مجله تاریخ ایران
سال دهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 79، زمستان 1395 و بهار 1396)

The Safavid era went through a variety of social changes. One of these changes was addiction to opium. In the pre-Safavid era, this narcotic was mostly used for medical purposes. In the Safavid era, opium addiction became pervasive and was regarded as one of the defining characteristics of the society’s lifestyle, especially during the end of the Safavid dynasty. The prevalence of this phenomenon has not been studied so far. Hence, this study was conducted using domestic and foreign resources while focusing on their historical trend through three stages of beginning, middle and final eras of the Safavid dynasty. According to the findings of this study, the changes regarding opium over the whole Safavid era do not follow the same pattern and have increased.

Mani’s intellectual growth among the Gnostic believers led to the foundation formation of the Gnostic ideas of his newly made cult. Therefore, researchers have always been interested in understanding the depth of this effect and the Gnostic character of Mani. It is important to note that based on newly found Manichean texts, such as Manichaean Cologne Codex, Mani had a quite Gnostic character prior to a Manichean one. The fact that Mani is represented as a prophetic character in later Manichaean texts indicates the evolution of this cult from a Gnostic sect to a worldwide religion. In this view, this research is concerned with reconstructing Mani’s religious character as a Gnostic Reformer based on newly found texts such as Coptic Egyptian texts and Greek manuscripts of Cologne. Based on a descriptive-analytical method, this research concludes Mani was represented as a Gnostic Reformer in the early Manichean texts, composed by Mani himself as well as his followers. In the second religious phase of his life after traveling and preaching, he modified his sect into a worldwide religion. Gnostic influences on Mani’s thought are evident in the first religious phase of his life.

Whether the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians or not has long been one of the questions Iranologists face, studying Achaemenid history. Some Iranologists believe that the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians but others disagree. Discussing Achaemenids’ religion and beliefs, this question is always brought up. One of the reasons that turned this issue into a prominent debate among researchers is Ahura Mazda’s name, mentioned in their inscriptions as a deity and the fact that Achaemenid kings considered themselves worshipers of Ahura Mazda. Nevertheless, their religion remains a question because of their tolerance in relation to other religions. This article intends to study Achaemenids’ beliefs based on a number of experts’ opinions and remaining Achaemenid inscriptions and tablets, such as Darius’ Behistun inscription.

One of the areas in which the National Legislative Assembly legislated was the issue of drug and addiction. The first law passed in this area, that is the law of limitation of opium, is especially important because after passing this law in the Parliament, a new era concerning drug and addiction began. In this research, legal procedures related to drug and addiction from 1910 to 1928, are investigated using a historical approach and archival documents and sources. The results show that the important role of opium in government revenues and its budget has caused the Parliament and government to consider it a valuable resource. Therefore, they tried to control it in favor of government treasury as much as possible. In this period, in order to prevent drug contraband to the country, the law of prohibition of drug importation to Iran was passed by the Parliament in 1923 for economic reasons. This law didn’t mention anything about domestic opium products and made Iran’s economy more dependent on opium. In all codes of conduct passed by the government and related ministries, a special attention was paid to the revenue aspect of opium and they were not concerned about drug users and the question of it being crime or not. Finally, the first law withholding drugs and addiction and considering it a crime was passed in 1925.

The term “Kurd” which is conceived as one of the ethnic groups in the Middle East nowadays, has an ambiguous meaning and application in the sources of the Islamic period. In the contemporary era, some researchers have employed the present meaning of the term “Kurd” (i.e. an ethnic group) in historical studies. Some researchers, on the other hand, have discussed the various interpretations of the term in different sources. They, however, have not elaborated on their views and have paid little heed to the evolution of the term in different sources. This study examines the various applications of the term in Islamic sources based on the semantic signs using a historical-analytic method. The results show that the term “Kurd” has been used to refer to both an ethnic group and a group of people with nomadic life style in the first centuries of the Islamic period. However, the term stopped to be used in the sense of nomadic people gradually and since the seventh century AH onward, it has been used with the meaning of an ethnic group.

Industrial Revolution enticed the industrial countries to merge overseas countries with world economy in order to meet their needs. These countries intended to make overseas countries a market for their industrial products and to supply their raw materials from such countries. For this purpose, in 19th century the capitalist societies, with two policies of establishing colonial territories and imposing commercial, customs and legal treaties with political force, tried to merge overseas countries with world economy. Iran was no exception. Therefore, this article intends to conduct a historical research and to pose the question of what were the proofs and indications of Iran’s merger with world economy in 19th century. The results of this research show that Iran was merged into world economy with the mechanism of forced commercial, customs, and legal contracts. This merger in 19th century, especially in the second half, had two indications. The first one was a change in Iran’s economic agricultural production from livelihood agriculture to a commercial one with the purpose of exporting raw materials of agriculture to the world market. The second one was the daily growth of imported consumer goods that paved the way for making Iran a market for such goods.

Israeli-Arab wars in the Middle East, has had different effects on regional and global matters. The use of oil as a weapon, in several stages of the war, was applied by Arabs to defeat Israel. This policy made a regional conflict to a global crisis in 1970s. This study is going to track trends and factors that led to the application of oil as a weapon, based on a historical analysis, and then, survey the achievements of this policy and examine its consequences in the field of oil policy. According to the findings of this research, although using oil as a weapon caused dissatisfaction of the West as supporters of Israel in the short term, in the long run the oil weapon lost its efficiency due to the dependence of Arab countries on oil revenues on the one hand and the lack of solidarity and unity among them on the other as well as policies of countries such as USA. Therefore, after the last experience of Arab-Israeli war and its aftermath, the West was never challenged by oil weapons. They were even able to manipulate and to make policies in the field of oil in their interests.