Historical Documents

Khoy, one of the major cities in the west Azarbaijan province is known for its nature, military, border positions, proximity to the Silk Road, including many different cultures and overall is one of the important settlements in the area. This essay investigates Khoy city’s expansion, from early Islam until late Qajar (Fourth - Fourteenth century) according to historical documents. This article has been completed, by the help of different types of historical written sources, itineraries,documents and maps (Matrakiminiature and Russian map). This article also illustrates how the location of the town citadel has frequently changed during centuries. In the Fourth century (AH), the citadel was located in the west of its current position but unfortunately in the fifth and sixth centuries it has had an ambiguous location and eventually sometimes in the Seventh oreighth century was shifted to its today’s location. Next centuries (eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth) until 1941AD/ 1360AH, location was in current position. Also destruction of khoy is mentioned 4 times in sources.

The administrative system during Iran's Safavid and India's Mughal empires had a complex structure. During that era, writing, recording, and dispatching of royal decrees as well as administrative, judicial, revenue figures, and rulings were carried out by three administrative divisions dealing with composition, execution, and judiciary. Such documents are exiting in two primary and secondary forms and their compositions are varied based on their themes. The components of documents are also distinguished in terms of their header, seal, and monogram. To prevent any type of forgery, they went through lengthy and complicated stages. These documents show the evolution of the bureaucratic system in both dynasties and were issued for purposes such as appointments, grants, exemptions, contracts, treaties, and so on. The research method applied in the present research is based sources extracted from library and archival materials and then the court documents of both Safavid and Mughals were compared and analyzed through the descriptive-analytical method. Research findings show that different administrative units were under the supervision of the minister (vazir), the second powerful figure after the King, who in fact led state, financial and judicial affairs. Although both dynasties had common roots, they created one of the most effective executive systems of their time by upgrading those prevalent in previous empires.

Jungs are manuscripts or collections of documents that contain a selection of historical, literary, religious, and scientific documents and texts. Ahmad Gholam’s Jung is from the second half of the Safavid period, especially from the late Safavid period (simultaneous with the Afghan invasion) and contains documents from this period and earlier periods. Its structural features consist of physical and formal dimensions such as the components used, the way letters are written and arranged, and their explanation.The achievement of the present article expresses the importance of historical values of the mentioned manuscript from a structural point of view. The research method used in this research is formal analysis with a phenomenological approach (analysis and empirical analysis and direct with a critical approach) and with reference to the present manuscript.