مجله تاریخ ایران
سال نهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 77، زمستان 1394 بهار 1395)

The Inha System—which can be translated as the intelligence service, the news agency, or even the espionage service—was adopted by the governments during the Persian Middle Period as a strategy to maintain internal security. Governments, in this period, were forced to create their intelligence services in the forms of such institutions as the Courier System, the Controllership Bureau, and the Inha System in order to properly manage the extensive realm of government by means of collecting news and information from every corner of the country by training a number of spies called Monhees. Dealing with information, intelligence, and domestic security, such institutions were regarded as the “eyes and ears” of governments throughout the territory because of their inspection, controlling, and espionage services. The present study tries to explain the concepts of Inha and Monhee and analyze the functions of this intelligence institution in espionage activities and its role in the stability of central governments during the middle period of Iran’s history in a descriptive-analytical manner. Findings of the present study show that the Intelligence Service had a high status in the governmental system since the proper functioning, or else the incompetence, of espionage-intelligence organizations could determine the survival or the extinction of a political power.

The Hormozdgān Battle on 30 Mehr/28 April 224 C.E. is one of the greatest battles in the history of Iran and even the Ancient East. With the demise of Ardavān IV (213224- A.D.), the last king of Parthians, in this war, his warrior rival Ardašir, son of Bābak (240224- A.D) founder of the Sassanids kingdom, called himself ‘King of Kings’, and after conquering the capital of Parthians and other battles with great Parthian families and many local kings who were scattered in Iran, Ardašir was called “King of Kings of Iran”. The Hormozdgān Battle was the beginning of five centuries rule of Sassanids in Iran and was also the beginning of a new period in Iranians-Romans battles. Nevertheless the geographical site of Hormozdgān/ Hormozjān/ Hormozdjān/ Mazdajān plain—that was called the battle field of Ardavān IV and Ardašir son of Bābak by Tabari and others—is not known yet or at least there are different views about it. In this paper, based on a historical method, all these views on geographical site of Hormozdgān plain will be studied and criticized and a new geographical site will be introduced as the site of Hormozdgān Battle.

When writing history, one has essentially to avoid using concepts and terms anachronistically. Some historians and history scholars, intentionally or unintentionally, do this and put in use the newly generated terms and titles to refer to old times; hence, distorting historical facts. Historians of the Safavid period were accustomed to this phenomenon. Using the term “Kizilbash” for the events of first decades of the Safavid era by the historians of post-Isma’il I period, has led to misunderstanding of social and political history of that time. “Kizilbash,” was a contradictory term in that period. This term, being pejorative, had no legitimacy among Iranians. So, it was not accepted and put into use by them. The coinage and use of this term generated a sphere of hostility between Iranians and their neighbor states. This article, based on historical method of research and primary sources, aimed to investigate the “Kizilbash” phenomenon, as the core of this hostile sphere, to find out the causes and roots of the problem. Findings asserted that “Kizilbash” was a term derogatorily applied by safavids’ enemies. So, Shah Isma’il I and his statesmen did not use it. This term, for the first time, was appeared in Habib Al-siyar which began to be written at 927 AD and was finished after Shah Isma’il I’s death in 930 AD.

The agricultural economy in Iran underwent a change, from daily living production to commercial one, after joining the world market of capitalism during the Qajar Dynasty. Commercialization of agricultural production in Iran—which was the doomed economic destiny of most undeveloped societies—suffered from interruption from 1309 to 1316. This interruption was due to the change in ways of production from commercial agriculture to industrial one. So, for the first time agricultural economy of Iran experienced the rise and fall of a new way of production from 1309 to 1316 that can be called ‘industrial agriculture’. On the basis of this idea, the present article, through using archive documents and newspapers of the reign of Pahlavi I,will study why and how the rise and fall of industrial agriculture happened. The result of this survey shows that he tendency of government for establishing mechanized industry in order to produce consumer goods paved the way for the emergence of industrial agriculture which aimed at development of cultivation of primary agricultural products needed for industry like beetroot, tea, cotton and tobacco. Failure of industrial agriculture forced Iran to export primary agricultural products which were necessary for Nazi Germany`s industry after termination of secret commercial protocols between the two countries.

There is a remarkable difference between the remained monuments in Transoxiana in northeast of Great Iran in the third to seventh century with the remained historical monuments in the central Iran in Sassanid era both in art themes & subjects matter and elements & bases. By comparison of elements and historical themes in these two parts of great Iran, some unwritten historical data can be obtained that can be used in historical analyzing of Iran before Islam. I this survey of comparative method, some outstanding and remarkable selective indexes of Transoxiana historical works have been evaluated with the Iranian Sassanid ones from artistic themes and elements. The findings of this survey shows that Transoxiana art coincided with the Sassanid era contained themes and Iranian popular culture and symbols and its elements and themes , has wide visual culture representation of local culture of peasants and merchants. Sassanid art does not have the concepts and cultural symbols and themes in its foundations focus on the visual representation of the Sassanid Empire. Art of Transoxiana has a balance and proportionality in representation of historical facts of Transoxiana society and the simplicity and non luxury, yet a pleasant fluency in artistic expression while Sassanid art is an imbalance in representation and appropriateness of historical facts of Sassanid society full of pomp and show and has a surprising exaggerating artistic expression.

Khanate of Yerevan territory (11601244-Q./17471828-M.), in the thirteenth century AD, witnessed wars and military expeditions in its north and south borders by Tsarist Russia and Qajar Iran. Because of the special geographical situation and being in proximity to the governments of Iran and Ottoman, the Khanate has been of special importance to the Russian government. Russia used the minority group of ethnic Christian Armenians as an excuse to interfere in Yerevan’s issues on the pretext of protecting the Christians at the time of Mohammad Khan Qajar Yerevani (11981220-Q./17841805-M.), in order to elongate the wars between Qajar government and Christian Armenian groups. During these wars Mohammad Khan Yerevani adopted a dual policy, so that both the Russians and the Iranians will establish diplomatic relations. The main question of this article is: why Khan of Yerevan in the first Russo-Iranian war adopted his dual policy and what was the main idea behind establishing relationships with theses governments? The findings of this article show that Khan of Yerevan always endeavored for his own survival, and had to use parallel policy to make friction between Iran and Russia in order to achieve his own political autonomy. Therefore, he was shifted constantly his position by observing the great power and changed regional balance of power between the two governments. Based on a descriptive-analytical method, the aim of this article is to study the roles and positions of Mohammad Khan Yerevani in the first war between Iran and Russia.

The present paper focuses on one of the private inscriptions dating back to the post- Sassanid period in India. The Sassanid inscriptions can be divided into two groups: 1) royal and nobles’ inscriptions in inscriptional Pahlavi (lapidary script) that mostly date back to the first half of the Sassanid kingship and 2) private inscriptions, gravestone inscriptions and Waghf (grant) inscriptions as well as memoires that have been written in book Pahlavi (cursive script) in which letters are joined to each other. They back to the ending years of the Sassanid dynasty and early centuries of Iran. The inscription is of importance as it belongs to the Iranian Christians who moved to the south of India for commercial purposes. In fact, they were the first Iranian immigrants in India prior to the Zoroastrians. Another significant point is that it has been written in three languages. This proves that that Zoroastrian and Muslim communities co-existed in the south of India as in Kollam (Quilon). This inscription reports on the endowment (gift) of a plot of land to the Iranian Christians by the regional Indian king dating back to the 9th century A.D.