فصلنامه تاریخ اسلام
پیاپی 92 (زمستان 1401)

Martin Lings is one of the few orientalists who converted from Christianity to Islam. One of his most important works is a book titled: Muhammad: His Life Based On the Earliest In this book, he considered the life of the great prophet and presented a relatively comprehensive report in this regard. This book has detailed the biographies of some famous Companions along with their roles and positions. There are many methodological and content based reflections about the book, one of which is the role taken by Ali (A.S) in the most important battles of the Prophetic era. The present research has reviewed this part of the book relying on the historical analysis method of research. The findings of the research clarify that Martin Lings has practically distanced himself from the principles and criteria of historical research due to selecting some reports without logic, not considering all the available evidence and sources, ignoring some reports and overstating other reports, and finally imposing his own assumptions on history. He has consequently presented an imperfect account on the role of Ali (A.S) in these battles.

After the death of the second caliph and based on his previous suggestion, the selection of caliph was entrusted to a six-member council. One of the prominent members of this council was the holiness, Ali (A.S), whose opinion had a decisive influence on the decision of the council. This article seeks to present a model to illuminate the decision-making of Imam Ali (A.S) in the council of six people on the basis of Simon's decision-making theory by taking advantage of the descriptive-analytical method. The findings of this research clarify that Ali (A.S) made a decision after being in a situation of coercion and noticing the danger of division of Muslims, while arguing for their rightness in succession and also avoiding accusations of differences. Explaining the efficiency of His decision and the degree of its acceptance by the government officials is another part of this article.

It has been greatly considered about the foundations of political power and legitimacy in ancient Iran, especially in the Sassanid era. Moreover, the divinity of monarchy, descent, power and justice have often been mentioned as the four elements of power and gaining legitimacy in ancient Iran, but so far a comparative study has not been done related to Sassanid era and the other periods. Considering the difference in the elements of legitimacy in different governments of Iran before Islam, the present research took advantage of the comparative method of research and relied on the Persian and Arabic sources of the Islamic period including the Khoday Namag or kings’ books and other written sources left from the Sassanid period to compare these elements in Sassanid and Parthian eras. The result of this comparison illuminate that these sources have paid less attention to the legitimizing elements in introducing the Parthian government and have written more in the direction of delegitimizing the Parthians, while they strongly seek to introduce the legitimizing elements for the Sassanid government

Some sect writers have regarded Hadith e- Efteraq (Separation) as the basis of their writing to introduce and inspect Muslim sects and have sought to prove seventy-three Islamic sects in accordance with Hadith of Separation. Nonetheless, some others have disregarded this hadith and looked for the reason of the division of the sects in the differences in their religious beliefs and foundations. This article seeks to answer the question of whether this hadith played a role in the development of Islamic sectarianism through the descriptive and analytical method of research. For this purpose, the present article has studied two books of Ava’el al- Maqalat compiled by Sheikh Mufid (413 A. H) and Bayan al-Adyan by Abol Ma'ali Muhammad Hosseini Alavi (485 A. H) and it has revealed that the sources such as Bayan al-Adyan are influenced by this hadith. However, in the sources such as Ava’el al- Maqalat, the criteria other than hadith e- Efteraq have been taken into account.

Abbasids - the second dominant dynasty in the history of Islam - from the beginning of the political struggle against Umayyads to the later periods of their political life, have always relied on sources to prove their political legitimacy. At the beginning, they were able to overthrow the Umayyads and gain the government by relying on the legitimacy of their relative connection with the Prophet (PBUH). Relying on the historical data collected in a library method, this research aims to show how the change in the political alignment of the opponents of Abbasids, caused them to establish and promote the validity of their government by changing the sources they rely on for political legitimacy. Their initial association with the theory of Shi'ite legitimacy and then taking an angle with it in dealing with the new enemies, shows that the Abbasids considered their ultimate goal - preserving power - superior to any other thought and motive. The findings of this research reveal that the change in the sources of legitimacy had a direct relationship with the political alignments of the Abbasid enemies until the end of Ma'mun's caliphate. As far as possible, the information about their political enemies can be obtained from the sources used by them to instill legitimacy.

Ali Ibn e- Ibrahim Alavi Javvani (died in the early 4th century) is of the Shiite historians and the author of the books of Akhbar Sahib Fakh and Yahya Ibn e- Abdullah. In his works, he tried to consider the uprising of prominent Alavi and Zaidi individuals. These books have been lost, but parts of them have been preserved through the book of Maqatil al-Talebiyyin and found their way into other historical texts. The ambiguities that existed about the personality, scientific life, historiographical method and sources cited by Javvani and his goals for writing these works made a coherent research in this field inevitable. The result of the research indicates that Javvani was one of the historians and writers of the Shia Companions, and his most important motivation in writing the death of the Abi Talib family, especially the historical news of Sahib Fakh and Yahya Ibn e- Abdullah, was introducing their spiritual, political, and social face in the political and social conditions of his era as well as the corruption of the government and reemphasizing the fight against oppression until martyrdom on the one hand, and on the other hand, the incitement of Zaidi and Alawites who had the idea of an armed uprising.

The uprising of Ashura has been constantly the focus of scientific debates among various Shiite schools. The works developed in this context reflect the intellectual foundations and beliefs of the authors of these works. The current research was conducted with the aim of knowing the impact of the intellectual foundations of Hojjatiya Society on their perception of the Karbala uprising, based on the book, Mystery of Ashura, which is a work attributed to this group. The results of this research carried out through the descriptive-analytical method and based on knowledge producing systems out of the ontological and epistemological foundations accepted by the association, clarify that Hojjatiya Society has completely removed the knowledge and enlightenment of the Ashura uprising from the limit of ordinary human sciences and it does not propose anything other than accepting this part of the life of Seyyed al-Shohda (A.S)  to understand the various aspects of his movement.