نشریه مطالعات ایرانشناسی
پیاپی 16 (بهار 1399)

After the Mongols’ invasion of Iran, no one could ever imagine that the grand children of Genghis Khan would pave the context for the growth and dissemination of Islam in later periods. Genghis Khan, himself, was a shaman and his grandsons, such as Hulagu Khan and Abaqa Khan, and Abaqa Khan’s children were Buddhists. However, they always dealt with the followers of other religions and sects with respect. The court of Hulagu Khan in Iran was always frequented by the scholars of other religions. Some of the children and grandchildren of Hulagu Khan abandoned their ancestral religion because of the necessities of their time and converted to Islam or Christianity. In this regard, reference can be made to Ghazan Khan and Muhammad Uljaytu who, because of the penetration of Muslim scholars in their courts, paid attention to Islam and Shi’ism. Ghazan Khan chose the Hanafite religion but did not formally acknowledge his conversion to Shi’ism for certain political reasons. Muhammad Uljaytu, his brother, persuaded the king to follow Shi’ism more openly for several reasons including the penetration of some Muslim scholars and Shi’iteministers and rulers, such as Allamah al-Hilli, his son Fakhr ulMuhaqqiqin, and Amir TarmTaz, in his court and their arguments as to the superiority of Shi’ism over Sunnism. Uljaytu chose the Twelver branch of Shi’ism and, at the sometime, issued the order of reading sermons in Friday prayers in the name of the Shi’ite Imams (a) and minting coins in their names. During the time of these two Mongol Khans, particularly Uljaytu, the life conditions of Muslims and, specifically, the Shi’ites were improved

The city of Nishabur was the gathering place of Sufis in Khorasan during the early Islamic centuries and, particularly, in the 3rd and 4th centuries and enjoyed great fame. According to historical texts, in addition to the Sufis of Khorasan, a large group of immigrant Sufis from the state of Fars and its different cities and regions resided in Nishabur. During the 3rd and 4th centuries AH, several travelers from Darabgard (one of the fivefold provinces of Fars) and its cities, such as Darabgard, Tamestan, Madavan, and Fasa created a community in the suburbs of this city called Darabgard Borough. Seemingly, between 3rd and 5th centuries AH, there was a bilateral relationship between the gnosis center of Nishabur and Darabgard Province. Relying on historical documents and architectural proofs, this paper examines a ruined chahartaq (an architectural unit consisting of four barrel vaults and a dome) in Pushanj desert of Darab, known as the Mausoleum of Shaykh Abdulhassan Pushanji as a khanqah and a piece of evidence testifying to the truth of this bilateral relationship. Available proofs indicate that, apparently, towards the end of the 4th century AH and in the early 5th century AH, one of the three Pushanji Sufis, known as Abdulhassan, who lived in Nishabur, traveled to Darabgard and built a khanqah in the suburbs of Darab. Then he became involved in promoting Shafi’ite jurisprudence.

Since historical sources cannot cover all the events and incidents of the Zand period, resorting to archeological proofs, popular culture, and common narrations could remove some of the ambiguities in relations to this era to a large extent. Some historical sources indicate that Mohammad Karim Khan, the founder of the Zand Dynasty, had four sons and three daughters. Some of them have also referred to five sons without referring to any other children and their destiny. Moreover, no reference has been to any of Lotf Ali Khan’s companions on his way from Kerman to Bam except for Jahangir Sistani as his last companion. The people of the village of Bakhleh in Hersin have a story indicating that their ancestors were the last companions of Lotf Ali Khan, who, after suspecting the support of the ruler of Bam, left it towards Lakestan. The gravestones of the village of Bakhleh, in addition to confirming the mentioned story, clarify the identity of the people who, until the last moments of the downfall of the Zand Dynasty, fought alongside Lotf Ali Khan, while no reference has been made to their names in historical sources. The present paper is intended to reconstruct a part of the history of Zand period based on examining the existing narrative, the writings on some gravestones, and the related historical sources.

Qajar Kings tried to show their power through using art. This can be clearly witnessed in the rugs woven during that period. Hooshang Shahi rugs hold a special place among the pictorial rugs of the Qajar period. However, the question is which cultural factor prompted the use of the mythical King of Iran, Hooshang Shah, in the pictorial rugs of this era. The purpose of this study is to explore the semiotic systems of such rugs and examine their nature. The required data for this research were collected through the library method and then analyzed from the viewpoint of the Tartu School and based on the grounded theory. In this process, the researchers used the content analysis method for open codification and then discovered and classified the relationships among the components for the purpose of axial and selective codification. The semiotic systems of the rugs include some specific signs and symbols of the Qajar period and Hooshang Shah’s time. Based on the analysis of the discovered components through the codification and examination of the semiotic systems of the rugs, one can infer their Iranian, religious, and modern identify.

Mosques are among the most important architectural structures in Islam. In fact, in the history of Islamic art and architecture, mosques, as religious buildings and worship places, have always presented the most supreme samples of architecture and decoration. The architectural decorations of the Islamic period function as a rich treasure of designs which, in addition to certain values and formal beauties, express a series of cultural and religious secrets which they hide. In this regard, the Holy Qur’an, as the most significant symbol of Islam, has always attracted the attention of artists. Qur’anic verses have mixed some geometric designs and arabesque decorations with each other in order to display the most beautiful and prominent artistic works in some mosques such as Nasir al-Mulk and Mushir al-Mulk in Shiraz. This paper presents a comparative study of the content, concepts, scripts, and decorations of the inscriptions of these two buildings. This study has been conducted following an analytic-descriptive method, and the required data has been collected from library resources and field studies. The findings of the research demonstrate that the inscriptions of both buildings can be classified info five groups. The two mosques are mainly similar to each other in terms of their decorations (plant and geometrical designs, and Banai Kufic, thulth, and nastaliq scripts). Both of them are among the most notable buildings of Qajar period regarding their architectural decorative designs, particularly, their inscriptions. However, the decorative richness and Qur’anic inscriptions of Nasir al-Mulk Mosque are superior to those of Mushir al-Mulk Mosque.

Edward Granville Browne, the British Orientalist, wrote several books in the field of Iranian studies, among which reference can be made to his A Literary History of Persia. This work which had been written under the influence of great European Orientalists and their methods was later used as a model for the writers of books on history of literature. This paper discusses the role of Edward Granville Browne in Iranian studies. In the view of literary scholarly and researchers, his attempts as an Orientalists and lover of Iranian culture are praiseworthy. His comprehensive view of Iranology, on the one hand, and his reliance on historical narratives and documents, on the other hand, have given rise to various views regarding his works; some people criticize him, while some others admire him. In this study, which has been conducted following the library method, the writer initially introduces Browne briefly and, then, investigates his role in Iranian studies with an emphasis on his A Literary History of Persia in order to determine his status in the view of literary scholars. The findings of the study demonstrate that, among the Orientalists who dealt with Iran, Browne had a great share in introducing Iran and Iranian literature to Europeans. They also indicate that, after the publication of this book, Iranian researchers abandoned their methods of purely narrative and biographical historiography in their literary studies and adopted the method that Browne had employed in the composition of A Literary History of Persia.