مجله تاریخ ایران
سال چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 68، تابستان و پاییز 1390)

In the Qajar period، translation of works and writings from European languages into Persian was considered as a cultural، scientific and experimental exchange which had a lot of influence on the worldview، culture and education of social activist groups. In this process، the relationship between language and culture in translation as an important principle in the cultural studies had played an important role in the development of an effective dialogue between the original European text and the mind and culture of the new creators (translators) in Iran. What causes the cultural distance between the original text and the translated text to be lessened is related to the important role played by translation and translator in the cultural transmission and the relation between the cultural policy and translation. Thus، the role of cultural influences on the choice of a text for translation، transmission and transformation of cultural myths as well as scientific and social concepts، erroneous interpretations and cultural misunderstandings، untranslatable cultural elements، cultural censorship، translation and linguistic dominance، the cultural role of translation in cultural construction and the maintenance of ethnic، national and religious identity are all important issues worthy of consideration and exploration in the translations of the Qajar period. In terms of the translation of European books، the Qajar period is of great importance. Translating and publishing books which had started at the time of Mirza Abbas and the great Mirza Qá''im Maqam Farahani later flourished and highly expanded with the establishment of the institute of translation and publication of the court and the Academy (Dar- al-fonun). In fact، a large number of books – not only on scholarly، military، philosophical and economical subjects but also on history – were translated and published in this period. Despite the fact that translating this new European knowledge was a means of finding a way for Iran to join the caravan of civilization and new knowledge and to be exposed to newly opened gates of science and enlightenment، it cannot be denied that it all had its disadvantages and flaws the identification of which is highly important.

One of the major events that occurred during the last years of the reign of Artabanus II، was the rebellion of Seleucia that lasted for seven years (36 - 42 AD). Since its establishment during the Seleukid، Seleucia – with its special geographical position alongside the Tigris in Mesopotamia –had special privileges such as autonomy، cultural، political and economic potentials. Seleucia had reserved such a position in the Parthian era until the first century when it rebelled against the Parthian king، Artabanus II – a rebellion which was eventually suppressed by Vardanes. It seems that the gradual change in Parthian attitudes towards the city، its population diversity، its ethnic conflicts، and Artabanus II’s interventions in affairs of Seleucia and the consequent reduction of its autonomy had been the most important reasons for such a rebellion. This paper seeks to explain and analyze the context as well as the causes and consequences of this rebellion.

The medieval era of Iran history that lasted about nine centuries is considered as one of the most important and effective periods of this country. Conversion، the emergence of thought schools and religious sects accompanying wide political، economic، cultural، and social evolutions created deep and multilateral problems in the nation، and caused fundamental problems for its own. The main issue، in the present research، is surveying lineament of epochal problems caused by the mentioned phenomena and occurrences happened in Iran during the first to the nine centuries? and In what kind of comparatively steady historical processes does his problem find its origin? In order to reach the descriptive findings، as in historical researches، historical data were extracted from available resources; these findings، then، were employed as stuffs to model an interpretive plot. From the proofs and documents، it is deducted that during the Iran’s medial era there appeared an allied triangle of epochal problems. These problems are as follow: 1. The problem of periodic attacks of outsiders and eternal political instability، 2. The problem of conversion and consistent religious-sectary quarrels، and 3. The problem of social gaps and severity of the mosaic situation in the society. The available findings indicate that the relationship between these events and problems and the reciprocal relationships of the problems was a dialectic relationship. Consequently، there was a consistent interaction between vicissitudes and epochal problems of this era.

In the 19th century، Iranian and Ottoman statesmen and intellectuals presented their governments with certain proposals for progress. They also made efforts to implement reforms in society. Although certain aspects of their proposals were implemented، the plan for reform did not proceed the way they had expected. For this reason، Fuad Pasha and Ali Pasha، two Ottoman reformers، presented their proposed reforms to the Ottoman Sultan in the form of political testaments towards the end of their lives – testaments which also became entangled with the history of Iran at the same time. On the one hand، it was proposed that Malkam had played a role in writing those testaments، and on the other hand، Mirza Yusuf Khan Mostashar Al-Dowleh later wrote a testament which was similar to that of Fuad Pasha. A comparative analysis of the text of the testaments، the possibility of Mirza Malkam’s involvement، and Fuad Pasha’s influence on Mostashar Al-Dowleh are the issues explored in the present article using an analytical methodology based on historical research.

QaraQoyunlu and AqQoyunlu governments encountered several political and military crises in their reigns; among the effective factors tribal structure of the confederationwas of special importance. The role of tribal structure in political instability of Turkmen governments will be explained in this article with free use of conflict theory، and causal analysis، and comparing method. Hypothesis stands for tribal structure، making conflicts in variety of aspects، increased tribal tendency in army، wing tendencies in tribes، and pole tendencies inconfederation. This، by making conflicts in 3 levels (conflict between tribes and government، intraconfederation conflict، and intratribal conflict) prevented tribes from gathering with new aspects of centralized power; and lead to tendency to princely rebellions. As a result، governments have been destroyed by external forces at their highest point of power.

Once the National Consultative Assembly of Iran was established and the representatives started making decisions on making new laws at the national level، some elites among the parliamentarians felt the need that the MPs should be placed into specialized working groups، called commissions. Commissions were among the major administrative organs of the First Consultative Assembly thus formed to review and examine the bills before they were presented on the floor of the parliament، hence they would provide for the final approval or rejection of the bills through legal and legislative procedures. For this purpose، there were two major factors which could have a deterrent role on the commission’s functions: one was the fact that due to their being far away from the capital or as a result of their intention to impose deliberate disruption in the parliament’s procedures، the anti-consultative rulers would reach the parliaments far too late and only near the end of the First National Consultative Assembly، hence the number of MPs present in certain commissions would not reach the quorum، and the commissions would face a lack of enough expertise. The second factor was the short life of the First National Consultative Assembly and the political، social، economic and cultural problems of the then parliament members. This study aims to investigate the knowledge and expertise of the MPs and the role of this factor on the commissions’ function، given the chaos ruling the circumstances surrounding the First National Consultative Assembly. Based on the analytic methodology in this historical research، findings of the present paper indicate that most of the problems persisted as a result of MPs’ lack of enough knowledge and their little awareness of the issues discussed in commissions، which by itself ended in other problems mainly the waste of time، the slow process of investigating the topics put forward and the delay in the codification of the legislative laws.