نشریه تاریخ اسلام و ایران
سال سی و دوم شماره 53 (بهار 1401)

With the Constitutional Revolution and the formation of the National Assembly, it was expected that with the approval of the budget as the most important financial document of the country, a positive change in the financial structure of Iran compared to before the Constitution is been made. The method of approving the budget was specified in the constitution, but it was confronted with many challenges and obstacles.  So the research question is what the methods and challenges of budget approval were and to what extent these methods were in line with modern budget principles and the constitution.  The findings of the study indicate that the parliament could not approve a single budget in twenty years, from the constitution to the extinction of the Qajar dynasty, in accordance with the constitution and modern budget principles.  The most important reasons for the non-approval of the budget can be included the lack of seriousness of the government in presenting the budget, the instability of the government, the interference of external factors and the closure of the parliament.  However, given the challenges they faced, the government and parliament offered other ways to approve the budget.  The first parliament was in the process of transitioning from traditional budgeting to modern budgeting, which practically followed the same method of traditional budgeting incompletely.  The government prepared an incomplete budget in the second parliament, which was not approved by the parliament, and in the third parliament, the government failed to present a budget to the parliament.  In the fourth and fifth terms, the parliament showed more cooperation with the government, and the parliament approved the budgets by the four-wall and one-twelfth methods.  The method of preparing and compiling the research is documentary and library, and with a descriptive-analytical approach, examines the challenges and variable methods of budget approval.

Sassanids' rule over Syria during the reign of Khosrow Parviz (604-628 AD) has been discussed by scholars of ancient history over the past hundred years. Many of them believed that the Sassanids' rule in Syria ended the collapse of social and economic institutions and structures of the Syrian land during the time of Khosrow Parviz and have described it as very negative and destructive. In this article, it has been tried to show that on contrary to the common opinion and based on historical evidence and using written sources and archaeological data to show that the Sassanids' rule in Syria did not cause the collapse of the administrative, socio-cultural and economic structures of this land, but the previous structures with slight changes continued in this period. It seems after military domination over this land, the Sassanids re-organized the previous administrative structure and order with a few changes, although they took over the political and military management, but, the financial and civil management of the land remained under the control of local urban aristocrats and religious leaders. By using the method of historical research, it has been done descriptively-analytically.

Some words or phrases in Middle Persian or Dari Persian languages are occasionally mentioned in Arabic sources of the early Islamic centuries that are of great value for research on the history of the Persian Language. The precious book Nihāyat al-Arab fī Akhbār al-Furs wa al-Arab is an instance of these sources that the date of its compilation, the names of the author of its Arabic text and the translator of its Persian text are all unknown. The unknown author of this book sometimes used words or phrases in Middle Persian or Persian languages which is a rare action in itself and of course is very useful linguistically and historically, and one of them is the retelling of the Persian inscription on the dirham and dinar coins of Homāy Čehrzād, Kiānian Queen, which states: “Eat O Queen of the World, for a thousand years which pass from Nowrūz and Mihrgān.” Previously, scholars of the history of the Persian language, referring to Homāy Čehrzād as a myth, considered this writing to be one of the syllabic poems of the Sasanian period which was probably composed during the Borān’s reign (630-631 AD), the daughter of Xusrow II (590-628 AD). Taking another look at the report of Nihāyat al-Arab and also at the inscriptions on the Sasanian coins, this research attempts to make a new suggestion about the use of this writing and its meaning and show that it is probably an echo of the inscription on the dinar and dirham coins of Queen Borān.

Akhbārīsm as a jurisprudential school within Imami scholarship came into existence in the 11thAH/17thAD century and caused many long-standing changes in the history of Imami ijtihad. Accordingly, the majority of research projects into Iran’s history include a chapter concerned with the Usūli-Akhbārī conflict. Akhbari studies is a field wherein many researchers from various academic backgrounds have contributions who, despite differences in perspectives and projects, share some themes amongst which anti-rationality is the most important and the most re-producing one. A group of researchers treat Akhbārīs as opponents not only to usūl al-fiqh but also philosophy, theology, and theoretical mysticism and at a higher level to every genre of argumentation and reasoning while in some cases they step forward to basically opposing thinking of any kind.  A group of researchers attribute some essentialities to the school and put it in the same line with sedentary style of thinking while others suggest that Akhbārī thought was good enough to suppress popular movements.  A group of researchers compare this school, in epistemology and methodology, with Salafism, Scripturalism, and Literalism. Anti-rational theme is extensively repeated across different research projects to the extent that it has now become a cliché preventing researchers from a descent observation. In this way the constructive role of the Akhbārī thought and the necessary function performed by Akhbārī ulama in the history of Shi’ite jurisprudence is being neglected.    Putting anti-rational theme at the centre of the study and in order to open up a new horizon for Akhbārī literature, this paper is devoted to an evaluation of the works of eight scholars who actively took part in the formation of Akhbārī literature. In doing so, the article attempts to challenge the existing style of interpretation dominant over studies concerned with Akhbārīsm.

During the Qajar period, Britain and Russia established a consulate in Iran based on the Kāmelat al-Wadād (Most-favored-Nations Clause) concession. Consulates were usually set up for commercial purposes, but the reports and activities of such institutions went far beyond business motives and goals. The present study intends to discuss the British Consulate in Mashhad and seeks an answer to the question: What were the motives and goals of the British Consulate in Mashhad? Examining the sources, it was hypothesized that the British consulate in Mashhad was established for commercial and political purposes and to strictly supervise Russian actions in the region, but beyond that it had comprehensive intelligence, security and executive functions in Khorasan province. The research data were provided by library data, from historical sources as well as two categories of Persian and English documents, and have been discussed by the method of causal explanation, in the context of British-Russian competition. The results of the discussion indicate that British agents, in competition with Russia, set up a consulate in Mashhad. Under the guise of establishing a consulate in Mashhad, the British set up an intelligence network to monitor Russia's activities in Central Asia and Iran’s northeastern borders in order to thwart Russian anti-British actions in the area. In addition, by establishing a consulate in Mashhad, while supporting British citizens, they removed the barriers to trade between Iran and Britain in this area.

With the burgeoning of the Silk Road from the first century AD, the Sogdians whose land, in Transoxiana, was located along this trade road, became traders, and traveled to other lands for business. Through trading with other peoples, Sogdians who had previously embraced Zoroastrianism became acquainted with various religions and beliefs, such as Manichaeism, Buddhism, Mazdakism, and Nestorian Christianity, and Some of them converted to those religions and started to propagate them. On the other side, not only did Sogdians were encountering various religions in their homeland and tried to understand the principles of their religions, but also their commercial and political preferences brought about the advertisement and promotion of those other religions freely and without any conflict in their territory. This phenomenon can be called "Commercial Tolerance".In this article, the various aspects of this commercial tolerance were analyzed by using some ancient sources, new studies, and archeological excavations. This phenomenon has never been seen in any other historical periods or any other lands unless in the contemporary era, where different nations with different religions have lived together. This phenomenon has brought about new consequences such as “the creation of unity between religions" in Sogdiana between the sixth and eighth centuries A.D. Based on this thought, the Sogdians tried to build compatibility between the various religions that were prevalent in their territory or between their colonies.

The Coinage system in the Timurid dynasty as in other governmental dynasties provides valuable information about the political power and the influence of governors. Relatively, it indicates religious orientations, economic and political situations, especially in the field of commerce. The present writing analyzes the coinage system and money exchanges in the Timurid dynasty by using a historical method based on an analytic-descriptive approach and using historical resources and the coins available in museums and gathered works. It also tries to answer the following questions: what are the characteristics of different current coins in the Timurid dynasty in terms of weight, cutting and frequency of currencies and variety of mints? Given the analysis and comparison of the mentioned information, what are the changes in money value and what are their influences on the economic situation in this dynasty? The research results indicate that the coinage system and money exchanges in the Timurid dynasty (771-913 A.H.) as in previous dynasties were based on gold, silver and copper coins without any adherence to the concentrated system. Therefore the endeavors which were done in the case of coinage with the same weight indicate an attempt to reach economic stability, development and growth of regional and interregional commerce which were seriously followed by some Timurid Amirs including Timur. The attention and interest of the Timurid dynasty in commerce and establishment of relations with other territories and also internal stability are the most important reasons for their attempts to standardize the coins all around the conquered territories. Although it wasn’t completely successful, widespread policies based on this fundamental economic principle is worthy of attention and contemplation.