centralism

“Siorghal” was a type of land assignment in the Timurid era, which was given in hereditary by the sultan or the ruler in exchange for military services to relatives, dependents and loyal army commanders, and then to state officials, clerics, etc. Due to having some privileges at the beginning of the Timurid era, the Siorghamishis (owners of Siorghals) quickly became a superior political power compared to their rivals, in such a way that Shahrukh, the second Timurid sultan, made changes in the way of handing over and the privileges of Siorghals.   The main question of the current article is: why Siorghal was given to different classes but in smaller sizes since Shahrukh's era? The results of this research show that the tribal ties dominating the political structure of the Timurid government at the beginning caused Timur to give Siorghal mainly to the military-tribal elite during his world expansion. However, Shahrukh's reign was a period of transition from a tribal structure to an urban structure, so it was necessary to make changes in the political and economic structure. As a result, until the end of Timurid era, on the one hand, the amount of Siorghal lands of military commanders was reduced, and on the other hand, a wide range of religious, administrative, and artist classes were placed in the ranks Siorghamishis by granting lands, albeit with a smaller area.  In this article, the descriptive-analytical research method has been used by arranging the research data in the form of statistical tables.

In this article using Gidden's "construction" theory, the grounds the policy of suppressing Ilots and Nomads (Batakid on Ilots and Nomads of Lorestan) investigated in the form of Gidden's sociological theory. Based on the "construction" theory, Giddens pays attention to the role of the agent (as a case example, Reza Shah) in the context (as a case example, the community of Ilat and Nomads) and the two-way relationship (interactive or reciprocal) between structure and agent. In a descriptive-analytical way, sociological-historical methodology, this research raised the question based on Giddens' theory of construction, how can the first Pahlavi's policy towards the tribes and nomads of Lorestan be evaluated?? The research approach of the article is that regarding Reza Shah's performance towards the Lorestan tribes and nomads, none of the proposed theories - which are discussed in the text - alone can express the whole reality his performance, we must consider the relationship. He paid attention to the structure-agent and their two-way interaction.

From pre-Islamic times to the end of the fourth century AH, the political community of the eastern plateau of Iran, especially Khorasan and Transoxiana, consisted of local governments. These local governments were independent in managing their internal affairs. In the fourth century AH, the Samanid society suffered from internal security crises (tensions and conflicts between social groups) and external crises (attacks by Turkmen forces, especially the Karakhanids) due to the changing value patterns and high sectarianism. In this situation, by weakening the voluntary aspects of social order, the political dimension of order (force) was inevitably created with the help of military institutions and led to the transformation of the power structure and the transition from the Samanids to the Ghaznavid military government. In this regard, Ghaznavid law enforcement and military institutions, based on their organizational nature, tried to exercise direct and comprehensive control over Khorasan and neighboring lands by eliminating local governments and applying repression and establishing a security environment. In other words, the goal of Ghaznavid centralism was to use all available capabilities in society to deal with increasing security crises. This article examines the security situation in the Samani-Ghaznavid community and shows why the security crisis led to the removal of local governments in the region and what were the consequences for society. The method of this qualitative research is library study with the approach of contextual analysis.

Modernization in Reza Shah's government necessitated the adoption of a clear lingual policy in the fields of administration and education. The lingual policy adopted during this period was to use Persian and to marginalize other Iranian languages. The present article addresses the question: what was the discourse strategy to establish a unified language policy during the first Pahlavi period? To analyze this issue, theoretical views with the following conceptual structure were expressed: Reza Shah's government with "crisis in the moral order of society", "mobilization of resources" and "chains of intellectual interaction" sought to establish an attained discourse. This research has analyzed the approvals of the Higher Education Council using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse analysis method. Findings from the analysis of the text of the resolutions show that the discourse order of this council, on the subject of language policy, has been centralized and uniformed, according to the context and social conditions of this period, in which cultural nationalism based on the Persian language had become dominant. The results show that the authoritarian government of Reza Shah, by implementing the modernization project, strengthened the network of intellectual interaction, mobilized existing resources and facilities, created instability in the previous moral and cultural order, strengthening the unifying the Language Policy Discourse.

The significance of fire and fire temple in Iranian religion and subsequently in Zoroastrianism has always been considered as one of the prominent and well-known aspect of this religion. This being the case, fire worshipping and its related rituals haven been firmly established as pillars of ancient Iranian culture and religion to the extent that external observers had no other choice than calling Iranians fire-worshipers. In this regard, this research is a descriptive-analytical study based on library research method that is relying on historical documents and texts as well as using anthropological data to explain the reason and contexts that have provided such a prominent position for fire and fire temples in the culture of ancient Iran. As such, firstly, the study is dealing with the religious function of fire and fire temples and also discusses the role of fire as a mediator between earthly humans and the heavenly gods. Furthermore, the study discusses the social function of fire temples, especially Bahrām’s fires (Ātaš Bahrāms), in terms of their role in shaping social identity and strengthening the social unity and solidarity to better explicate some of the historical events in ancient Iran and Islamic times.

Prior to land reform in 1962, Kadkhoda played a pivotal role in rural management after the owner. Although Kadkhodai is a structure in rural society, since the Pahlavi period and the formation of the modern government in Iran, changes in the duties, structure and function of Kadkhoda's position have been made as the government seeks to influence rural society. The purpose of this article is to explain the function of Kadkhoda position with the approach of natural crisis management in the villages of Isfahan province in the Pahlavi period.The main question of the research is Kadkhoda's action in dealing with natural crises in the villages of Isfahan province. What was the Pahlavi period like? The study is descriptive and analytical and is based on collecting information from library and documentary sources. The findings show that throughout the Pahlavi period, the Kadkhodas did not have an active, effective and positive function in managing natural crises. In addition, factors such as lack of scientific knowledge, expertise, succumbing to natural disasters, lack of decision-making power and initiative due to the.

During Reza Shah's reign, the policies of centralization, authoritarian modernity, and national unity led to reforms in the field of education. This period is considered as an important period in the history of Iran due to the efforts leading the society towards modern education in the shadow of nationalism and centralism. The present article seeks to answer this question, "What effects did the nationalist and centralist policies of Reza Shah era have on the situation of schools of religious minorities (Armenians, Zoroastrians and Jews)?" This work implemented a descriptive-analytical method and relied on the available documents. At that time, religious minority schools were affected by these two policies. In some educational programs, schools activities were not in line with the new educational policy, and there was resistance from the minority community, which challenged the schools. The findings of this study show that education among religious minorities was affected by the new changes in terms of Persian language teaching, curriculum, school names, holidays and extracurricular activities. The closure for some schools was permanent and their students merged into public schools, and for some schools, it was temporary (one or more months) until they were required to implement the ministry programs. The reason for their resistance to the new educational policy was the tendency towards educational independence and the fear of losing their identity, and the consequence was the relative control of the government and the dissatisfaction of the minorities with the rule of the time.