library resources, the present study aims at exploring the effects of presence of Iranian officials, who had immigrated to India, on transforming administrative and political structure of Gurkani government. The proposed hypothesis is that Iranian-Islamic ideology played a major role in the formation, growth, and stabilization of administrative and political structure of Indian Gurkani government. Accordingly, immigrant Iranian officials played influential roles in transforming administrative and political structure of Gurkani government through passing laws, ratifying political treaties, combating rule-breakers, modifying financial and jurisdictional systems, providing political consultations, stabilizing government's political system during power transformation, and publicizing Persian language in the administrative system.

Sheikh-e-Mofid has taken into consideration a number of criteria and standards for narrating and reviewing historical reports. Given that, his style occasionally appears to be quite different from that of other historians. Observing faithfulness, moderation, and fairness in narrating historical reports and events, employing rational reasoning, argumentation, and evaluation in accepting or refuting historical reports, and considering the impact of ideologies and beliefs as well as reservation and its extent on historiography, critiquing, and reviewing the narratives and traditions were among the criteria pursued by Sheikh-e-Mofid in his historical works. He has also attempted to meet such criteria in reviewing historical reports. His attempt for meeting such criteria is suggestive of ideologies dominating Sheikh-e-Mofid's historiography. The present article aims at expounding on these ideologies as well as some of their applications in the works of Sheikh-e-Mofid.

Shahab al-din Abdallah ibn Lotf-Allah ibn Abd-al-Rashid, also called Hafiz Abru, was a prominent Persian historian working at the courts of Timurid rulers. He has authored several books; the most important of which is Geography and History Compendium of Al-Sultania. In the preface of this book, he has expounded on "History science" from theoretical point of view. Like Ibn al-Fanduq, he believed that as historical events have a lot in common, studying history in essential for everyone, particularly politicians and administrators; since learning about the past generations can aid individuals not to repeat their mistakes. According to Hafiz Abru, aspiring to holy prophets as role models is one of the advantages of studying history since learning about the prophet's manners and behaviors at the time of hardship and their patience can make human societies not be driven to despair at the time of life disasters and social crises. Hafiz Abru, like Khajeh Rashid-al-Din Fazlollah Hamadani, emphasizes on the necessity of impartiality of the historians and believes that a historian should inscribe both the vices and virtues of a certain tribe.

Cultural transformations at the time of Indian Timurid rulers are marked a turning point in the history of this land. Such transformations occurred in various spheres including authorship of rich written works. Among these works, the Quranic works, which are mainly quintessential either in the Islamic world or in the history of the Quranic studies in the Indian Subcontinent, hold an outstanding status. The authors of these works were Indian political figures or immigrant Iranians at the Indian Gurkanid court, who were also playing influential roles in the political and social domains. The present study benefited from interdisciplinary studies of History of Islam and Quranic sciences. Through describing and analyzing historical documents, it attempts to introduce political and historical figures involved in the Quranic studies in Timurid era, and reviews a number of their commentaries.

The dynasty of Nizam-Shahiyan in Dakkan converted from Hanafi School of Sunni Islam to Jafari School of Shiite Islam. While reviewing relevant authentic historical accounts, the present research seeks to identify and analyze the chief reasons behind this conversion and its consequences in that region. According to some historical evidence, there are suppositions about the conversion such as the dream of Borhanshah and his spiritual purity as well as the influence of Shah Taher on him. Against this background, this research, which has been conducted based on the method of historical explanation, essentially claims that the conversion of the dynasty of Nizamshahiyan from Sunnism to Shiism, has mainly been due to political reasons and for the sake of becoming closer to Safavid powerful government. It is significant to note that a number of elements such as the speed by which the transformation occurred and lack of strong devotional infrastructure led to different internal conflicts and struggles. Consequently, Shiism could not continue as a predominant faith in the region of Dakkan.

Ahmad Shah Durrani (1134-1186 AH/1722-1772 CE) was the founder of Durrani dynasty. He took advantage of power lacuna after Nader Shah's death and attempted to stabilize the newly-established government of Durrani via the support of Pashtun tribes, establishment of Loya jirga, taking control of Nader Shah's public treasury, and taking advantage of the conflicts in the Indian Gurkanid government. Moreover, through political unity, he laid the foundations of an independent Afghanistan and minted coins in his name. Like Gurkanid rulers, he was keen on literature and poetry. The findings of the study reveal that Ahmad Shah initially did not entertain the idea of separating Afghanistan from Iran, and desired to rule over the entire territory or parts of the historical land of Iran; like rulers of other dynasties. Nonetheless, the existing socio-political conditions actually forced him to separate Afghanistan from Iran. Moreover, his political and military actions and his death paved the way for the Englishmen to increase their growing influence in India. The present study attempts to briefly introduce Abdalis, and clarifies the process through which Ahmad Khan Durrani ascended the throne, and his emulation of Nader Shah in legitimizing his government. His attempts for ruling over Iran and India and the implications of his frequent attacks to Afghanistan will also be elaborated in this paper. The present study follows a descriptive-analytic method and is based on library resources.