فصلنامه پژوهش در تاریخ
سال دهم شماره 29 (پاییز و زمستان 1399)

The replacement of the conservative Parthians with the arrogant Sassanians was a major turning point in the geostrategic policies of the Iranian Empire. Thus, the change of attitude of the Romans towards the Eastern superpower soon manifested itself in the first works of contemporaneous historians with Ardeshir I. Roman writers tried to bridge the gap between the Sassanians and the Achaemenian memory. In addition to this perception, the Roman propaganda machine and the newly established depiction also provided a suitable response to it. Rome’s strategy in the challenging third century CE was to exaggerate its military successes over the Sassanians and even to present deceitful official reports. During this period, they constructed a political-propagandistic pattern to represent the events of their eastern fronts. The aim of this study is to understand the Roman mentalities towards Iranshahr in the third century CE and to some extent to adapt it to the realities.

Contemporary narratives of violence, particularly in the aftermaths of the most recent expressions of violence by the so-called ‘Islamist’ groups have rekindled the false dichotomy of religious versus secular violence. Such a deforming prism which has also become dominant in political science traces the origins of violence to faith communities in medieval times and, among others, to Nizārī Ismailis, with whom the myth of the assassins has been associated. Despite the ground-breaking works of prominent scholars of Ismaili studies, the myth of the assassins still remains powerful in some disciplines including political theory. This paper deconstructs this narrative and attempts to highlight the agencies of individuals and communities, as human agents, as opposed to essentialist narratives in which faith, or a particular faith, in its abstraction, becomes responsible for the outbreak of violence. Moving beyond reductionist narratives of violence is critical for breaking the vicious cycle of violence which besets human societies around the globe.

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.

Analyses of Islamic society are often based on the assumption that inheritance practices follow Islamic law. Examination of these two Persian wills of Sardar As’ad, one of the leading Bakhtiyari khans, reveals deviation from what might be regarded as an Islamic norm -in which sons share equally in father’s estate. These two wills bestow the major portion of the estate on a favorite son which enables him to continue as a powerful leader both within the Bakhtiyari and in Iran itself. In addition to the bases of wealth, revealed by these wills, is land, urban real property, and incomes from bridge tolls, and oil company shares. These wills help to explain the persistence of wealth and power within certain families over several generations and in addition they help to point up again the adaptability of Islam and its institutions.

This paper reviews the book Dāyerehāy-e Mīnāyī written by Amir Mohamad Gamini. In this book, Gamini investigates the process of configuring the science Hay’at in ancient times analyses how it was developed in the Islamic world. In the end, he states the muslims’ achievements in Hay’at and their interaction with pre-renascence astronomers like Copernicus. This book is significant since it emphasized the theoretical basics of Hay’at at and it is important in the interaction between the philosophy and the history of science. After an introduction about the significance of this sight in the history of science, I analayzed this book from this point of view. I review the headings, afterward, I survey the contents and criticized some points. My critical points target that the author’s view is not as developed as his views in astronomy. However, that was understandable regarding that the author is a specialist in the history of astronomy.