nozhat ahmadi

In the system of thoughts until the new centuries, history was associated with lessons and history writing had a ethic hue. On the other hand, history was also used in ethic writing. In this study, the aim is to compare the application of history in the texts of mystical ethics with the application of history in the texts of political ethics. Ethic texts contain the thoughts of the authors of these texts and to understand this thought among different approaches, the approach of discourse analyses has been chosen to achieve the purpose of this study; an approach that, in addition to understanding the meaning of the texts, is also concerned with identifying the force in which the text was formed. With this approach, this study tries to address the following question: What are the similarities and differences between the application of history in the texts of mystical ethics and political ethics, and what is the origin of this difference? History is narrated in the texts of mystical ethics in the form of words and deeds of the past elders and in a narrative form. The audience of mystical ethics texts has a lower position than the authors of these texts in the epistemic hierarchy. The authors clearly consider the sacred history of mysticism to be a role model for the audience and emphasize it. They depict the mystical sacred history in the form of a stable and continuous whole in order to protect themselves against the rival discourse. History is narrated through admonitions and anecdotes in political ethics texts. However, because the audience of political ethics texts has a higher social status than the authors of these texts, the authors have limitations to encourage the audience to imitate history. They have regarded history to include the lesson of changing circumstances, so that in this way it has defended its position against the rival discourse.

During the Timurid period (771–913 Lunar Hijri), Shiite teachings became more widely spread as a basis for the Safavids' recognition of Shiism in the next century. The Timurids' inclination towards Sufism, which is the doctrine of tolerance of their beliefs, has had a great impact on this approach, while the existence of Shiite poets has increased the growth of this phenomenon. The role of Shiite and Sunni poets in the emergence and spread of Shiite beliefs is the question of this historical research. Findings based on statistical analysis and analysis of poems of several Shiite and Sunni poets in the Timurid period identified that in this period, Shiite poets, by composing Poetical works full of Shiite beliefs, praise, and care of the Twelve Imams, observed politeness and tolerance towards Sunni beliefs and Sunni poets by composing many poems in praise of twelve imams and the minimal praise of three caliphs, having an influential role in the emergence and consolidation of Shiite beliefs and the spread of that religion. It seems that the writing of correct poetry by the Shiite elders was considered a sign of grace and lack of work in this regard, a sign of the poet's lack of skill, and it resulted in the general lack of popularity of the poems.

The historiography of the Qajar period, under the influence of the discourse of modernity and its requirements, went through a historical experience. The result of this development was the creation of boundaries between the two historical perspectives of tradition and modern as two distinct paradigms. Based on this discursive development, a double reading of the Safavid issue also took place. In the first narrative of lived experiences, ideological requirements and historical perspectives aligned with the traditional historiographical paradigm, the memory of the Safavids was narrated with a kind of pride, and of course as a source of legitimacy with a proud and epic tone. On the opposite point and from the perspective of critical and modernist historians aligned with the modern discourse, all those previous characteristics and criteria were reversed from a new perspective, the position of the Safavids was reduced to a burdensome, decadent and anti-modern position. Based on these two approaches, the problem of this research is how did the rise and fall of the Safavids occur in these two historiographical perspectives? This question will be answered in an analytical way and based on the content criticism of the narratives of historians of the Qajar period. The hypothesis of this article is that in proportion to the transition from tradition discourse to modernity and the beginning of the gradual dominance of modern discourse in this period, the position of the Safavids also fell from a legitimizing, lofty and proud position to a low position and became an important pillar in the degeneration of the historians of this period. The course was converted.

The lack of health and the lack of necessary facilities to deal with infectious diseases was one of the most important problems of the Qajar and Pahlavi governments. This issue was one of the reasons for high mortality and lack of population growth in Iran. At the beginning of the forties, shah, under the influence of internal and external factors, began to carry out social reforms, one of which was the issuance of the decree establishing the Health Corps on January 21, 1964.While taking a quick look at the background of the country's health situation, the present research is trying to answer the question of what role did the parliament play in approving the establishment of the Health Corps and the challenges in implementing the related approvals? The article has investigated the subject in a library method, relying on the parliament's deliberations, the press and documents, and in a descriptive and analytical way. The findings of the research show that the idea of forming the Health Corps was first suggested to the Shah by one of the MPs (Shafi Amin); Secondly, reflecting on the efforts of the representatives to smooth the progress of the health corps program, it can be said that the parliament has shown an active role and the health corps has also shown acceptable activities during the activity of the parliament. And at least by controlling mortality, it caused the country's population to grow significantly.

Waqf is one of the oldest and most valuable human heritages that has been widely used among all ethnic groups, religions and civilized nations of the world and in different periods of Iranian history and has had lasting effects on societies. The issue of waqf and its formation and function have had a long history in the city of Ardabil. The city of Ardabil has had strategic and geopolitical value in terms of geographical location. During the Qajar period, although Ardabil did not have the prosperity and glory of the Safavid period, but people, especially Shiites, paid much attention to that city and until the end of the Qajar period, they went to visit the tomb of Sheikh Safi. The religious nature of Ardabil, especially as the origin of the head of the Safavid sect of Sheikh Safi al-Din and the location of his tomb, has had a great impact on the role and function of the waqf tradition in various religious, cultural, social and economic dimensions. The present study was done in a descriptive-analytical manner. To this end, libraries and archival documents and Waqfnameh were studied, reviewed and analyzed in the General Directorate of waqf and Charitable Affairs of Ardabil province. The present study seeks to answer the question: what socio-economic functions did the tradition and institution of waqf have in Ardabil during the Qajar period and what were the amount, types and uses of waqf in Ardabil? The analysis revealed how the socio-economic functions of waqf have been influenced by socio-historical events and intellectual currents of the Qajar period. Due to the religious nature of Ardabil, religious waqfs are the most common items in Waqfnameh. In addition, waqfs have been given to those people who have actually needed them. Also, new intellectual movements and the familiarity of Ardabili waqf doers with new ideas, including constitutionalism, have had a significant impact on the types of waqfs.

Folk medicine in the Safavid period was influenced by several epistemological, cultural and social contexts. On the one hand, the long-lasting established historical, intellectual and cultural traits established the status of the Iranian society of the Safavid era as a pre-modern society. On the other hand, the occurrence of some political, social and cultural changes in this period influenced the cultural situation, the system of beliefs, worldviews, norms and actions of the social classes in the context of everyday life. These two major components directly and indirectly affected the state of folk medicine in this period. It is hypothesized that the folk medicine of the Safavid period is affected by some factors, such as the mythic nature of the society, reliance on pre-modern cosmology, the predominance of foreign sciences and approaches based on astrology, the spread of superstition and also the structural state of science. Using an analytical approach, the author tries to explain which of the epistemological, cultural and social factors highly affected the folk medicine in the Safavid era?

Islamist historiography in the Pahlavi period, despite its weak body and not very wide scope, focused on re-reading the history of Islam from the perspective of identity. On this basis, a range of Islamist historians, such as Morteza Motahhari and Ali Shariati, by taking a sympathetic and convergent approach to the history of Islam, especially the history of Islam in Iran, seeks to highlight the role of Islam and Islamic thought in the cultural situation. - The identity of contemporary Iran emerged. The Safavid studies of these two Shiite historians and thinkers, under the influence of their intellectual and ideological attachments, as well as their concern for strengthening their nationalist and Islamist ideas and ideals, led to a distinct Safavidism in the discourse of historiography. It became the Pahlavi period. The question of this research is in fact what relation did Motahhari and Shariati Safavid studies have with their Islamist ideas?The hypothesis of this research, which has been done analytically, is based on the claim that despite the important differences in Shariati and Morteza Motahhari Safavid studies, what connects their view of Safavid history is the insight. Islamism and their identity concerns are nationalist and reformist; In a way, these characteristics have distinguished and highlighted the Safavid studies of the two in the historical discourse of the Pahlavi period.

Mohammad Shafi Tehrani, Indian born from an Iranian origin, has written the book Meraat al-Sadiqin from 1729 to 1746, in four sections with the aim of presenting the history of the Timurids of India. A separate section of it, was published in the history of Afshari under the title of Nadernameh and Meraat E-Varedat. In this article, an attempt was made to express in a descriptive-analytical method, with the help of library resources to show how the Nadernameh and the Meraat E-Varedat can be the same as the Meraat al-Sadiqin. What are the reasons for the similarities and differences between Mohammad Shafi's historiography and the Iranian historiographical tradition? What issues were involved in choosing the type of historiography he used? This study shows that both works, due to the similarity of the writing method and thematic relationship and Tehrani reference to the general name of the work in both versions that have been neglected by the editors, is the same part of a single work entitled Meraat al-Sadeqin. Despite the continuation of the Iranian historiographical tradition in Merat al-Sadiqin and to some extent the tendency towards tolerance and open-mindedness, distance from Iran, familiarity with Persian literature and interaction with Iranian writers living in India, accessing to and influence from Iranian sources, his time and place in narrating history, being influenced by the Indian intellectual atmosphere and having Sufi beliefs and the prevalence of this kind of attitude in Tehrani’s thought determine the type of orientation in his method of historiography.

The Fotuhat-i Gitisitan was composed in verse three years before the fall of the Safavid monarchy.  A rich historical epic, its focus is on the battles of the most famous kings of the dynasty and provided valuable information in regards to the social, cultural and political history of the Safavid dynasty.   The poet is the grandson of the famous grand vizier, Khalifah Sultan, who traces his lineage to a branch of the Mar'ashi family of Mazandaran. The family had immigrated to Isfahan during the reign of Shah Tahmasb and held different imperial positions during the Safavid period, especially in the clerical establishment.   Despite the rationalism that marks the poet’s writing, fatalism colors his world-view where fate is understood to be the main cause for victory or defeat. His language and the selected topics of his composition reveal  the poet's nostalgia for the glorious age of  Shah Abbas I.   The main intellectual challenge of the poet is to show the importance of his epic and the unique perspective of the poet. This article is a synopsis and analysis of the content of the Fotuhat-i Gitisitan and to outline what it has to offer to the historians of the Safavi world.

The economic system of every government has got a determining role in the progress or failure of the system. Unfortunately, we do not have enough accurate information on the details of the structure of the economic system in the Safavid era. This weakness is even more evident for payment of wages, since there are fewer documents available than sales or devotion documents, and there is little reference in literature for this issue. Moreover, such few remaining documents have received little attention from the clergies. Based on the importance and the position of clergies in Safavid era, identifying and quantifying their income and financial resources can be extremely important, and may even answer some ambiguous questions in this regard. Some questions include: What was the main source of income for clergies? What were the factors affecting the clergies' income? How the political and social conditions had changed the income of clergies? Who were the main sources of funding for the clergies? There is no specific book or independent source related to this issue. Moreover, financial documents of Safavid era have not yet been fully analyzed. Furthermore, the notes which have described the state of clergies either have not found it necessary to give reports in this regard or they had no sufficient information about this. One of the resources of this period which has mentioned the clergies' income, along with the description of the clergies’ status, is Riyadh Al-Olamn and Hiyaz al-Fozala, by Abdallah Afandi Isfahani. Due to the author's accuracy and the credibility of this book, it can answer some of the questions in this regard, albeit to some extent. Here, we have tried to analyze the data of Riyadh Al-Olama and to indicate that we can obtain valuable information on the types of income and the way it was paid even in a manuscript whose purpose has not been to present financial reports. In fact, this is itself a part of economic history of this period. Finally, we hope this paper can motivate more researches in regard for revealing the economic history of Safavid era, which we still a long way to go.

During the 36 years of the reign (1370-1405), Taimūr Gūrkānī carried out numerous campaigns across the Transoxiana and a significant portion of the Middle East and Anatolia to conquer. The use of the concept of war against the infidels, which came in the Qur'an and sources of jurisprudence under the name of Jehād, left his hand in the grip of the slave, or legitimized it. The present study, based on the geographic area of the Taimūr’s wars was under the name of Jehād or Ghazweh, is about to search and identify the areas where their populations were enslaved by Taimūr’s troops. Therefore, it has been attempted to use a descriptive-analytic method based on the main sources to investigate the geographic dispersion or, in other words, the local analysis of slavery in the Taimur Gurkani conquests and analyze and criticize its motivations and characteristics. The results of this study show that during the Taimūr Gūrkānī attacks, the largest number of slavery or Esterqāq, was found in areas such as the Caucasus, India, the Ghebchagh plains and  Jeté Ulus that was often also under the pretext of fighting with infidelity , bad religion , defending Islam and expanding it in the above areas; and in fact in order to obtain human resources and sell them in the slave trade markets or urdu bāzār, or to receive a ransom for their release from their parents and relatives.

Historical sources do not report the motivation of women to endow their property. There is no precise explanation in deed of endowment except for stereotypes phrases. It seems that there is a meaningful relationship between the social base and the financial power of these women and the attention to the endowment of property. The women of the Safavid period paid great attention to social and cultural-religious issues and despite their perceptible Non-attendance in the society were indirectly affected on these activities. They influenced on the implementation of these affairs by allocating part of own property for cultural- religious affairs and welfare works. They followed from the principles governing the nature of society and were effective in increasing and unifying these principles by the type of their endowments and the
conditions for which they were appointed. Women have not had any prohibition or limitations to assigning their property for endowment. Despite women’s deprivation of direct participation in the social arenas, they have done a lot of effort to improve the situation of the community through construction and endowment of various buildings and therefore they have showed participation and their abilities. Pious foundations from them prove that there was no gender perspective in endowment and women are endowed regardless of any kind of gender perspective. There were also no limitations for women’s endowments by the community.

Decrees on the prohibition of wine, drugs and beard shaving are among the most frequent social verdicts of the 11th century AH, which the quality of their execution is also mentioned in the historical sources of this period. Due to the silence of official sources about this case, the community’s point of view and public opinion about these decrees is ambiguous. The aim of this article is to achieve the important assumption, through thematic analysis of some friendly letters (Akhvaniat) of this era that the obligation of these decrees does not necessarily mean their definitive acceptance by the community and people with different social positions had dealt with these decrees in different manners. For instance, there were some poets and literates who protested and criticized these decrees, while most of the religious scholars and officials supported and agreed with these decrees due to their involvement in the process of issuing them. Although political officials who were eager to maintain their position had been wary and mostly abstained from expressing their point of views, their true orientation is visible in their works and lives. The ordinary people, who did not have a special social position and no opportunity to express their views, have shown their accompaniment or insubordination towards these decrees in their everyday life. Furthermore, the study of the various forms of these reactions shows that, given the opposition of the two main groups of the community, i.e. poets and ordinary people, reactions to the deterrent decrees of this period have appeared more often in opposition and lack of coexistence.

Iranian carpet industry is thousands of years old. The carpet has decorated a wide range of spaces from the nomadic tents to the royal courts and palaces. Its importance has drawn many enthusiasts from abroad. The boom and bust in the carpet market has been subject to the overall economy and trade of the country. Since the 10th century A.H. i.e., the establishment of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, carpet was deemed as an important industry and a venerable form of art. The current article attempts to shed light on Tabriz carpets and reveal their trace in world museums and discuss the reason for their desirability. Through descriptive-analytical method and by means of library and online sources made available by western museums the author has sought to first, put the importance and status of Tabriz carpet in its proper context in the Safavid era, and then assess its export to foreign countries.

Since the ninth century, a rich metaphoric and ideal space has been opened for reproduction of Mahdaviyat discourse; as the main pillar of Shi’ism. Via various sub-discourses, this discourse succeeded at marginalizing the dominant Sunni discourse. With Safavid dynasty gaining domination and hegemony, a radical strand of Mahdaviyat was organized around the nodal point of monarchy and with various nodes and signs. Concurrent with formation of this discourse, Shia intellectuals strived to push the radical strand of Mahdaviyat to the periphery via starting up Imamate Mahdaviyat with various nodes and signs, marked by Imamate as the nodal point, as well as otherizing the others. Employing Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Theory, the present study seeks to examine the relevant discoursal debates and their reasons in the historical and jurisprudential texts during the early half of Safavid dynasty.

Obviously, social history and its impact on urban structure should not be neglected in studies on history of architecture, and urban planning; but unfortunately because of weakness in historical sources, we do not have specific information on our social history and as a result it is neglected. Also we rarely can find noticeable information on urban development, which indicates stability, security, governmental plans, and economical improvement of society; and our information mostly depends on buildings and constructions of different historical periods. Endowment documents are drawn up to formalize the act of endowing, but there are hidden points in these documents which throw light on some historical obscurities. Even though noticing documents and specially endowment documents has had an impressive increase in present decade, but mostly has been used in historical studies and neglected in other domains, such as Urban planning. Observation of endowment documents would provide precious information on circumstances of structural development of cities. In the present paper we have tried to elucidate structural developments of Kerman in Safavid era by means of study and context analysis of existing endowment documents of Ganjali Khan (Kerman's sovereign in the reign of Shah Abbas I). As a result the study has been done by reading out and analyzing the contexts of these documents and other sources have been used just by necessity. The main question is how endowment has helped structural development of cities; and the hypothesis suggests that insight of the benefactor and his knowledge of social requirements can organize his endowments with regard to structural development of the city.

The multiplicity of Safavid religious and cultural buildings such as mosques, through their functions suggests that the focus of this reign is on apply of religious policies to social behavior management. Such religious managements are one of the factors of consolidation of power and its further survival. Although such policies, are applied in previous reigns, but Shiism formalization is marked by different functions in this period that show its distinctions. The provided statistics from mosques in this period, especially in the first half, show the fact that the religion had a basic function in social and political affairs of Iranian society and Safavids managed to achieve their religious, political and social purposes by using available potentials and capacities in such places. The results of this research illustrate that shia juris consults manage to spread Shi’ism in Iranian society through devotional and didactic practices and partly controlled social manners. Performing such shia sermons as Friday Prayer, mourning for the Shiite Imams shows that Safavids has provided different conditions for mosque’s functions.

After legitimization of Shiite religion in Iran, during Safavid era, schools (Madreseh) turned into the most significant educational institution, used at the service of this official religion. But what was the impact of this educational institution on religious and non-religious sciences of that time? What has been proposed based on conducted studies is that the academic dynamicity of schools was influential in expanding religious sciences and centralizing Shiite jurisprudence in Iran. Subscribing into viewpoints held by their founders and administrators, schools were influential in expanding academic thoughts, particularly Akhbari thoughts, during the second half of Safavid era. Furthermore, the emphasis of schools on religious sciences made other non-religious sciences fall from grace.

Religious endowment has served as an institution whose social, cultural, and religious impact can be felt throughout our society. Especially, when governments did not considered themselves responsible to provide welfare for their citizens, religious endowment was able to fill in those voids, and provide amenities were needed for the comfort and betterment of the society. This custom was even practiced by the ruling class, not as a fulfillment of their governing obligations, but as charitable gesture for their society. Moreover, religious endowment had the ability improve the cultural and religious areas of the society, and with its support, shape the direction of the nation. During the Safavid period by recognizing Shi’ism as the official religion of the state, the practice of this custom [backed by the support of the state] grew substantially. As a result of this growth, the increase in popularity of religious endowment cauldn’t be separated from the increase in popularity of Shi’ism. This increase provided much comfort for the society and increased the social welfare and even urban development of that time. This paper tries to examine the practice of religious endowment during the Safavid period, and analyze its impact from various religious, cultural, and societal dimensions. In addition to using some of its era primary sources and documents, several endowment contracts of the period have been studied and analysed.The much discussed question of the article is: How the religious endowment could able to leave its mark on religious, cultural, and societal dimensions of the Safavid period? It is believed that religious endowment, through establishing various cultural and educational hubs, such as schools and mosques, expanded and increased the popularity of the Shi’ism. This religious practice, also left its mark in other facets of the society. By initiating and constructing bridges, water reservoirs, carvanserais, health centers, public baths, and other institutions for public works, this practice was responsible for creating many positive changes in the society.

Safavid Era is one the most important period of Iran Medieval History from the perspective of development in International Cooperation. In this period, both Safavid Reign and Western Authorities showed high willingness to make connection and bilateral cooperation.These relations were not limited to political issues. On that period to make commercial relations, especially by the recent western companies in east, was very important. Those companies were eager to trade with Iran.Thus, they were obliged to make connection with some Court Officials such as Sadr e Azam, Mostofi e Khasseh and Shahbandar e Bandar e Abbas. Because those Officials were playing an important role in commercial activities, especially in signing of contracts and endowment of privileges, therefore it was very important to draw their attention. In addition, to get the support of governors of the cities which located in the path of those trades was very useful.As a result, the companies used every means such as gifts and bribes to get support from those Officials to reach their goals, even to throw their rivals from the field.The question of this paper is about the influence of gifts on the relation of East India Companies and Safavid Reign. Based upon evidence, it seems gifts paved the way of dominance over the government bodies and thus development of these companie's trades in Iran and enhance the level of competition of these companies in Iran. Each of those companies tried to donate more convenient gifts and to accompany more figures to achieve its goals.