مجله تاریخ و تمدن اسلامی
پیاپی 34 (بهار 1400)

It is a widespread belief among Muslims that God has got a name which is unknown to almost everybody, hence only a very few and limited number of people might be aware of it. It is such that one who remembers God or calls on him through pronouncing His rarely known but miraculous name will soon find his desire fulfilled, hence miraculous jobs may be accomplished in the world of creation only through pronouncing it. Muslims have since called it the Greatest Divine Name (ism-e A`zam) and have written a lot on how to obtain it, and its various functions, coupled with many related anecdotes. The present work surveys an overview and presents a classification of such conjectures, with an outlook unto its nature, hence an attempt to take an initial step to formulate a conception of the Greatest Divine Name in Islamic culture and teachings. Without overlooking its nature or  historical process of identification, the present work attempts to piece together Muslims' attention to it, all drawing upon reliable anecdotes, exegetical comments, moral hints, and theological and philosophical views as scattered here and there in various works. It will then make a ground for reviewing various views of the phenomenon of the Greatest Divine Name, with the historical trends that fostered ahead any of them, together with their socio-cutural background.

Akhbār ad-Dawla al-Ābbāsīyya is a new work from an unknown writer which had an important role in changing researchers view on the Abbasid revolution and the principles of Caliphate. In this book, Qur’ânicization and the Citation from the Qur’an have four methods literary use of the Qur’an,  putting verses in the new historical context and presenting a different interpretation of them, historization and legitimization by using Quranic terms. According to the intertextuality studies, we can say that the Qur’an has certainly affected this book. The various goals of the Citation from the Qur’an are improving of the writing style of the text, creation of religious space  and giving the authenticity to a narration or even legitimization to the Abbasid Caliphate. Moreover, Akhbar ad-Dawla al-Abbasiyya  shows that the writer knew the Qur’an well, used it skillfully and his mind is too familiar to words, terms and verses of the Qur’an.

Ta’rīkh Almawṣil by Abu Zakariya Azdī (d. 334).); Ta’rīkh Raqqa by Qushairī Harrani (d. 334).); Ta’ rīkh Mayyāfāriqīn by Ibn Azarq Farqi (d. 577); And Ta’ rīkh Irbil by Ibn Mustawfī Irbilī (d. 637)) are  four surviving local histories of the Jazīra in the Middle Islamic period. Apart from being “local”, what other types of Islamic historiography they are?  A structural and content review of those books revealed: 1. Ta’rīkh Almawṣil is a “local-general chronography” which, in addition to the history of Mosul and the Jazīra, has long report about the history of  late Umayyad and the first Abbasid era; 2. Ta’rīkh Raqqa is a (tabaqat)-“prosopography” which mentions the condition of the “Ulama” of Raqqa and Jazīra, but has very few narrations about the geography and history of this city; 3. Ta’ rīkh Mayyāfāriqīn has narrated the local history of Mayyāfariqīn and the Jazīra under the history of the Caliphate and the history of the Hamdānī, Marwānī and Artuqī dynasties; 4. Ta’ rīkh Irbil is a “non-alphabetic prosopography” in which the lives and works of a number of Ulama and writers of the sixth and seventh centuries AH are discussed

Although zīlūproduction has been mentioned in the historical texts of the tenth century, the surviving examples belong to the sixteenth century onwards. Some scholars have considered a zīlūwoven in Maybod and dated 808/1405 as the earliest known zīlū, but they have mistaken in reading the date and it belongs to the Safavid period. The only known pre- Safavid zīlūis preserved in the Hermitage museum. Historians of Islamic art believe that this zīlūbears no date and introduce it as one of the masterpieces of Ilkhanid art. This paper with careful scrutiny of both artistic style and inscriptions offers a new suggestion for its weaving date. It can be hypothesized that this zīlūhas been woven in Ramadan 808/1406 in Nūshābād, a small town near Kashan. Thus it can be considered as the earliest dated zilu surviving from Islamic Persia. One of the important questions concerning this zīlūaddresses its function. Although other scholars considered this flatweave as a saf – carpet with repeated niche designs that may have been intended for large congregational mosques, use of Quranic inscriptions in a carpet, which would be trodden on by feet would have been disrespectful. Regarding the content of the inscriptions shows that it probably was a prayer rug and connects it to sufi circles.

great convergence of the Ottomans due to their presence and role in the Ottoman Empire's establishment and evolution and its rise as a powerful state, notwithstanding the divergent nature of their life. Therefore, the nomadic and semi-nomadic Turkomans of Anatolia, followers of popular Sufism led by the Sufi dervishes, had agreeable relations with the first Ottoman sultans. Gradually, historical developments changed this trend. The Ottomans conquered Constantinople in the second half of the ninth century AH and moved their capital to it. Following this conquest, the Ottoman bureaucracy underwent a new stage of evolution and development. Moreover, the Ottomans' policies towards the Turkomans, the Ottoman state's former founders, changed radically. This was while a large population of Turkomans emphasized the nomadic ways and traditions of life. According to this study, Ottoman bureaucracy's development in the post-conquest period of Istanbul, headed by the three institutions of Timar, Devshirme, and School, presented a crucial role in isolating the Turkomans. Besides, Ottoman centralism policy in the face of the nomadic and semi-nomadic Turkomans and the humiliation of these groups by the Ottoman society's elites reinforced the Sufi Turkmens' divergence from the Ottomans and caused their convergence of the Safavids.

With the rising of Iranian Mahdīsts as the Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲īyya in the Tīmūrids era, similar movements were started in Indian sub-continent from late of the ninth century A.H. that the main goal of their leaders like Sayyid Muḥammad D̲j̲awnpūrī, the founder of Mahdawīyya Current who was close to the Sunnis, was to create social flow around their claims of Mahdīsm. The question of this research is what are the possible similarities and differences between the two Currents of the Mahdawīyya and the Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲īyya? In present article their beliefs, methods of social interaction and political and military actions have been compared and shows that in some cases, the leaders of the Mahdawīyya and the Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲īyya pretended to have the support of the leaders of Ṣūfism. Both sometimes promoted their conception of Ṣūfism instead of  some principles of their own tarāʾiḳa and formed armed groups. Yet, the efforts of the Mahdawīyya leaders to preventing disciples from learning science and communicating with Non-Mahdawīs and the belief of the Nūrbak̲h̲s̲h̲īyya to primacy of Sharīʿa over Ṭarīka and to kind of Transmogrification are most important differences between the two Currents.