مجله کاشان شناسی
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 15، پاییز و زمستان 1394)

The deceased "Mulla Abdolrasoul Madani Kashani" is one of the scholars, jurists and pietists in the realms of culture, literature and art; A great man who brimmed with piety and abstinence in conjunction with modernism and revitalization, and besides writing religious, jurisprudential, theological and philosophical treatises, he was not oblivious of the political, social, historical issues as well as the current events of his time and constitutionalism and public dispute resolution in particular. His astuteness, critical spirit and desire to struggle with perversion and injustice inspired him to write works such as the Ensafieh treatise (in constitutionalism), as a scholar who was attuned to the current issues and problems, to fulfil his duty towards his homeland as well as constitutional movement, liberty and law and to establish a proper pattern of Islamic political and social decrees.
On the other hand, compiling and authoring a collection of pieces of advice, precepts and sober aphorisms by Iranian wise men and philosophers before and after the rise of Islam had been of great intellectual and cultural concern to Mulla Abdolrasoul. However, he fulfilled this ambition by authoring Majma Al-nasayeh epistle which is deemed to be as a great favor towards promoting the culture and literature of Iran. In this valuable epistle, the author has provided a collection of pieces of advice and precepts and precious speeches by the prophets and saints of Allah as well as scholars, philosophers, wise men, kings and historical-mythological figures of the ancient Iran and Greece. Moreover, having developed the ethical and social themes as well as doctrines such as theosophy and wisdom, benevolence and optimism, contentment and satisfaction, self-esteem and magnanimity, doing justice and benevolent deeds, etiquette of speech, refinement of morals, abstaining from ambitious pursuits, greed and avarice, lie, deceit, hypocrisy and egoism, the author has left a valuable and great collection as a memorial in the realm of epistle writing. Initially, this paper laconically deals with the biography as well as intellectual and personality traits of Mulla Abdolrasoul, and accordingly, introduces the prominent contents and themes of Majma Al-nasayeh.

The theosophy which is known today as Sadraei transcendent theosophy and stands on the pinnacle of the Islamic philosophy history, have had ups and downs from its development until present which is worthy of historical study. It’s obvious that any knowledge owes its growth and prosperity to great efforts made by the men who showed dedication and spared no effort in this way. Akhund Kashi is known not only as the promoter but also as the reviver of the transcendent theosophy. His mastery of such a tremendous knowledge as well as constant teaching led to the fact that his name appears amongst the teachers and defenders of this knowledge. In the same way, his scientific method and his adherence to teachings of this theosophy have drawn a considerable attention towards this theosophy. The current succinct study seeks to highlight the significant role of this wise sage and recognize his outstanding contribution in promotion of this transcendent philosophy.

Abuzeydabadi is a dialect spoken in central areas of Iran. This dialect is prevalent in Kavirat district in city of Abuzeydabad. This city is located in thirty kilometers from southeast of Kashan. Compared to standard Persian, Abuzeydabadi dialect brims with distinctive features in terms of grammar which distinguishes it from the current Persian language. The present study aims to describe and analyze some of the phonological and grammatical features of this dialect. Among the distinctive features of Abuzeydabadi dialect, one might think of using fourteen short and long vowels, existence of grammatical gender and its effect upon most names, and numerous verb forms and widespread and extensive use of derivational prefixes which are regarded as semi-active or dead prefixes in current Persian. Furthermore, this paper will discuss that the Abuzeydabadi dialect, as a preserver of Persian language, has faithfully preserved considerable linguistic structures from Dari Persian as well as middle Persian (Pahlavi) and old Persian.

Urban districts are regarded as the smallest physical, social, cultural and ethnic units of the Islamic-Iranian traditional urban development system. Districts of Islamic cities once used to be the place where social and economic prosperity were manifested in urban life, and nowadays, they have undergone considerable damage due to lack of modernization of the current fabric and activities of the cities. Mohtasham district is one of the seven historical districts of Kashan which will be reviewed and introduced in this paper as well as urban land use features in sub-districts of Papak, Pamenar, Posht emarat, Chehel dokhtaran, Darb yelan, Sar peleh, Sarsang, Sighan (Sighand), Kalhor, Mohtasham and Mirneshaneh. The present study aims to identify and compare various use of lands in Mohtasham sub-districts as well as the quality of the fabric of the buildings in these sub-districts. Moreover, it will identify the centers of the sub-districts of Mohtasham district, landmarks, the reason for their appellation and the type of current use of these centers. Prior to new street constructions for transportation of vehicles, this district had a specific fabric, social, economic and cultural coherent system. Religious uses such as mosque, shrine of Imams’ descendants and water reservoir exist in most of the sub-districts and have formed the center of the districts. Analysis of urban land use indicated that sub-districts of Mohtasham, Pamenar and Mirneshaneh consist the major portion of ruined places.

Pilgrimage-letters are one of the outstanding instances of calligraphers’ works which, on the one hand, have been survived owing to their sanctity, sacredness and applicability, and on other hand, have been damaged and decayed as a result of frequent use. This paper aims at historical and technical analysis of the Pilgrimage-letter of Imamazadeh Hashem in order to discern the techniques and materials used in its fabrication, and to conduct comparative and historical study on this work as well as getting acquainted with its calligrapher.
This Pilgrimage-letter is penned by Mahmoud Modir Al-Doleh, a prominent calligrapher lived during the reign of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar in the thirteenth century AH, and consists of three components including wooden board, paper liner and cloth bed. The materials used in the Pilgrimage-letter of Imamazadeh Hashem were discerned using scientific and laboratory studies of wet chemistry as well as FT-IR analysis. The data derived from the FT-IR analysis indicated that this Pilgrimage-letter is made of cotton fabric, protein adhesive and animal glue. Having conducted reflective optical microscope studies, it emerged that the board of the pilgrimage-letter is made of wood of fir tree. The results obtained from wet chemistry experiments revealed that the pilgrimage-letter has been written in Oak gall ink with vermillion and gold color.

Over the years, a variety of patterns and designs have been created on pottery thanks to the potter’s interest and talents. Being regarded as the main element of pottery decoration, the designs represent the concepts such as creeds, beliefs, thoughts, tendencies and ambitions. Paying attention to wisdom and knowledge as well as allusion to cultures, traditions and national myths are the main issues referred to in poems and proses and other artistic works of this country. In the 6th and 7th centuries AH, Kashan experienced boom and revitalization in pottery art. This could not have been achieved without attention of the ruler and authorities towards the art and artists. In this process, the Iranian potters took advantage of motifs and artistic decorations of pre-Islamic era in order to design pottery. Some of these designs are deemed to be as great masterpieces of painting in Islamic era.
The purpose of the present study is to introduce the features of Mina’i pottery of Kashan illustrating the concepts of Lyrical literature. Taking “Bijan and Manijeh” and “Bahram and Azadeh” stories into account, the most outstanding designs of lyrical literature on these pieces of pottery have been reviewed. The study was carried out using a descriptive-analytic method and the data were obtained through desk research. The results of the study indicate that Mina’i pottery technique have had greater contribution in portraying the lyrical poems compared with other techniques. Moreover, the Kashani potters have made an outstanding contribution in creating culture and artistic works appropriate for their current society. Indeed, it can be argued that these concepts and artistic and literal motifs of the aforementioned era have had Sasanian archetypes, with this difference, that these concepts are exaggeratedly represented in artistic works of the Islamic era.