فصلنامه تاریخ اسلام
پیاپی 24 (زمستان 1384)

After the fall of the Umayyads, the territories under their domination including parts of western India gradually came under the influence of the Abbasids. At the same time the Shi'ah, who were disappointed and dissatisfied with the Abbasids, were persecuted and oppressed by them and were forced to immigrate to such distant lands as Sind. This problem aroused the Abbasids and attracted their special attention to the Islamic regions in India and the Indus Valley (Sind). Differences among tribes of Arab origin in these areas; whose ancestors had been warring with one another long before Islam; brought a stop to Muslim conquests in India, weakened their front, and undermined the pillars of Islamic rule there. These differences, the great distance between India and Sind from the center of the caliphate, and ambitions of some tribal chieftains finally lead to the rise of independent states in Mansurah and Moltan bringing local and regional rivalries to their peaks. These events took place about the same time or a little after independence - seeking movements in North Africa and Iran, the result of which was nothing but division and discord in the Muslim World.

The Ghaybah (Occultation) of Imam-e Zaman (the Imam of the Period) is the most important event in the political history of the Shi'ah creed that has practically divided shi'ah history in two separate periods, the period of the Imams' presence and the Occultation Period. The Major Occultation period began in 329 AH. A few days before his Major Occultation, in a letter to his fourth and last envoy, Ali ibn Muhammad Samuri, Imam Mahdi (A) announced that his Major Occultation period had arrived and that his second Coming would be dependent on God's will. the year 329 AH can be called the year of split in the history of the leadership. The occurrence of this event had major impacts on the Shi'ah history the most important of which is the vacuum of leadership. This event caused the division of the Shi'ah creed into several branches. The Shi'ah ulama (scholars) tried to formulate the theory of imamah (leadership) and restrict the number of the Imams to twelve individuals. They also tried to justify and explain the phenomenon of the Ghaybah after the ideological Attacks of the opposition. Their efforts in trying to resolve the problem of the Shi'ah leadership led to the creation of the theory of the "succession of scholars". They tried to demonstrate the theoretical and practical ways and means of how the Shi'ah should administer their lives inside the dominant Sunni society as well.

Instruments and necessary methods for correspondence and the use of special emblems to confirm and ratify the authenticity of documents issued by rulers has been a major element of administrative procedures in various periods of history. For the same reason, since the advent of Islam such methods and systems came to be a centerpiece of attention as well. In his correspondences with the leaders and emperors of the period, the Prophet of Islam (S), also, evidently used his ring as a seal to officially endorse and ratify such letters. With the passage of time, the methods of writing and the ways of correspondence and posting of adminstrative letters have been subject to change in various periods of history. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an etymological study of words and expressions such as tamgha, toghra, and yarligh and explain their historical trend and development in the administrative systems of the Islamic Period.

The Hafsids were a Berber dynasty of North Africa that ruled in Ifrighiyah (Western Tripoli, Tunisia, and Eastern Algeria) from 625 to 983 A.H. The Hafsid period medicine, which was a mixture of the traditional Gheyruwan School and the Andalusian and Iranian Medicines, became the highway for the transfer of Muslim medical knowledge to Europe; and in fact had been a final stage in the advancement of the history of Islamic medicine. In this article, topics such as pharmacology, anatomy, description and diagnosis of diseases, health care, and spa-therapy are discussed. Also, the onset of cholera and plague in Europe and Ifrighiyah are two important events that occurred during the Hafsid rule and that had scientific, political and figh'hi (legal) consequences in this period.

Ibn 'Alghami was among the wise viziers of the Abbasid caliphate. He was the vizier of Caliph Musta'sim with whose fall in 656 A.H. the caliphate in Baghdad ended. At this period the court witnessed rivalry between the Shi'ah and Sunnah, with the Shi'ah vizier ibn 'Alghmi on one side and the Sunni functionaries of the court on the other. This rivalry was related to the fall of Baghdad and ibn 'Alghami's role in it. The main objective of this paper is to review ibn 'Alghami's role in the fall of Baghdad.

The establishment of the Ottoman Empire by migrant Turks in Asia Minor is an interesting and prominent event in the Muslim World. The wise policy of the Ottomans in confronting the powers around and the blending of various ethnicities with different races and languages looked astonishing at the first glance though it weakened their empire in the long run. After the 10th century A.H., 16th AD, the empire fell on a path of decline; however, the final fall came very late. The writer of the paper intends to prove that although the period of Suleyman the Lawgiver looked magnificent, it carried with it factors of decline and disintegration. From the viewoint of the researcher, Suleyman wanted to overcome the world that had begun its transformation through internal ways and means. He adopted improper policies in a decisive period of the world; policies which in long term caused the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

This article reviews the differnces between poetry and history at first. In poetry everything leads to probability, but history is required to consider any possible phenomenon. With a closer look, the border between poetry and history fades away, however. Next the article takes up the fact that with the appearance of "American Neo-Historicism", Herodotus' style of historiography has come to the center of attention again. The writer then deals with the nature of historical treatment. Referring to the difference between the historical and scientific phenomena, he explains that the scientific phenomenon is the result of observation and is based upon the cause and effect relationship and that it is not predictable and repeatable. The cultural and historical phenomena, on the other hand, occur once and for all and thier interpretation is not limited to just one instance. Though the uniqueness of a historical event and a work of art connects them to a specific time, it opens the way for explanations that change during the course of time.