نشریه تحقیقات تاریخ اجتماعی
سال ششم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1395)

The Myth of Farrah-i Izadi is regarded as one of the most important pillars of political thoughts and as one of the main componentsof Ideal King conception in the Ancient Iran. This myth had legitimate political content and function but gradually underwent changes and transformations in terms of its content. The present paper aims at exploringthe mechanism of conceptual transformations to this myth andattempts to investigate the issuevia conceptual analysis and sympathetic perception of historical evidence, chiefly through the lens of comprehensive sociology. Meanwhile, we benefit from Austin’s Theory of Speech Acts and Peter Winch’s Meaningful Action. The method of the data collection is based on library research. The results of the study reveal that the Myth of Farrah, within the framework of cultural rules of Sassanid Era, included profound mythological and cosmological contents and themes and contained deep-rooted social meanings which facilitated the understanding and acceptance of its message. Nonetheless, after the collapse of Sassanid dynasty and domination of new cultural values, this myth was re-constructed with the aim of revival of its former political functions. This superficial re-construction and revival occurred while Farrah Myth had lost most of its social functions. Accordingly, Farrah underwent various transformations and alterations in the terms of its form and content, mainly as a result of transformationsto the cultural rules and absence of profound social understandings.

The adjacency of Iran and Ottoman and their cultural and historical commonalities made numerous citizens, who were facing difficulties in their own countries, immigrate to the neighboring country and change their nationalities during the Qajar dynasty. While living and working in the neighboring country, some immigrants preferred to be still identified as citizens of their own countries; however, they changed their nationality after a while. The question is what motivated them to change their nationalities, and what was the Iranian government’s reaction to the nationality change of its citizens? This paper investigated the issue through a library-oriented study and by referring to the available body of published and unpublished documents. The findings indicate that reasons such as religious conflicts, maltreatments by agents and governments, the citizens’ emancipation from the restrictions of their own countries, and the economic conditions made them change their own nationalities, though this was often accompanied by successive objections from the Iranian government.

During First Shah Abbas reign, as a result of increase to cities, the relations of city residents and governments enhanced. The present paper studies the nature of relations of hooligans with the government—as a section of urban society—during First Shah Abbas reign. The findings reveal that there existed anurban society community thatdespite carrying the same labelenjoyed various forms. There were differences between those hooligans who were indeed anurban society community and those who carried the term as an adjective while not being a hooligan. Ajamareh and hooligans played a more significant role in political instabilities of neighborhoods and cities and while causing chaos, they were also patrons of the oppressed. First Shah Abbas through organizing this group of society attempted to take advantage of their capabilities.

Thar tradition in the tribal value system ofJahiliyyahera was one of the cultural foundations of tribalism, whose social detrimental repercussions prickedthe clear conscience of someJahiliyyahpoets and sages and made themcriticize itprogressively. The function and implication of Thar has rarely been investigated within its tribal conception. In this vein, we attempted toexplore the continuity and transformationof Thar in the tribal context via deploying Durkheim's concept of crime and punishment. It is concluded that the reaction of intellectuals to this tradition set the mental groundsfor gradual and potential transformation of attitudes toward Thar,inthe long run. Consideration and approval of Hakamiyyahin place ofThar(restorative justice instead of violence)was one of the circumstances prior to this transformation.

Historically, Bandar Lengeh has been the main seaport of Larestanand the transaction hub of the import and export of goods in the Persian Gulf since 1834. The port maintained its authoritative position until 1897, but from then onward,the social and business dynamism of Bandar Lengehdevolved. Studies done on the issue emphasize on the economic factors in the social devolution of Bandar Lengeh but it seems that factors affecting the social devolution of Bandar Lengeh were not merely economic, but rather equally political and ideological in turn. The current descriptive-analytic study analyses the two other factors, i.e., political and ideological structure of Bandar Lengeh, besides its economic structure,via application of Louis Althusser’s over-determination theory. The tested hypothesis is: “Structural contradictions (political, economic, and social contradictions) led to the social devolution of Bandar Lengeh”. In fact, since 1899, political, economic, and social contradictions had invaded Bandar Lengeh. New customs duties or tariffs of 1899, imprudence ofnone-native and governmental officials of customs, social and political insecurity in the coasts of Lengeh after the Constitutional Revolution, the monopoly law for government business, the compulsory military service law, the command of “mandatory unveiling”, and the ways of escape from these contradictions (human and capital migration, smuggling, and bribery) all led to the social devolution of Bandar Lengeh.

Text is the mirror of the mind of the author, his time, and society. Accordingly, analyzing texts is quite significant in perceiving the history of each period particularly because of the nature and the wide range of authors and readers. Mahbub-al-Qolubis a Safavid story based on the intellectual-cultural dialogue of this era and its analysis would aid us to come to a more profound grasp ofstory writing development during Safavid era. Accordingly, this research employs critical discourse analysis to investigate the folk tale of “Trick of Three Deceitful Women with Judge,Shahneh, and Muhtasib" in Mahbub-al-Qolubto explore how the text depicted the mental-social context of Safavid era. The text has been examined in three levels of language, interpretation, and explanation of inter-textual dialogues .The main motif of the story is feminine guile and craftiness and at language level, the selected words are in congruence with the theme. Atinterpretation level, this story is frequent in other texts, and comparative analysis of them could be useful. At explanation level, the story could well represent some aspects of Safavidmanners and codes of behavior.

The role of villagers in political activities is one of the most discussed subjects before and after the revolution. There are controversies over the role played by them. Some studies show the significant and noteworthy presence of villagers, whereas some others speak of their inactivity and conservativeness. However, the third group considers a role just for rural emigrants. The aim of this study is to identify the affairs of urban and rural discourses considering political participation of villagers and rural emigrants before 1357/1979 Revolution. In order to study the villagers’ point of view, stories have been chosen as the source of this research. The main issue of this study is how the political participation of villagers and rural emigrants is represented in the storiesof the second Pahlavi eraandhow different rural and urbanite authorsare in their representations. It is hypothesized that the works of urban authors can be classified into three groups, such as the above-mentioned studies. Nonetheless, based on the viewpoint of authors with rural background, most of the villagers and rural emigrants did not pay attention to political affairs and the reason was not their conservativeness. Analyzing34 related stories, this article tries to explicate the viewpoint of rural authors in linkage to villagers as well as the rural emigrants for the first time.