مجله کاشان شناسی
سال دهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 19، پاییز و زمستان 1396)

Sialk Tepe of Kashan is one of the first permanent human settlements in Iranian Plateau and contains remains dating from 7th millennium BC (Neolithic period) until third Iron Age (Median period) and because of its sublime cultural and historical values, deserves more researching attention. This ancient zone has been afflicted by numerous damages through the recent century; destructive phenomenon of town expansion has always harmed the archaeological zones such as Sialk which are located within towns. Along with destructive expansion of Kashan towards Sialk, farmers of the region have also overrun the zone and occupied some of its lands for farming. To prevent such activities and preserve landscape zone of Sialk, Cultural Heritage Organization of Kashan with assistance of Kashan Municipality has conducted an archaeological researching program titled “speculation for specification of archaeological zone of Sialk and proposition of its borders” which resulted in determination of exact boundaries of this zone.

The city Aran va Bidgol, located in a county with the same name, is actually the combination result of two cities of Aran and Bidgol in recent decades. Since centuries ago, this city has been a main residential, economic, and cultural center of Kashan region. Some descriptions of the city and its relating areas, such as Haraskan, are mentioned in sources of Islamic first centuries like the books Tarikh -e- Qom (history of Qom) and Zikr -e- akhbar -e- Isbahan (mentioning narratives of Isfahan). In addition, Ravandi's Qasida Nuniyya contains some information about the city in Seljuq period. In the sources of Ilkhanate era, the hamlets Bidgol and Haraskan are alluded to. In Safavid era, Aran va Bidgol considerably prospered and thousands of SharBafi (hair-weaving) workshops were set up in it; the significance of this city in Safavid era is reflected in some travel books and ritual documents of this period. A description of Aran va Bidgol in Zand era may be seen at treatise of Sharh -e- ahval -e- Molla Ali Arani (biography of Molla Ali Arani). Furthermore, the situation of the city in Qajar period is represented in Tarikh -e- Kashan (history of Kashan; written by Zarrabi), Kayfiyat -e- Balada va Bolukat -e- Kashan (state of districts and areas of Kashan), and a fascinating book about geography of Bidgol, titled as Chiraqan (lighting). Generally speaking, this article is a preliminary endeavor to acquire the historical identity of Aran va Bidgol.

In some Arabic historical sources and literary collections, a story has been related about fellowship of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf’s three soldiers who participated in conquest of some northern lands of Iran. Their close friendship and carousing have been mentioned in sources. When their army arrived at Khozzaq village of Kashan, two of these comrades died and the third, pouring draughts on their dust, lamented and mourned excessively at their graves inasmuch as he himself also died and buried alongside of them. The importance of the story lies in mentioning Kashan of end of the first century. Although not all the sources declared Kashan and Khozzaq village of Ravand region as the location of this story and for example, some recorded "Khazazi" or "Jawatha" instead of Khozaq and stated "Qazvin", "Sistan", or "Saman" instead of Ravand, it may —based on the reasons argued in this article— almost doubtlessly be said that Khozzaq of Kashan has been the place of the story. Nowadays, Khozzaq is not a division of Ravand anymore and is a separate district, but since it is recorded as a part of Ravand in sources, we also mentioned it as such.

Development and advancement of Kashanological researches and studies require extension of such studies to historical and cultural surveys on nearby regions like the cultural-civilizational domain of old Jibal. The progress of this domain has been because of development of several outstanding cities such as Kashan, Qom, Isfahan, Ray, and Hamadan. Conducting new interdisciplinary studies about history of these relating cities will result in better knowledge of them and specially, Kashan. In this article, three works of local history have been analyzed: Tarikh e Qom (history of Qom), Mahasin e Isfahan (virtues of Isfahan), and Tarikh e Kashan (history of Kashan). These books have been written in 4th, 8th, and 13th century, respectively. Investigating these writings, their historical Kashanological aspects have been studied. Kashanology must expand its borders so that the old Jibal region will be also contained; Kashan not only has been defined and confined by the neighbor cities of Qom and Isfahan at past time, but is nowadays influenced by cultural heritage of Jibal and Savad region. Writing style, process of translating from Arabic to Persian, and editing and printing of these works, which are the precious legacy of Persian literature and invaluable historical and cultural sources, have been discussed as well.

Persians and Jews found each other on the route of Chaldea and Assyria and gradually started one of the longest human coexistences in Iran. From Islam's arrival in Iran until Safavid era, there is no information available on Iranian Jews. However, at early Safavid era, the cultural, social, and economic development and dynamism of this society is realized thanks to two domestic chronicles and the western traveler's narrations. This essay will report and analyze the social and cultural life of the Jews in one of the main Shia centers of Iran during Safavid era. Since, in this survey, Safavid era is assessed from the viewpoint of scarce Jewish resources and their comments, it is important in study of social history of Iran. This paper reports and analyzes the status of Iranian Jews and their interaction with scholars —especially Mulla Mohsen Fayz— and the Shia governments. Moreover, the population of the Iranian Jewish community, their neighborhood structure, the growth of Judeo-Persian literature in Iran, and religious and literary figures of Jews of Kashan, including Mullah Mosheh Halevi, Rabbi Judah ben Elazar, Saida Sarmad Kashani, Benjamin ben Michael (Amina), Babayi ben Farhad, and Babayi ben Lotf, are introduced. This report and analysis demonstrates that despite some state harassment, we can consider the Safavid era as the peak of the growth and prosperity of the Jewish community of Kashan in economy, culture, and literature domains so that the title "Little Jerusalem" is attributed to Kashan in this era.

From the viewpoint of design, pattern, and theme, Safavid textiles may be related and attributed to the style of particular painters. This influence of painting is shown on textiles as the patterns of human, flower or bird. This survey, considering effects of (miniature) painting on the textiles, studies Kashan, its painters, and situation of textile manufacture centers in Safavid era. Furthermore, designing methods of Kashan’s painters, like AbdulAziz, AliAsghar Kashani, Reza Abbasi, Moein Mosavvar, and Shafi' Abbasi are analyzed. The vast similarities between designs and patterns of miniatures and textiles of Safavid era remove any doubt about the mentioned influence. This survey and documentation of it remind the importance of researching cooperation in achieving beneficial results in applied arts. The paper, using historical-analytical methodology, compares patterns of textiles and paintings whose images are collected from archived documents.

There are almost lots of dialects in mountainous and desert regions of Kashan. Based on the linguists’ classification, all of these dialects are segments of central region dialects of Iran. Central dialects of Kashan, like the other Persian dialects, have appropriately maintained numerous properties of Dari, Pahlavi, and even old Persian language. Even now, the vav e ma’dule (altered letter “vav”; the letter “vav” which is now written but not pronounced) is used in some words of these dialects. Beginning vowels have also been maintained in some words. Grammatical gender is indicated in some nouns by the signs “ā” (masculine) and “e” (feminine). In AbuZaydAbadi, in addition to masculine and feminine nouns with signs, the nouns without signs also reflect grammatical gender indicated by the adjectives and verbs. In other dialects, grammatical gender rules are not followed thoroughly. Moreover, some of verbal structures have influence on making masculinity and femininity. Prepositions in these dialects reveal in positions of prefixes or suffixes, or both. The preposition “rā” often means “for” and functions as direct object indicator. Grammatical indirect objects in these dialects are usually without any indicator. The arrangement of sentence parts is the same as present speaking Persian one and occasionally looks like dari Persian sentence arrangement. Four forms of personal enclitic with different positions and functions are recognizable in these dialects. These enclitics, besides their main role, do the actions of transitive past verbs. Some of the enclitics are subjective and appear, like in the usual Persian, at the end of verbs. These enclitics can demonstrate also objective or complementary functions in informative or subjunctive present tense verbs. The past continuous tense verbs are made by special identifiers placed such as prefixes at the beginning of verbs. The ergative structure is particularly used in AbuZaydAbadi.

Sulaymaniyah spring is the most important water source for farmlands and gardens of fertile plain of Fin. This spring gushes forth from the rocks of Dandaneh and HaftKotal mountains (located in the southwest of Kashan) and flows near to the historical Fin garden. Apart from the gardens of Small Fin and Great Fin regions, it supplies HasanAbad, Latehor and DarvazehFin. Different narratives about the age and appellation of the spring have been related in texts and written sources. Sulaymaniyah spring, which its water is shared between gardens and farmlands of Fin and Kashan by traditional and native science and techniques, has an outstanding role in economic boom of the region; not only it has led to more agricultural products, but has given rise to greenness of the Fin region and its pleasant weather which caused the surrounding gardens of Fin to be main local promenades. Moreover, the marvelous historical garden of Fin absorbs thousands of visitors each day. These economic influences of Sulaymaniyah spring is discussed in the article. Furthermore, the traditional irrigation system of the spring, including rules of water sharing and periods and places of it, is thoroughly described.