فهرست مطالب farshid noroozi

IN THE FIRST SURVIVING PORTRAIT OF FATH ALI SHAH (R. 1797-1834) AS THE Qajar sovereign, painted in 1213/1797-98, just after his accession, the young shah appears with a turban-like cap decorated with a plumed jiqqa (aigrette, fig. 1). The so-called Kayanid crown, a creation of his uncle and predecessor, Aqa Muhammad Shah Qajar (1785-97), is missing. In contrast to most other royal portraits of the later years, here in this majestic work by the master painter, Mirza Baba Shirazi, the shah poses on what appears to be a platform throne covered with a carpet, though at the time there was no Qajar royal throne in existence. The absence of the crown and the throne, the most conspicuous symbols of kingly authority, made the young Fath Ali Shah a crown-and- throne-less king (bī tāj va takht), a synonym for utter powerlessness in the Persian political culture.The reason for the absence of the so-called "badges of sovereignty" (vaṣla-hă-i saltanat) in the symbol-conscious Qajar era (1785-1925)—an absence more telling than any official chronicle would care to reveal-must be sought not in the artist's taste or his royal patron's choice, but in the prevailing chaos and the struggle for political supremacy.

Clergymen were an influential class during the Qajar period, and played a decisive role in the Iranian social and political life at that time. The surviving documents from this period show that clerics played an active role in public benefit, and religious and charitable affairs among other social groups through endowments (Waqf). Endowments, as one of the economic capitals during the Qajar period, increased the influence and prestige of clerics among different classes and played an active social role among them. Nevertheless, the endowment documents related to this group in the Qajar period have been less investigated. Examining the contents of clerics’ endowments will help in obtaining information about the types, uses, and characteristics of the endowments of this social group, as well as acquiring first-handed information about jobs, markets, caravanserais, houses, takyehs and mosquesin the neighborhoods of Barforosh city during the Qajar era.

Barforoush city was a significant place for the settlement and activities of merchants in Qajar period due to the growth of domestic and foreign trade. The merchants usually were active both in trading and doing public-benefiting affairs. Among the merchants’ public-benefiting affairs was endowing properties and assets. It is assumed that examining the contents of their endowment deeds help understand about the types, uses, and features of the endowments of this group of society. It also helps understand more about the jobs, markets, caravanserais, houses, tekyehs, mosques, and neighborhoods of Barforoush in Qajar era. Using content analysis and focusing on the content of merchants’ endowment deeds of Barforoush, this study tried to see such issues as the amount, the use, the diversity, and the function of their endowments. The results showed that from among the merchants’ endowed properties, lands, shops, houses, and caravanserais were the most endowed ones. Regarding the use of the endowments, mourning ceremonies for the martyrdom of Imam Hussain were the most frequent usages followed by charitable and public-benefiting affairs, the daily affairs of students of religion schools. Endowing was more frequent in Naser al-Din Shah Kingdom and the following years.

The policy of centralization and the implementation of modernization programs were put on the agenda in the form of various programs and different forms during the Reza Shah period. During this period, the implementation of programs and laws such as the mandatory duty system, civil registry, the discovery of hijab, the Settlement of nomads, the new judicial system, the registration of documents and properties, tax affairs, and so on. It was necessary to organize the divisions of the country in a modern framework. Therefore, Reza Shah changed the structure of the country's divisions to implement his goals. This research is trying to answer the main question, what was the process of changes in the country's divisions during Reza Shah's period, and what was its relationship with the goals of modernization and centralization in this period? The research method in this study is the historical method with a descriptive-analytical approach and relies on archival documents, periodicals, and written sources. The findings of this research showed that the changes in the field of country divisions in this period greatly increased the political concentration and influence of the government from the provinces to the villages. After that, the modernist policies of the government gained more momentum in various economic, administrative, and educational fields especially the strengthening and development of the new army.

Endowments of the Qajar period are among the most important resources that demonstrates the social, economic, cultural and religious conditions of Iran of the time. Female endowments are particularly important among the different classes and groups of Iranian society that have endowed. Investigating the content of women's endowments is important since they display both quantity and quality of endowments among women. They also demonstrate women’s participation in social activities of the period. The purpose of the research is to study the contents of the endowments of the women in Sari and Barforoush during the Qajar period, to distinguish their characteristics and functions as well as the social status of the women.

Method and Research Design: 

Endowments and some historical library resources were studied and analyzed in a descriptive and analytical way.

The result show that there are few differences between women and men’s endowments in Sari and Barforoush in the Qajar period considering their characteristics and functions. The endowments had religious and social functions and were considered for the following purposes mourning, charitable deeds, seminary students' expenses, publishing religious books, public services, and supporting the life expenses of the children of the person who endows. Endowments were mostly piece of land, a house, a shop, a garden, a bath or a caravanserai. The women were among the rich and noblemen, merchants, and landowners. The women’s social status depended on their father or husband except the ones that themselves were a midwife or tragedian (Ta’ziye khan). Their father or husband were mostly coppersmith, doctor, surgeon, butcher, judge, merchant, tailor, muezzin, Muslim clergyman, and grocer.

The system of administration of country divisions of Iran was in the traditional structural framework before the constitution until the reign of Ahmad Shah, and even the law of 1325 A.H. of the first parliament of the National Council, which was written by the authors of the constitutionalists, could not change the ruling system of administration. create a lot But during the period of Ahmad Shah and the Ministry of Interior Qawam al-Saltaneh and with the presence of Demarni, the French advisor of the Ministry of Interior; The modernization of the system of the administration was implemented. Therefore, this research is trying to answer the question by using the historical research method and archival documents, publications and other historical sources, what were the factors and reasons for the change in the previous routine in the country's divisions during the period of Ahmad Shah, and how did this change happen? The findings of the research show that the leaders of government affairs during the reign of Ahmad Shah through reforms in the structure of the Ministry of Interior and the state administration, the formulation of annual budgets for the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior and the states and provinces, the formulation of the administrative personnel system of the Ministry of Interior and the Provinces and the formation of specialized commissions of country divisions in the Ministry of Interior were in pursuit of modernizing the system of the administration and making changes in that area with the aim of concentrating affairs.

At the beginning of their rule, the Qajars used the tradition of dynastic rule to manage the system of territorial division, but from the period of Naser al-Din Shah, the tradition of dynastic rule to manage that system and the use of princes and members of the royal family in the states and provinces gradually lost color, and the bureaucrats of the time and members of their families, They took the place of princes and members of the royal family in the governance of the states and provinces. In this study, the historical research method and the descriptive-analytical approach were used to try to answer the main question of what were the characteristics of the system of territorial division during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah and what were the factors that caused the change of approach from the policy of dynastic rule to the policy of civil rule and what caused the appointment of the ruling judges in the states and provinces. The research method in this study is the historical method with a descriptive-analytical approach in the field of library studies. The results show that the change of state boundaries and the consolidation of states and provinces under the supervision of a ruler, as well as the creation of new states, were the characteristics of the system of territorial division in this period. The administrators of the administrative system of territorial division during the period of Naser al-Din Shah initially continued the policy of dynastic rule, but due to the harmful results of the dynastic rule policy in the political field as well as the weakening of the financial basis of the central government, they changed the approach from the dynastic rule tradition to the civil rule tradition.

With the establishment of the Pahlavi government by Reza Shah in 1304 A.H. Various aspects of the government changed and found a new organization. The management system of the country's divisions was one of these dimensions, which received a new organization according to the nature of the new government. Therefore, this research is trying to answer the question by using the historical research method and archival documents, publications, and other historical sources, that the organization of the management system of country divisions in the first Pahlavi era before the drafting of the Law of Country Divisions in 1316 A.H. How was it done and what were its goals? The findings of the research show that the first Pahlavi government during a twelve-year process and before the drafting of the law of country divisions in 1316 AH. By establishing new regulations, changing the structure of the Ministry of Interior, changing the names of cities, annexing or separating cities, districts, and villages, and changing the executive elements of the country's divisions, he succeeded in organizing the management system of the country's divisions and making changes in that area to concentrate affairs in the country's capital and support for the government's modernist programs.

The Qajars used other measures and policies to protect and govern the territory of the forbidden countries of Iran in the beginning of their rule, in addition to using the power of the sword. The tradition of family rule or the use of members of the royal family as rulers at the state and provincial levels was one of these measures, which had already been used by some former ruling families such as the Seljuks and Safavids.The findings of the study, which was conducted by historical method and descriptive-analytical approach, show that Agha Mohammad Khan, as the founder of the Qajar dynasty, continued the tradition of family rule by employing all members of the royal family as rulers to govern different states and provinces of Iran. Dad and two of his immediate successors, Fath Ali Shah and Mohammad Shah, introduced a kind of innovation in this tradition by restricting the use of members of the royal family to the king's sons and grandsons.

The purpose of this research is to define the effect of class affiliation (clerics and merchants) on the type of Sari endowment expenditures in the Qajar period.

Method and Research Design: 

 352 Endowment Records of merchants and clerics were described, analyzed and compared.

The endowments of merchants and clerics were mainly land, houses, shops and caravanserai. Clerics mostly endowed land whereas merchants endowed shops. These endowments were used for Imam Hussein’s ceremonies - the third Shiite Imam - like feeding the mourners, feeding fasting people in Ramazan, repairing and maintaining mosques and schools, alms and donations to the poor and Ibn al-Sabeel. The political and social developments of the period did not change the type of endowment expenditures. Most of the endowments belong to the time of Nasser al-Din Shah (1848 –1896). Also, most of the endowments were recorded in the lunar months of Rajab and Muharram. The endowments were entrusted to the person who endowed, his children or the clerics of the region. This indicates a kind of family system and the scholarly system in the management of endowments.

This article examines the responses of the rural poor, both settled peasants and pastoral nomads, to the upheavals unleashed in the Iranian countryside by Riza Shah’s adoption of a programme of authoritarian state-building and rapid modernization. The article shows how, contrary to the conventional assumptions of rural passivity held by both Western scholarship and Iranian nationalism, peasant and nomad communities in fact generated a variety of active responses to the regime’s initiatives, both on their own account and in combination with other social forces, aimed at defending themselves and resisting unfavourable changes in their relations with landlords and state officials. In the two decades between his arrival in power in 1921 via a coup d’etat and his abdication in 1941, Riza Shah presided over a period of profound political, economic and social change in Iran, unprecedented in its scope and in its pace. Throughout the country the rural poor, both the settled peasants and the pastoral nomads, were deeply affected by the upheavals unleashed by the regime’s choice of authoritarian state-building and modernization based on European models.

This paper examines the evidence which supports the notion that Iran experienced a “golden age” of bread riots in the 1890s and early 1900s, just before and indeed contributing to the outbreak of the constitutional revolution. It argues the existence of a link between the destruction of market regulation in Iran, the result of increasing anger and bitterness of those most affected, the urban poor, and their eventual readiness to participate in large numbers in the revolution. It then suggests, in explanation of the intensity of the popular conflicts over bread raging in Iran’s cities in the late nineteenth century, a parallel with eighteenth century England. Although a century of chronological time separates the two cases, each country experienced, at their different moments, a similar collapse of an older paternalist socio-economic and political order, with market regulation at its core, and its suppression by modern capitalism, exemplified by the free market. In each country, this provoked a similar response from the urban poor. The Iranian and Middle Eastern bread riot had functioned reasonably effectively in pre-modern economic and political contexts, where the “politics of negotiation” were still salient. As the free market replaced paternalism, however, so did unmediated class conflict replace older methods of bargaining, albeit occasionally by riot between unequal partners within a social pact.

This article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers’ strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.

This article looks at the continuing political vitality of the urban crowd in early Pahlavi Iran and the role it played in the crises which wracked Tehran in the first half of the 1920s, examining, as far as possible, the ways in which crowds were mobilized, their composition, leaderships, and objectives. In particular it analyses Riza Khan’s own adoption of populist tactics in his struggle with the Qajar dynasty in 1924 – 1925, and his regime’s attempts to manipulate the Tehran crowd in an effort to overcome opposition, both elite and popular, and to intimidate formal democratic institutions such as the Majlis (parliament) and the independent press. In attempting to rescue the Tehran crowd from obscurity, or from condemnation as a fanatical and blindly reactionary mob, this article hopes to rectify the imbalance in much older scholarship which views early Pahlavi Iran solely through the prism of its state-building effort, and to introduce into the study of Iranian history some of the perspectives of ‘‘history from below’’.

The military and disciplinary experts in Europe believe that at the early modern period (e.a about 1500 to 1750 M) western Europe had experienced significant disciplinary and military transformations.  One of the important element of this transition at the early modern period in western Europe was the development and expansion of the use of powder guns in marine and terrestrial battles.  The researchers don't have consensus about the western Europe disciplinary and military effectiveness in the world outside Europe.  The present research aims to study the complicated problem of the disciplinary and military structure of great Asian empires.  To do so it tries to study the disciplinary and military forces of agricultural bureaucrat empires of great Asian axis (Ottoman, Safavid, Ming and Indian Teimoorian) all of which were great powers in the field of economic, disciplinary, military and political capabilities before the start of industrialization process about the year 1800 M. This study persists that how Asian politicians were able to merge the powder guns in their military structures.