Journal of Safavid Studies

The relative and long-term stability brought about by the Safavid government in Iran made urbanization and its requirements to be reviewed, next to the issue of public health. Some physicians began to run new experiments and produce treatises. One of these outstanding treatises is the Risala Ateshak, written by Imad al-Din Mahmoud bin Masoud Shirazi. For the first time, by writing an independent treatise, he described the symptoms, methods of prevention, and treatment of syphilis. To him, the treatise issued before his, except that of Baha'u'l-Razi, were not discussed and were considered a phenomenon from abroad (the West). He sought to explain the manners of transmission, prevention, and treatment of this disease in different temperaments through the available methods, which were mostly based on herbal medicine. He also expressed his belief about the effectiveness of consuming Chinese wood in treating this disease. The accuracy of this treatise's contents and its writing period makes it clear that syphilis is not an imported disease contrary to the idea that existed. The reason for our ignorance of its existence was the inability to distinguish it from other diseases.

The theory or school of social deterrence, unlike the school of heroism, emphasizes the influence of social conditions and measures governing the economy and social product methods in the emergence and development of historical events. In its extreme form, this doctrine leads to ignoring the personalities and leaders’ contributions to the events. Historians of the Safavid reign influenced by the attitude of heroism in describing Shāh Ismā'il 's character and narrating the events in his time, have highlighted his role as a supernatural savior. This attitude has influenced contemporary researchers, among which some have analyzed the events of his period focusing on his leadership. Despite this attitude, the rise of Shāh Ismā'il can be explained based on the social theory, where Shāh Ismā'il's character is subject to social conditions and the role of tribal support forces that is his leadership is of less concern. The objective here is to assess the emergence of Shāh Ismā'il the I based on social deterrence theory, in a descriptive-analytical manner. The findings indicate that the pieces of evidence revealed in historical writings, where the conditions, contexts, and previous factors in the rise of Shāh Ismā'il under his personality and leadership are of concern. Contemporary researchers have assessed this issue in its social and economic sense, or resorting to the theory of social deterrence, thus, discounting his character as a leader.

To achieve a scientific result in the historical research realm, it is necessary to recognize the correct sources. The study and research about the territory of Iran, especially the eastern borders, as one of the research aspects in the field of Safavid studies, is not exempt from this rule. The efforts of the Safavids to maintain control of the Kandahar state and the Jihun River region, and the confrontation with their north-eastern neighbors, the Uzbeks across the river and the Gurkans in India, initiated the transformation in the eastern borders of Iran's territory in the context of political and military relations. Considering the importance of the eastern borders of Iran as to the relations of the Safavids with the Uzbek Khanate and the Gurkans of India, the question here is: What range of sources can be applied to understand the course of transformation and the changes? The method adopted here is descriptive-analytic, to identify the typology of the subject sources, and introduce for assessing the issue at hand.

The emergence of the Safavids initiated considerable cultural and religious phenomena in Iran. The establishment of 12 Imam Shiism influenced all aspects of the Safavid society. One of the affected fields was historiography, which completely changed the previous Safavid approaches in historiography. This change was not evident in the writing style of the works but in the dominance of historians' religious interests leading to new features emerging in the historiography of this period. It seeks to introduce these features, which are often unique to the historiography of the Safavid era analytically, by counting the most important content features of the historical sources. This article is extracted from the main features of Safavid historiography through library data and descriptive-analytical methods.

Recognizing the internal and external elements of the document is an essential component in their assessment. Before examining the content of the document, it is necessary to determine its authenticity and credibility, next to measuring its informational value. The definition of documentology and its components is discussed, followed by introducing some of the new sources in this subject in a specialized manner by assessing the documentology sources. The study questions are: What is the stance of Safavid period documentology compared to previous periods?  The available studies on this issue are rare; consequently, library and document methods are adopted here to assess this issue in more depth, thus, the innovation in this context. The findings indicate that the recognition of the historical background and document issuance date provided in some clerical resources of the Safavid era, like Tadzkire al-Muluk, Dastur al-Muluk, Risalah al-Aqab and Muwajib, and Soleimani's origins. The content of some treatises in Ahmad Ghulam and Bayazi Safavi’s analects, in the field of seals and its function and descriptive manner of the internal and external components of letters, are of high importance. The similarity of analects in the mentioned three documentations reveals that the analects concerning secretaries of the court, who had access to the content of Soleimani's manuscripts, have been enriched. The author of Soleimani's manuscripts is probably Muhammad Reza bin Abdul-Hossein Tusi.

Research and Translation by: The Research Institute of Howzah and University Publishers with the cooperation of the Center for Shi’ite Civilization and Cultural Studies during Safavid Dynasty, 2018.