نشریه تاریخ و فرهنگ
سال پنجاه و دوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 104، بهار و تابستان 1399)

The Kamkars were an Iranian family in the first centuries AH and one of the renowned peasants in the Khorasan region (c. 309-31 AH). The appellation of this family comes from and is attributed to Kamkar, the Marvi peasant and one of the sons of Yazdgerd III, the last Sassanid king (632-651 AD). Some members of this family held positions in the administration system of Taherians (255-259 AH), Saffarians (247-339 AH) and Samanids (261-395 AH). The present study investigates their national and military positions by adopting a descriptive-analytical approach. This family, ruling over parts of Khorasan, was the commander in chief of the Khorasan Army. A prominent figure of this family was Ahmad ibn Sahl ibn Hashim (d. 307 AH). His father and brothers were also secretaries and astronomers. Aside from their political-military role, this family played a crucial role in the preservation of Iranian science and culture by patronizing authors and scientists.

Injuids’ bureaucracy marked a dynamic and brilliant period in the history of Iranian art and literature in terms of its cultural and artistic approaches, especially in fields such as gilding, page layout formatting, painting and architecture, as well as the rise of poets such as Hafez Shirazi, Ubayd Zakani and Khajavi Kermani,. The creation of cultural and artistic works cannot be studied without considering the stances and actions of the courtiers and activists in this dynasty. By adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, this paper focuses on the role of Injuids’ bureaucracy in cultural and artistic flourishing, as well as the determinants of its influence. The findings suggest that the efficient bureaucratic organization in this period and efforts to establish security, the prosperity of trade and social welfare, along with the strong presence and influence of ministers, rulers, bureaucrats and artists had a great bearing on the artistic prosperity in this period. In addition, it seems that reputation, experiences and origins of Injuids’ bureaucracy, their association with bureaucratic families and figures, as well as tolerance, generosity, justice and Iranianism of Shah Abu Ishaq Inju and his relatives together with the sustainability of the bureaucratic dynasty in Shiraz in the eighth century AH have been key factors linked to the impact of bureaucrats and their organizational capabilities in the field of governance, especially cultural and artistic affairs.

This article surveys the evolution of research on Siyasatnama from the beginning to the end of 2019 while analyzing their shortcomings to address these questions: 1. What approaches have been adopted in studies on Siyasatnama from the beginning (1963) until 2019? 2. Which approaches are more frequent and what is the reason behind this popularity? 3. What factors have prompted a shift in research approach to Siyasatnama at different periods? A total of 209 articles in this field were subjected to analysis to investigate their content, sources, approach, strengths and weaknesses. Also, the impact of previous sources and the inclusion of new and original points were taken into account. According to their frequency, they embraced political, comparative, religious, theoretical, descriptive, historical, critical, literary, biographical, and codicological approaches, respectively. Among the factors underlining the evolution of the approach in articles, Abbas Iqbal’s version of Siyasatnama in 1941, the book of Khajeh Nizam al-Mulk Tusi and the discussion of political ideas of Iranshahri in Siyasatnama’s in the 1990s as well as the sociopolitical atmosphere of Iran in the second half of the nineties could be mentioned. In the results section, the frequency of each approach and their analysis, the temporal distribution of approaches in various decades, and the factors associated with the evolution of approaches and their critique are discussed. In the final section, which is dedicated to an analysis of research flaws, the main criticisms leveled against research on Siyasatnama are proposed.

The distinct atmosphere characterizing Mongol rule did the groundwork for a shift in the informal belief systems such as Sufism in the vast territory of Iran. This atmosphere paved the way for the rise of Sufism from political isolation, and the emergence of various sects, which consequently provoked a revisiting of Sufi thoughts on political and social activism. Naqshbandi, which was founded in the ninth century AH thanks to the efforts of sheikhs such as Khajeh Obaidullah Ahrar in northeastern Iran, underwent changes, developed and persisted during the Sheibanian period under the theoretical and practical contributions of Khajeh Ahmad Kasani. The present study explores the distinctive political approach of Kasani and the main determinants of his approach. Informed by the findings of this study, the rivalry and antagonism of religious scholars toward Sufism in the first half of Sheibani rule, the modification of Sheibanian’s religious policy in the second half and the rivalry of Naqshbandi sheikhs for leadership following the collapse of the Timurids urged Kasani to change the conventional belief system of Sheibanian. The position that Kasani ascribed to the advocacy of Khan in the Sufi tradition was radically different from the traditional and cautionary view of the Naqshbandi sheikhs. The assignment of an ijtihad role to the Sufi sheikhs, the spiritual status of the khan, as well as the redefinition of the Khajegan’s tradition were among other changes introduced by Kasani.

The difference in the age of Hazrat Fatima (PBUH) documented in ancient Sunni and Shiite historical sources is more than a decade. The prevailing view of the Sunnis is that the Hazrat Fatima was born before the Be’that. Accordingly, five years prior to Be’that is often cited as the time of her birth. However, most Shiites concur on five years after Be’that as her birth date. The present study aims to shed light on the accurate view among these different narrations by exploring the age of Hazrat Fatima (PBUH) in the earlier sources, relying on the narrations quoted in the Al-Tabqat Al-Kubra (Book of the Major Classes) and their comparison with the sources described in the two sects. Accordingly, even though the probability of her birth in the post-Be’that period is fairly higher, it does not coincide with the prevailing narration among the Shiites (the fifth year after Be’that). Therefore, Hazrat Fatima was probably born in the first year after Be’that and lived for about 23 years.

This article investigates hunting and its place in the life of the Shah and Qajar aristocracy in terms of its environmental consequences. During the Qajar period, following military modernization and the development of hunting tools and equipment, the public attitude toward the environment changed. A ramification of this alteration manifested in hunting, which was a long-established pastime of the Iranian courtiers and royal families. This research is based on the review of information in the written sources of that era, which was conducted using a descriptive-analytical approach. At the same time, efforts are made to represent animal species and their hunting range. The findings reveal that the Qajar aristocracy, including the king, princes, lower-tier officials in the ruling structure and even the women of Harem played a major role in hunting different species of animals at that time. The strong ties of the Qajar aristocracy with hunting, disregard for the environment and absence of a legal monitoring mechanism contributed to the expansion of hunting, neglectful treatment of nature and the extinction and decline of some animal species. In addition, another group of non-Iranian hunters, including tourists, diplomats, or military advisers, also enjoyed the privileges bestowed on them by kings or princes. This reckless hunting had devastating consequences for the environment and wildlife of Iran, the dimensions of which are explored in the present study.

The fourth to sixth centuries AH marked the concurrent ruling of the Fatimid Shiite caliphate and the Sunni Abbasid caliphate in a vast stretch of the Islamic territory. The two caliphates extensively used textiles as a means of political confrontation. This study aims to conduct a contextual analysis of the impact of the Fatimid political rivalry with the Abbasids on Fatimid textiles. Accordingly, the main question is how these political rivalries influenced the Fatimid textiles. The contextualism framework, informed by the theory that a work of art is a social product shaped in the historical context of society, lays the ground for exploring the role of textiles in this rivalry within the historical-political context of that period. In this research, a document analysis method has been adopted for data collection along with a descriptive-analytical method that draws on the theoretical research. According to the findings, the role of textiles in the Fatimid political rivalry with the Abbasids covers three periods: the first one is the Fatimid Caliphate, in which textiles played a symbolic role in overthrowing the Abbasid agents in North Africa and establishing the Fatimid Caliphate. The second is the golden age of the Fatimid period and the domination of the Egyptian textile industry, when textiles were exploited for political lobby in the Abbasid land. The third one is the last years of Fatimid caliphate, in which, due to internal and external crises, textiles served as means of establishing political relations with the Abbasids.

Cursive calligraphy, one of the striking scripts of the Islamic world, is the third type of Iranian calligraphy that was invented in the early 11th century AH and later epitomized by Darwish Abdulmajid Taleghani in the course of its evolution. The style of Darwish and his disciples is recognized as the old style of the cursive script today. A few centuries later, after a period of stagnation, Yadollah Kabuli Khansari breathed fresh air into this style. In his writing, each work acquires its specific form, space and composition, and due to its variety and novelty, is recognized as the new style of cursive script. The main goal of this paper is to carry out a comparative study of the cursive script structure in the works of Darwish Abdulmajid Taleghani, Yadollah Kabuli Khansari and selected artists of both ancient and contemporary styles. To achieve this goal, attempts have been made to address the issues related to the similarities and differences in the structure of the cursive scripts of Darwish Abdulmajid and Yadollah Kabuli. The study covers a collection of the two calligraphers’ works, which were randomly selected based on the extant samples. The results suggest that the cursive script structures in the works of these two artists, while sharing features such as diverse shapes of letters and words, curtailed-writing in the elongated space and the use of colored inks, have some differences including stricter rules for letters and words, clear combinations without unconventional twists in Darwish works, greater freedom and the painting-like nature of words in Kabuli’s works.

Among the Islamic calligraphy, Nastaliq script, as the second script whose shape is characterized by roundness and curvature, is one of the notable inventions of Iranians. Meanwhile, in Qajar era, Shiraz was the center of this script. Thus, a raft of Shirazi calligraphers in this period, both in Shiraz and in the capital, promoted a particular style of Nastaliq individually. The present research, adopting a descriptive-analytical method, looks into the characteristics of the Nastaliq script in Shiraz during the Qajar era. In this process, while analyzing the role of Shirazi calligraphers in the expansion of Nastaliq calligraphy, it elaborates on the characteristics of the script introduced by four prominent Shirazi calligraphers at the Qajar era, i.e. Agha Fathali Hijab Shirazi, Mirza Alinaghi Shirazi, Mirza Assadallah Shirazi and Mohammad Hossein Shirazi.

The interest of Qajar leaders in minerals and the military and industrial needs of the country for mineral raw materials coupled with the necessity of industrial development of the country prompted state officials to pay greater attention to educating students in diverse fields of earth sciences (especially mining engineering). The recruitment of foreign experts and dispatching students to Europe mitigated some of the problems pertained to expertise and technical knowledge in this industry, but they were not sufficient. With the establishment of the Dar ul-Funun (Polytechnic School) and the recruitment of foreign teachers by Amirkabir, modern education in this field was significantly improved. The development of industry and science on a global scale, the expanded economic views of the Iranian political officials, the contribution of two university professors, Czarnotta and Schlimmer and the publication of new textbooks led to the growth of technical knowledge of mining engineering in Iran. With the graduation of Dar ul-Fonun students and the return of Europe-educated students, there was a surge in mining activity. Historical documents exhibit that in the years following the establishment of Dar ul-Funun, various industries made headway in Iran. The growing trend of mining activity in the late Qajar years can be seen as a manifestation of the education’s impact on the growth of the mining industry in Iran.