نشریه مطالعات تاریخی جنگ
سال هفتم شماره 2 (تابستان 1402)

War in the social system of Homeric society is closely related to the role, responsibility and obligations of the warrior towards himself and others, to the extent that disgrace and honor, eternal name and shame depend on arete and the inner skill of the individual and the society's view of his external duties and responsibilities. The origin of the ten-year war also happened with the abduction of Helen by Paris, which was carried out with the biggest naval raid of the Greeks under the command of Agamemnon and the presence of Achaean warriors. The purpose of this research is to examine the place of the virtue of heroism in the battlefield. In the book Iliad, Homer describes the struggles and heroics of the warriors between the Trojans and the Achaeans in order to establish a model for the high culture of society in addition to the importance of the action. The main question of this study concerns the place that the concept of war has in the heroic virtue of Homeric society. The authors claim that the virtue of heroism in war, in which men gain glory and honor, is contingent on agathos and arete. The findings of this descriptive and analytical research show that the society gives honor to the heroes in the material life (respect) and the world after death (eternal name), and sometimes this gift is given to them by the gods.

In the second half of the 7th century AH, the series of wars between the Mamluks of Egypt against the last Crusader rulers of Syria led to the defeat of the Crusaders and the dismantling of most of their bases in the Levant. During these wars, two peace agreements were reached between the parties. Analyzing the motivations of this period of crusades based on these two peace agreements is the main concern of the present historical-analytical research that besides referring to the text of the peace agreements benefited from other related historical sources and research. These peace agreements were between two Mamluk sultans, i.e., Baybars (658-676 AH) and Qalawun (678-689 AH) with a group of crusaders known as the Knight Hospitallers or Bayt al-Isbataryyah. The agreements have been narrated in Nahayah al-Arab by Nuwayri (677-732 AH) and in a more complete form in Subh al-`A`sha by Qalqashandi (756-791 AH). The findings show that, unlike the first period of the Crusades, where the motivations of the Europeans as the initiators of the war have been narrated to be religious (Christian), in the late period of wars, the motivations were mainly economic (trade), territorial expansionism, and trying to preserve political-military authority.

Throughout history, war as a social phenomenon has generally been a male affair, tied to the active role of men in the front line; and women and children have been mostly innocent victims of wars. In the history of Iran during the Mongol period, this passive position of women, affected by the relative equality of men and women in the culture of the Turks, has been disrupted to some extent. The present study has discussed the discussion of women in the wars of this period in a descriptive-analytical way based on Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvayni to find out how and to what extent the active or passive role of women in the wars of the Mongol era have been. Based on the results, the manifestations of women's presence in the wars mentioned in Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvayni can be divided into two macro narratives: powerful women and dominated women, reflected in forms such as the presence and direct influence of domineering women and warrior women; as well as indirect roles such as political wives, wives-hostages, captured maids, and pleasure tools. Moreover, as a literary historian, Juvayni has occasionally used the presence of women in wars with a symbolic and literary-artistic function to narrate wars aesthetically, to express political-critical humor towards incompetent rulers, to express cultural stereotypes, and to criticize traitorous politicians.

The confrontation of the Qajar army with the extensive invasions of Russia and the threat of the country from a foreign power at the beginning of the 19th (13th AH) century, brought the necessity of changing the traditional structure of the army and its fighting tactics to the minds of some distinguished men of that era, especially Abbas Mirza Nāyeb-al-Saltana (1789-1833) who was the commander of the troops on the battlefield. The military strategy of the Crown Prince was mainly focused on making the military power of the army more efficient by modernizing the organization, equipment and tactics of warfare, using the European system, and taking advantage of the guidance and training offered by foreign instructors. In the present descriptive-analytical study, by posing the question of the necessity of adopting such a strategy, an attempt is made to explain and analyze the military strategy of Abbas-Mirza in the form of the reform program of the new system through examining the situation of the traditional forces of the early Qajar period. The findings of the research show that the adoption of the army reform program has been influenced by the objective reality of the fighting with a regular and well-equipped army, a necessity and a conscious strategy for streamlining and organizing of a similar army, to confront and overcome the aggressor opponent and to neutralize the movements and internal conflicts of rebellions and rioters, which has overall led to the consolidation of power and the sovereignty of Qajar dynasty.

In 36 BC, a unit of the Han Empire's army attacked and defeated the Xiongnu, who were one of the local powers in Central Asia and on the banks of what is now the Talas River. More recently, the Chinese from East Asia and the Parthians from West Central Asia had been trying to expand their influence in the region, and the nomadic tribes of the region could play the role of enemy or ally for both powers. A group of Roman soldiers, captured by the Arsacids during the war with the Romans, were present among the Xiongnu forces. The main question of this article concerns the role the Parthians played in the Battle of Talas. The findings of this study show that in the period under discussion, the Arsacids were trying to expand their influence through direct or indirect military operations as well as political intervention in Central Asia. On the other hand, their conflicting interests with the Han Empire in Central Asia and their enmity with the nomadic tribes of the region forced them to intervene in the political relations of this region. Therefore, they deliberately sent a group of their troops to the region to prevent the Chinese from advancing, which ended in failure.

With the expansion of Arab conquests, on the one hand, the integrity of the Muslims was challenged by the emergence of opposition groups such as the Khawarij, and on the other hand, some Iranians moved towards a kind of confrontation of positions. Some castes like Mawali who were in a subordinate position, considered the emergence of political-religious sects such as Khawarij and Shia as a good opportunity to reach more suitable conditions. Using historical sources, the present descriptive-analytical study intends to answer the question of the factors effective in the convergence of the Iranian Mawali and subalterns with the Khawarij and also the role they played in the battles of the Khawarij against the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate. The findings of this research show that the full-scale confrontation between the Khawarij and the Caliphate in the early stages led to the lack of attention to their radical beliefs in order to bring together parts of the Iranian society. This was the interpretation of a kind of ideological transformation for the Khawarij, which depended on the distance from areas such as Kufa and Basra as well as passing of time. The rise of the Abbasids also played a role because they were considered as Sassanids with Tazi blood and their rise was accompanied by the weakening of the Arabism and the improvement of the status of Mawali.