فصلنامه گنجینه اسناد
پیاپی 80 (زمستان 1389)

Persian historiography in the Timurid Era is considered as one of the most signicant aspects of civilization in Iran aer the Mongol period. So far, many historiographical works and writings of this period have been identied and published. Some which have not yet been published have been used by history and literature scholars for research. But as the content of writings of this period indicates, while some works are mentioned because of their importance and validity, lack of access to their manuscripts means there is not much known about them. Research on these writings is very dicult and perhaps is only possible through the study of contemporary texts, and sometimes, recent writing. "e aim of this paper is to identify and review one of the little known writings of this era entitled "Farrokhi's History" (Tarikh-e Farrokhi) which is cited as an authentic source in Matla' al-Sadain va Majma' al-Bahrain, one of the writings of the Timurid Era.

Writing letters of advice was one of the manifestations of political wisdom, and a factorin the continuity of Iranian political heritage. "e main subjects of letters of advice werethe concept of monarchy, and the functions of the monarchial institution in runningIranian society. Acting on behalf of Ahura Mazda on earth, protecting the borders, assisting religion, construction and development, and providing justice were among thefunctions of the monarchial institution. By translating Persian texts into Arabic, thethemes of advice letters were transferred to the Islamic period and, of course, the newconditions created changes in the direction and quality of some functions of the monarchial institution. e importance of the letter of Taher lies in the fact that he initiatedthe rst lineage of Iranian rulers aer Islam, and so his thoughts in"uenced his successors.Taher's letter is the rst manifestation of the approach taken by Iranian rulers aerIslam to the ancient Persian literature of writing letters of advice. An examination of theletter of Taher reveals that Taher was familiar with the ancient teachings and the monarchialinstitution, and with ancient letters of advice such as the Testament of Ardeshir.One of the questions about Taher's letter is what eects his familiarity with the Iranianmodel of statecra had on his approach, on his conduct in carrying out the functions ofthe monarchial institution, and on his policy towards the Abbasid Caliphate. "e presentpaper, using an analytical approach, describes the functions of the monarchial institutionin ancient Persia and the changes to these functions in the Islamic period, and studiesthe functions of the monarchial institution in the letter of Taher.

Based on their belief in the principle of Imamate, Shiites generally deny the legitimacyof governments. However, the lack of legitimacy of rulers in Shiite thought has notnecessarily led to active opposition against the rulers. "is article explores the question:in practice, how did the clergymen interact with and confront the government during1961-1979? To answer the question, the historical interpretation method has been used,and an eort has been made to inductively discern the way clergymen interacted withthe government in the period in question through the study of existing records anddocuments. Findings show that, in this period, clergymen and ulama had four dierentapproaches to dealing with the government: 1) compulsory support 2) nonviolentresistance 3) non-revolutionary opposition 4) revolutionary opposition. "e conclusionis that although the clergymen and ulama had various positions and approaches indealing with the government, all of them determined their method of interaction withthe government on the basis of their viewpoint about current conditions and from areligious perspective

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Mashhad was a destination for many immigrants from dierent parts of Iran and also neighboring regions of Iran such as CentralAsia, Afghanistan, the Indian subcontinent and Caucasus. "ese immigrant groupswho had entered Mashhad with dierent motivations aected the political, social, economicand cultural conditions of this city in dierent ways. Aer several generations,many of these immigrants became the main citizens of Mashhad and their descendantsare still living in this city with family names that show their origins (Bukharaei, Heravi,Badkoubei etc.). Among the immigrant communities, the Caucasians were an importantgroup. "e Caucasians, who migrated to Mashhad during the Qajar Era with motivationssuch as pilgrimage, trade and education, played in"uential roles in various elds;they were sometimes active in developing the cultural and economic infrastructures ofthe city, and were sometimes involved in its social and political movements. A group ofthese Caucasian immigrants were students who studied in the Islamic seminaries aroundthe Holy shrine of Imam Reza. In the last two decades of the Qajar Era, these Caucasianstudents were among the most active communities in Mashhad. "is article studies theimportant events in which the Caucasian students played roles and the position of thesestudents in the developments of this city. Among the most important of these events arethe bread crisis in 1903, the Constitutional Revolution, and the Minor Tyranny period

e purpose of this research is to study the condition of technical archives of dams andpower plants of the Ministry of Energy in Khuzestan province and to determine thestrong and weak points of these centers in order to develop information networks amongthem. "e research population consists of technical archives of the Department of Energyof Khuzestan Province (10 Archives). "e ndings of this research show that thestudied technical archives are unsatisfactory in terms of facilities, equipment, manpower,budget and, in general, in terms of quality and quantity. "ese archives face many problems including insucient manpower, especially skilled sta, lack of an approved annual budget from parent organization(s), lack of dedicated spaces for archives, soware and hardware problems, lack of access to information technology and online information networks.

is paper aims to discuss and study the functionality of the Resource Description andAccess (RDA) standard for describing and organizing archival material with an analyticalapproach, taking into account the current developments in the eld of modern information technologies. "e rst part of the paper deals with the approaches in describing and organizing knowledge and information resources including: object-oriented approach, knowledge oriented approach, description by object versus aliation, and changes in the levels of description (the parts of each document as a content object) according to information contexts. "e second part brie"y introduces the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard, the features of archival materials related to the process of description and organization, the position of archival material in the studied standard, the archival standards used as the base for developing RDA, the proper core elements for describing archival material and RDA's capabilities and weak points in meeting the requirements of archival context. Finally, the future of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard in describing archival materials and converging standards is studied.

Memories are one of the sources used by historians in historical research and are alsoa foundation for oral history, as a distinctive method in historiography. Reminiscencewriting, with dierent styles and formats, has a long background in the history of Iransculture and literature. In recent years, for several reasons, the old tradition of memorywriting in its various forms has re-emerged among a wide range of individuals. On theother hand, productions of the scientic method of oral history, as one of the newestmethods for collecting the historical data needed by historians, sociologists and psychologists, have increased. Some use the title "oral history" to refer to the documenting of memories in a variety of ways. "e key question is whether it is scientically correct to refer to various types of memories (autobiography, biography, written and spoken) as oral history? "e answer is that memory writing and oral history have basic dierences in their nature, mechanism and function. "us it is necessary to distinguish between memory writing and oral history in order to comparatively analyze the two. "is paper aims to provide the common denitions of memory, memory writing and its dierent types, and to describe the functions and compare the features of memory writing with oral history. Moreover, the brain’s function, as the container of memories, is brie"y mentioned.