نشریه جامعه شناسی تاریخی
سال سیزدهم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1400)

At the end of the Shah Tahmaseb‘s reign, Tabriz, the first capital city of the Safavids, witnessed the movement of the Guilds against the central government. The event triggered the movement was a small scale one, originally arising from a physical conflict between a butcher and a gunman, but swiftly transformed into a mass movement, spread throughout the city. This was a well-organized and multilayered movement in which the Guild constituted the body of the movement and the athletes, the top leadership. To mobilize the movement, they, both, organized their supporters and political advocates around the goals, determined for the movement. Although, the existing resources, from that period, concerning the movement, seems either to maintain the movement in a total obscurity or at least in poor attention and deliberation, some evidences, otherwise, verify, in a convincible manner, that the activists involved in the movement, reached a remarkable achievement by expelling the government authorities from Tabriz, and replacing them in controlling and running the city for the period of two years. Based on a descriptive-analytic approach, along with a theoretical framework constructed from the theoretical perspectives of thinkers such as Tilly, Zald, merged within the class-based approach of Erik Olin Wright, the present article, is an attempt to provide a typology of the movement, and also to proceed further to inquire on the reasons and mechanisms through which this movement came into existence. This research discusses that the Guilds movement instantiates a low class civil movement which should be explained first and foremost as a protest against the oppressive taxation policy, implemented by the current government accompanied by a long term deprivation of the majority of the population from the economical benefits of the Silk Road. The collective nature of this movement, according to the suggested theoretical framework, can be categorized as reactionary actions with a slight orientation toward competitive ones.

Urban planning of Tehran until the period of Naser al-Din Shah continued in the style of urban planning of the Safavid period. This method only met the needs of a traditional city in various limited political, economic and social dimensions. From the time of Nasser al-Din Shah, Tehran as the capital of Iran in the Qajar period and in the face of the Western world became a platform for developments in the field of urban planning and a model for other cities in Iran in this field; However, these developments did not enter the city in its pure Western form and appeared in a mixed and influenced by the traditional Iranian society. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of Western civilization and urban society of Tehran on the continuity and physical-spatial evolution of the city in the Naseri period. This research based on descriptive-analytical method has investigated this issue. The findings of this study show that the physical part of Tehran entered a new phase during the reign of Nasser al-Din Shah, influenced by Western civilization. These physical-spatial changes were not simply influenced by the modern Western world; Rather, indigenous cultural and artistic forces combined new influences with Iranian architecture. These developments were achieved on the one hand in the method of urban renewal in various dimensions and on the other hand in the quantitative dimension and the growth, reproduction and multiplicity of elements of the city.

During the reign of Nasser al-Din Shah in Iran, Iranian thinkers became increasingly concerned with the education system. They realized the correlation between reforms in various areas and raising the public’s awareness and discussed the necessity of public education. Consequently, they emphasized the reformation of elementary education as the basis of public education. These thinkers’ approach to elementary education and the relevance of their solutions for reforming elementary education to the realities of the time and the principles of elementary education is the issue that will be studied in the present research by applying a descriptive-analytical method and using the works of the thinkers of that era. This research seeks to answer the question whether the solutions offered by the thinkers of the Nasseri Era to reform elementary education and make it public bore any correspondence to the realities of the time and the principles of elementary education. Results of this research indicate that although the thinkers of that era had a proper conception of the role of elementary education in public education, by insisting on solutions such as reforming the alphabet, they were distanced from the realities of the time and the principles of elementary education.

The Safavid state created a kind of government in Iran with elements such as a separate territory and a Shi'ite religion originated from the Sufi way and persisted over the centuries. From the Safavid period to Qajar, the Iranian state had atributies that were Expresses traditional political institutions and traditions. This procedure continued until the new era and the end of Qajar rule. The research hypothesis is that the Safavid government conformed to the model of the Soltani order. The Qajar dynasty also possessed the traditional and authoritarian character of the Safavid dynasty. Because it coincided with the era of Western military and economic domination of the world, the construction of a state in Iran was also influenced by its civilization, and political institutions evolved. In this regard, the present research deals with the characteristics of the political construction of the state in the triennial period. Also, the social and class characteristics that led to the formation of specific models of government in Iran are reviewed.

Numerous concepts have been created to justify governance. The system of knowledge-power, often produced by religious scholars, has sought to define and establish governance in accordance with historical contexts in relation to the Almighty God. The concept of the shadow of God (Zellul-lah) is one of these concepts that has been defined and used for the rulers in the form of a system of beliefs. This notion is often considered in conjunction with the notions of legitimacy, such as Farreh Izadi, as being a synonym in a sense, while its semantic discrepancies in the historical context has been ignored. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the question of how the philosophy of the notion of  Zellul-lahi in the era of Nader Shah was defined in the system of knowledge-power inter-relationship, and its functionality. Using the theoretical discussions of Foucault's “knowledge-power” method, as well as the "history of concept" approach, this research will explain the theory of Zellul-lahi in the era of Nader Shah and its consequences. The results of this study show that in the Nader shah era, there was a breakup in the “knowledge-power” system. This is true by taking into consideration that official-historians as producers of knowledge tried to define a different position for it due to Nader Shah’s separation from the legitimizing system of the Safavid era. For this reason, the concept of Zullul-lah in this age, as an independent approach, and in direct connection with God in the system of knowledge and power, has been established and exclusively used for Nader. This new system of knowledge-power, which was formed in this era, later led to a great change in the history of Iran, and helped in the evolution of the socio-political order of our country.

In this article we study privatization policy in Iranian society since the end of Iran- Iraq war. After proving the problem, our research question is stated as follows: “How has the policy of privatization of government’s assets been emplemented?” Our theoretical framework for answering this question is David Harvey’s theory of “accumulation by dispossession” of people during privatization process. Unit of analysis is Iran during 1368-1399 and unit of observation, is the reports of Majlis Research Center, annual Budget Settlement Reports about privatization as well as some interviews with policy makers on privatization during this period. We use qualitative content analysis as our method for studying these documents. Our research shows that from the outset, implementation of neoliberal policy of privatization in Iran has had a rentier nature that has persisted throughout the last thirty years. Consequently, a small clique of political forces in Iran have gradually either taken over the ownership of privatized enterprises or have managed to guarantee their position as members of board of directors of companies after this latter’s devolution to the nongovernmental public sector and military institutes.

The aim of this study is to examine economic power in the Qajar era as part of Michael Mann's quadruple social power approach. Michael Mann distinguishes four sources of power: political, ideological, military and economic. The art of the research is qualitative and its method are Bibliography, Which is carried out with the analytical method of Michael Mann. According to Mann, the four sources of social power are measured using various indicators. The main assumption of the research is that there are four sources of power in the Qajar era. Economic power is one of the most important sources of power in the Qajar era. The four sources of power and consequently the social impact of these sources of power, namely the court, the clergy, the chiefs of the tribes and nomads and the merchants, were in close and constant contact with one another. The results of the research show that the social representatives of economic power, business people, tried to maintain their independence in interaction and confrontation with other representatives of social sources of power such as the court, clerics and tribal and tribal leaders. Such conflicts led to an overlap of social actors, the two sources of economic and ideological power, the merchants and the clergy. The constitutional revolution and the tobacco movement were the end result of an overlap, followed by the collaboration of social agents from two sources of economic and ideological power as opposed to political power.

Internal conflicts during the reign of Shah Mohammad Khodabandeh, the problems of the early reign of Shah Abbas, and the peace treaty of Istanbul played a significant role in the occupation of Tabriz and its continuation. In 993 AH, Tabriz was occupied by the Ottoman Empire and as a result it was dominated by its western neighbor for around eighteen years. The eighteen-year occupation of Tabriz was accompanied by the establishment of a bureaucratic system, a system of treatment and the presence of a large number of foreign forces, which led to various social consequences. By applying descriptive-analytical method and using library resources, the present paper seeks to study the reasons of continuation of the city occupation as well as investigate its social impact and answer the main question of the research: “What are the social consequences of the occupation of Tabriz for eighteen years?” It seems that the war and occupation of the city not only had direct damages to the physical structure of the city, the humane factors inhibited in it, and the temporary decline of urbanization with the establishment of the Ottoman forces; it also had several social consequences such as migration, problems related to source livelihood and conflicts of opinion.

This paper examines the role of loya Jirga as a traditional civil society. The problem addressed by this study is defined in term of mismatch between actions of Loya Jirga as a traditional civil society and civil society functions; sometimes Loya Jirga has contributed to the process of democratization and occasionally assisted authoritarian rulers in Afghanistan. The paper aims to answer the question: what conditions make Loya Jirga contribute to the process of democratization in Afghanistan? Conceptual framework model used in the research is composed of socioeconomic underdevelopment, tribalism and limitation of Loya Jirga’s democratic action. The empirical findings indicate that if the rate of economic development increases and tribalism, as an anti-democratic political culture, is weak, Loyal Jirga contributes to the democratization in Afghanistan. It means that Loya Jirga has an institutional capacity to democratize the country, however, the nature of its functions depends on its economic, social and political contexts.

A review of the history of Iran's development in the second Pahlavi period shows that the country's economy was suffering from endless turmoil and the country's senior decision makers could not even properly identify these problems. Using the theories of Rentierism and Patrimonialism, this article has tried to show how in the process of formation of the modern state in Iran, a special way of governing based on political, economic and administrative corruption was formed. The article shows that the use of oil revenues in political economy and patriarchal relations in political culture led to bad governance in Iran. The main question of this article is about the most important causes of inefficiency of governance in the Pahlavi era?  The research method in this article was to analyze the content of the lived experience of the managers of the Pahlavi period in accordance with the oral history of Harvard. The article shows that ignoring the basic requirements of modern governance and the constant weakening of institutions, political elites and social forces led to the inability and collapse of the Iranian political system.

Social status indicates the position of the individual in the social structure and in the historical texts of the Safavid era, important information about the social status of artists, including painters, is provided. Despite the general dependence of art on the court, painters in this era were not the same in terms of status and social status, but several components determined the ups and downs of their status. The purpose of this article is to explain the role and social status of Safavid painters in historical texts with emphasis on political historiography, art historiography, memoirs and travelogues. This article is of historical type and with reference to the topics of historical sociology and the method of library research and has been done in a descriptive-analytical manner. Findings indicate that in the historical texts of this era, the position, status and position of painters have been influenced by such things as: religious policies, art of Safavid kings, political competitions, the continuation of artistic families and social mobility by Safavid neighbors.

In the second half of the sixteenth century, Shah Tahmasp drawn his back on the field of art, court supporting of the art and artists was minimized and the political events after the death of Shah Tahmasb added the complexity of the situation. This situation forced Sadiqi Beg to adopt the suitable strategy in accordance with the new relations governing the field of culture. This strategy was to turn to personal habitus and rely on own individuality. The present study, while paying attention on the historical relations and social developments affecting the second half of the sixteenth century’s Safavid art, has emphasized the relations between activists in the field of culture, the personal motivations of the artists, or the effect of these relations on his final function. The main target is to understand the relationship between the function of the artist (here Sadiqi Beg) and the influential forces in the art scene of sixteenth century. As a result, the artist’s specific function in relation to the dominant discourse has been examined and recognized. In order to strengthen the mentioned concepts, the performance of Sdiqii contemporary artists such as Aghareza and Alireza Abbasi has also been briefly discussed To find this relationship and draw its coordinates, primary historical sources and documents have been analyzed and interpreted. Therefore, the quiddity of this research is qualitative and historical and with the descriptive-explanatory method has been analyzed the special and symbolic function of Sadiqi Beg during the social and political changes of that time. The analytical approach used in interpreting texts, reports, and functions in this article is the issue of Pierre Bourdieu’s relational sociology. This approach led us to realize that the relations in the field of Safavid art and culture in the second half of the sixteenth century were such that it forced the activists presents in it to act according to their personal habitus and the amount of symbolic capital at their disposal. They chose the appropriate strategy with the requirement of the field, and in this regard, they followed the laws governing the field of politics and power.

This study deals with the problem of urban life in north Caucasus as a significant component of the region's' social history. Concentrated on Darband (Derbent) as an archaic and long-lasted town, and applying a causal explanative approach, it investigates the relationship between the geographical situation of this town, the contribution of nomadic people and Caspian marine trade in developments of the social life of this ancient town. The main focus is on 17th and 18th century, however, it sheds some light on previous times as well. The main question which this study aims to provide an answer is that what causes and obstacles deprived the region of a glorifying, lasting and well-developed urban life. Its seems that the peripheral situation of Darband in the northern corner of Persian empires, while provided it with a kind of urban life within the politics of frontier management and constructing fortifications, caused a frustrating condition which hindered its urban development. The main cause of this frustration was the presence of a multitude of nomadic peoples who were living in north Caucasian steppes and mountainous areas in the nearby. This nomadic people, a large number of whom were living in Daghestan, were ready to be employed by the rival powers and in most periods invaded the town. Yet, the fact that Darband throughout its long history enjoyed an excellent geographical situation in north-western corner of the Caspian see, made it possible to hold its limited urban life.

Songs encompass the main body of knowledge and culture, known as folklore. They are works of unknown producers and singers, passing down from generation to generation by words of mouth. Folk songs, according to most scholars, are the voices of the inferior walks of life who talk to us from the depths of history. The simplicity and sincerity of folklore works, together with other historical documents and references, enable us to reach a much more realistic and sensible view of the social history of communities. This study focuses on the theme and content of the song "Rana" within a descriptive-analytical scheme using library sources and field research to know what capacity the research in the folklore of regions does offer for social history studies. The folklore song "Rana" is a lamentation on the adventurous life of a woman from the foothills of East Gilan and, besides its literary and artistic aspects, refers to the social history of the masses of people and the socio-political structure of this region in the feudalism era, making it relevant in the study of social history.