فصلنامه پژوهش در تاریخ
سال نهم شماره 23 (بهار و تابستان 1398)

In the area of the History of Mentality, western perception and depiction of Orient have been studied since Edward Said. Nevertheless, not Said nor other scholars have much to do with ancient Iran and its image in the classical literature of Greece and Rome. Following Meme theory and cultural genes, it would be plausible that the stereotypes and literary topoi existing about Iran and Iranians in forthcoming periods (Roman, Byzantium, Middle Ages, and new era) return to the Classical Athens. From Aeschylus (the author of the play Persians) and Herodotus in the fifth century BC to the last Greek classical historian of the Antiquity the Theophylact Simokata, in the seventh century AD, we have one thousand years to call the first millennium of Western Iranology; where concepts such as Oriental despotism and Western freedom were coined. Thus, it can be said in western Iranology that all roads lead to Classical Athens. A deeper survey indicates that the Greek perception of the East and Iran was quite mythical and sometimes based on the stereotypes and Clichés of men's viewpoint toward women. Thus the East and Iran were portrayed as feminine and Western and Greek men. This study looks forward to a better understanding of the Greek perspective of Achaemenid Iran in order to provide a better background for what is called History of mentality.

One of the most important manifestations of human culture and civilization is undoubtedly paper. The role which paper has played in human life, culture, and knowledge is very important. Learning sciences and acquiring knowledge was limited to a particular class of society before paper invention. The reason was high cost, low productivity and difficulties in transportation of writing materials before invention of paper which altogether made it impossible for different classes of society to come to different sciences. But later, the invention of paper made sciences more widespread. The acquaintance of Muslims with paper in the 2nd century AH was an important event in the expansion of Islamic culture and civilization. Questions such as: What materials were used to write before the invention of paper? where and by whom was paper invented for the first time? how did Muslims become familiar with, learn and expand paper? and of course, the main question that what stages paper invention did pass during the Islamic era? will be the obscurities addressed by current research. The research method in this paper is a descriptive-analytical one and the procedure for data collection is based on the librarian method.

Throughout History, regions around the Caspian Sea were more or less being used by merchants who were tended to trade with residents of these or surrounding regions. In this case study, we witness the development of commerce in these regions, especially in southern and western parts of the Caspian Sea. Linking routs, crossing the Caspian Sea vertically, attracted attentions of merchants to these centres and as a result, developed trade exchanges via the Caspian Sea and surrounding regions. Provinces such as Mazandaran, Gilan, Azerbaijan, Shirvan and Arran had the most application in commerce. Productions of these regions including silk, rice, skin, cattle & … were sent to surrounding provinces and European cities. European and surrounding Commercial goods also were being sold in the intended regions. Considering the importance of the aforementioned regions in the process of trade exchanges in those eras, in this survey, by explanatory and analytical method, role of surrounding centres of the Caspian Sea in trade affairs and exchanging goods and trading routes have been discussed. Among questions which have been answered in this survey, these can be mentioned: which regions in the Caspian Sea sphere in the discussed era had the most influence on commerce affair? What were the trading goods and routs in these regions?

The prevalent view that Muḥammad Amīn al-Astarabādī (d. 1036/1626-7) studied with a prominent uṣūlī (rationalist) jurist, namely, Shaykh Ḥasan Ṣāḥib al-Ma’ālim (d. 1011/1602), the son of al-Shahīd al-Thānī (d. 965/1558), and that he was a mujtahid for most of his life before he converted to akhbārism (traditionalism) in Mecca, is largely unfounded. This view surfaced during the late nineteenth century, through Muḥammad Bāqir al-Khwānsārī’s Rawḍāt al-Jannāt, and was uncritically integrated into the major bio-bibliographical accounts on al-Astarabādī’s life and scholarship afterwards. Many modern scholars in turn adopted this view, producing inadequate conclusions about the nature of his akhbārī movement. Based on a close assessment of al-Astarabādī’s extant works and his references to his teachers and places where he studied, Shiraz rather than Mecca was decisive in shaping his early traditionist stance in Shī’a kalām (rational theology), which resonated with his traditionist positions in jurisprudence and ḥadīth. As far as one can tell through his yāzās (scholarly licenses), he sought to transmit ḥadīth from one mujtahid, namely, Shaykh Muḥammad Ṣāḥib al-Madārik (d. 1009/1600), but did not receive training in ijtihad (rational legal inference) with him. He appears to have been well-versed in the methods used by ūṣūlī jurists to evaluate ḥadīth and derive the law, prior to that time, through his studies in Shiraz. All these findings, lead us to question the background and nature of his akhbārī thought as they were presented in much of the secondary literature, and to bring attention to a distinct set of intellectual and sociopolitical forces that shaped it.