The History of Iranian Civilization - Essay Example

Iranian Civilization Iranian Civilization Introduction Iran also referred to as Persia has a rich history of civilization and urbansettlement. In recent times, Iran has undergone extensive changes. These include changes in the association between rural and urban economies, countrywide development of the middle class and the resulting social flexibility. In addition, it has experienced an advanced literacy rate besides the extension of educational organizations, new complications and prospects in gender relations (Parvis, 2011). Significant changes occurred within the Persian Empire dynasties systems from ancient times to contemporary governance. The Persian Empire consisted of several imperial dynasties. In 550 B.C, Cyrus the great established the first dynasty after Persia conquered Media, Babylonia and Lydia. In ancient Persia, the religion observed was Zoroastrianism. However, during the seventh century, Islam replaced this religion. The Islamic conquest took place in 651 A.D. Islam religion dominated the state and in the present day, Persia is an Islamic republic. The paper explores both the contemporary and ancient Persian Empire system in relation to dynasty changes. In addition, it discusses dynasties’ role in the development of Persia and the way they led to their downfall. Safavid dynasty The safavid dynasty is believed to be the beginning of modern Persian history. It remained established in the seventh century A.D after the downfall of Sasanian Empire due to a conquest by the Muslims of Persia. It lasted from 1501 to 1722. The dynasty occupied the whole Iran, and parts of Georgia and turkey (Chouervi, 2009). Origin The Safavid dynasty was established by safavids. Safavid brotherhood initially was a religious group. The inherent brotherhood attracted local warlords and politics that enabled strengthening of the dynasty. With time, it became both a military and a religious group (Chouervi, 2009). The aforementioned societal association led to the establishment of Jihad, an Islamic holy war aimed at making the state an Islamic nation. Society The safavid society was governed through meritocracy. The officials were appointed based on their merits and worth rather than their birth. In order to succeed their fathers, the sons of nobles had to prove that they were worthy of the positions. This was evident in that there were several nonprofessionals in the dynasty who rose to official positions through merit. The safavids society was ruled in a hierarchical dimension. The Shah was at the top of the pyramid. Peasants, common people and merchants were at the base of the pyramid whereas the aristocrats and religious officials were in between. Such inherent social stratification defined the communal interaction in ancient Persia. Culture The Persians during the Safavids dynasty were well behaved and educated. They detested physical activity and this affected their interaction with the other countries of the world. They enjoyed leisure, luxury, archery, fencing, and hunting. Their main sporting activity was wrestling which served as their identity. The wrestlers practiced in Zurkhanehs and remained highly acknowledged in the society. Wrestling provided the people with entertainment. Other entertainment activities included acrobats, tightrope dancers, puppet players, and fencing. Their clothing and appearances portrayed their love of luxury. They wore many jewelries and went ahead to place them on swords and daggers. Men wore as many rings as women did whereas the harnesses of the horses remained decorated too. Political background Shah who had absolute power over the whole state headed the Safavid state. Shah remained considered a seyyed from his bloodline. To avoid fraud, ensure transparency and biased decisions, a complex of departmental and bureaucracy procedures were followed. The offices had a deputy official with a primary role of monitoring state officials and reporting observed abnormalities directly to Shah. Shah ensured that there existed a competitive atmosphere to guarantee that the ministers delivered their best. The government consisted of the Prime minister, finance minister, minister of justice and the final appeal in civic and criminal cases. General of the Musketeers, royal troops, ghulams who were headed by commander in chief, and the master of artillery also composed the government. The local government consisted of royal possessions and public land. Local governors also known as Khans headed public land. Legal system There existed very little difference between human justice, divine justice or jurisprudence and theology, in the safavids dynasty. The legal system was placed under Islamic jurisprudence. It was classified into two groups including civil law derived from sharia and Urf. Local commissioners practiced Urf law whereas the judges of the law and imams exercised civil law. Economy The Persian people would export horse’s metals, coffee, sugar, pearls, goat hair, silk, and carpet, textiles and almond oil to many countries. They engaged in both agriculture and pastoralism. According to a report carried out by Chardin, most of the agricultural products from Persia were unrivaled in the European market (Cyrus, 2009). There were fruits and vegetables unheard of in Europe that remained grown by people in Persia. Consequently, agriculture was the backbone of Persia’s economy during the Safavids dynasty. Fall of the dynasty Shah oppressed his rivals and most of the intellectuals especially the clergy were discontented and wanted him out of power. How he handled the oil revenues was dissatisfactory. The socioeconomical changes only benefited a particular class of people at the expense of others. The exiled clerics especially Ayatolla Khomeini was able to tie up his discontentment to populist ideologies in Islamic principles and mobilized Persians to overthrow the Shah. The upraising was overwhelming and the Shah regime eventually collapsed (Cyrus, 2009). Qajar’s Dynasty An Iranian royal family of Turkic origin led Qajar’s dynasty. The dynasty was in ruling from 1785 to 1925. The Qajar’s took over from Zand dynasty in 1794. Qajar also took over the Afsharid dynasty in 1796 thus reasserting sovereignty in Persia. Mohammad Khan is known to be the cruelest of all the kings. He massacred large populations of people for defending their city against siege. Qajar armies consisted of Turkoman bodyguards and Georgian slaves. War with Russia There was a war between the Russian empire and Persians over the encroachment of their land in the Caucasus Mountains. This land belonged to the Iranian state since historical times. The war took place in 1804 to 1813. Persia suffered major defeat from the Russians. Under the treaty of Golestan 1813, Iranian conceded to the defeat and the land was taken over by the Russians. The country suffered terrible economic and military loss. A second war was organized to recover the encroached land in 1820 that resulted to further losses for the Iranians. Henceforth, the Persians were forced to enter into the treaty of Turkmanchai in 1928 accepting the Russians control over the northern part of the state. Development and decline Qajar was able to introduce technology, western science and education methods to Persia during the reign of Naser o-Din Shah. This led to the modernization of the country. However, Britain and Russia succeeded in encroaching more of the land belonging to the people of Persia. He incurred huge foreign loans that were to cater for his personal trips to Europe. During world war 1, Persia suffered huge blow from Russians, British and ottoman troops. They suffered huge military and economic losses. It was after this defeat in 1925 that Qajar was overthrown and Pahlavis came to power through a military coup. It was evident that Qajar was unable to stop British and soviet invasion on Iranian independence. Pahlavi Dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty was in ruling from 1925 to 1979 after which it was abolished due to the Iranian revolution. Reza Shah Pahlavi established this dynasty. Reza aimed at modernizing Iran (Ghani and Ghanī, 2001). He planned to develop large scale industries, build a cross-country railroad station, establish chief infrastructure developments, improving the healthcare, establishing a national communal education scheme and reorganize the judiciary system of the state. He sent many of the Iran citizens including his son to Europe for training (Cyrus, 2009). Through his numerous projects, Iran became an urbanized state. Both industrialized working class and other social classes were developed because of gained education and knowledge. He announced that the country would be referred to as Iran henceforth. He ruled until 1941 and was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi after the Anglo soviet invasion by British and soviet companies. His son overruled his earlier decree that the country should be called Iran and instead accepted use of both Persia and Iran interchangeably (Cyrus, 2009). During his reign, he ensured that the army was revived. The army was under royal governance as the kingdom’s main supremacy base. Collapse of the dynasty The Pahlavis dynasty began to collapse after Shah Mohammad changed the Persian calendar and replaced it with an imperial calendar. The clergy were opposed to this move as they thought it to be a pre Islamic past. Furthermore, Shah’s government failed when it continued to suppress its rivals. The government was aided by the intelligence secret police and Iran’s security. Islamic leaders were angered by the activities carried out by Shah. In 1979 there was Islamic revolution with the aim of restoring Islamic traditions in the state. This led to the collapsing of Shah’s government. Islam in Iran Islamic conquest of Persia took place in the year 637 to 651. This conquest caused the downfall of Sassanid and Zoroastrian dynasties in Persia. However, Iran was made an Islamic republic in 1979 after the Islamic revolution. Before the conquest most people were Christians, Jewish and Zoroastrians. The eastern side of Iran consisted of Buddhist. Transition from other religions to Islam was slow but stable. First, the city dwellers were converted and slowly other people from the outskirts got to convert. The Persian state is today believed to be a stronghold of the Shia Muslim faith. The Muslim faith was achieved in the fifteenth century when the Safavid dynasty enacted the use of Shia Islam as the approved state religion. Culture Islamization of Iran led to major transformations in the political, cultural and scientific structure of the society in Iran.it is during the Muslim civilization that Persian art, literature, medicine and philosophy flourished. Persia is believed to have produced most of the Islamic sects and scholars. Challenges of rise of Islamism In the twentieth century, Islam major challenges including the 1906 constitutional revolution and the secularism of the Pahlavi dynasty. First and foremost, the ulema class was made to lose its informality. Previously, anyone and everyone would join the Islamic religion but they began setting standards (Parviz, 2011). Another challenge was when Laws by Reza, which required every military leader to dress in European style clothes, was abolished and instead they exempted tabaleh and mullahs if only they passed exams that were used to test their learnedness. Moreover, the Islamic madrasah schools became more of Islamic schools concentrating on teaching Islamic religion alone leaving broader education to the schools run by the government. Current situation Iran being an Islamic republic follows the principle of guardianship of the jurist. Islamic sharia law runs the government. The constitution states that the official religion in Iran is Shia Islam and Twelver ja’fari school. However, other Muslim schools remains accorded respect and allowed to practice their rites. The state recognizes Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish as the other religious minorities. In order to be allowed as a citizen in Iran, one must avail himself as either Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Zoroastrians. Atheism is completely not allowed whereas Baha’i faith is non-recognized. Religious institutions Mosque is the most important religious institution in Iran. Rites, religious observances and congregation prayers take place in the mosque. Mosques play critical political and social roles despite being religious places. Another religious institution of great importance in Iran is hoseiniyeh, an Islamic center. Hoseiniyehs were constructed in urban areas under the wealthy patron’s financial support. They serve as centers for recitals and in honouring of the martyrdom of Hussein through a number of performances. They also serve as political centers for passing on message to congregation Religious institutions that provide Muslim religious education include madrassas, seminaries and maktabs. Madrassas provide an opportunity to teach young ones about shia theology and jurisprudence. The shrine is another important religious institution. Paying of pilgrimage to the shrines of imams is an Islamic specific Shia custom. This right is undertaken since Shia pilgrims trust that imams and their kin can control and plead with God to pardon their relatives. This belief is integrated in the Islam teaching and thus many people visit the shrine for pardoning (Chouervi, 2009). Examples of pilgrims In Iran include the eighth imam, Reza, for rezas sister fatuma in qom, in mashhad and for khmeini In Tehran. Minor dynasties Zaydi alid Zaydi alid dynasty covered the northern Iranian region of Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan between 9th to 20th centuries. The initial and most influential Zydi emirate was developed in Tabaeristan in 864 an ended in 928 (Shoup, 2011). It ended because of the occupation of Samanid in 1900. However, in 914 it was restored but did not last long before collapsing because of internal disagreements between the two parties. Some soldiers and generals of Alavids joined Samanids and founded other minor dynasties such as Buyid dynasty and Ziyarid dynasty. Buyid dynasty Ali ibn Buya established Buyid dynasty. Both Ali and his brother were able to conquer several parts of the state in the 930s. buyid dynasty consisted of regions such as Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, UAE, oman and Turkey. The dynasty was most powerful under the rule of Adud. The Buyids strongly practiced Islamic religion. After a period of conquest, the dynasty began to break off gradually. This began after the death of their leader (Cyrus, 2009). Buyids were twelver Shia. They rarely struggled to enforce a specific religious outlook upon their subjects apart from when in situations where it was administratively expedient the Sunni retained the caliphate. However, they were denied any secular power. Instead, the buyid dynasty appointed Christians to such positions instead of Muslims. Zand dynasty Zand dynasty was of Kurdish origin and dominated over the southern and central Iran during the 18 th century. Karim Khan established it from the tribe of laks. The era remained characterized by peace and a lot of economic growth since most of the land that had been previously encroached was recaptured. Dynasty collapsed after the death of their leader (Parviz, 2011). Conclusion In conclusion, Iran has experienced governance transformation over the recent years resulting into establishment of the contemporary governance system. Existence of dynasties systems in premodern Persia helped in defending its social, cultural, and political motives. However, changes in international governance, economy, religion, and social stratification have greatly influenced the existence of ancient dynasty government system. It is imperative to understand that various economic discoveries including development of oil industries largely contributed to the current Persia governance state. Significant development in Iran contemporary economic state has remained authoritative in development of its current social and political state. References Chouervi, M. (2009). A Companion to the History Of The Middle East. Oxford: Blackwell Ltd. Ghani, Cyrus and Ghanī, Sīrūs. (2001). Iran and the Rise of the Reza Shah: From Qajar Collapse to Pahlavi Power. London: I.B.Tauris. Parviz D. (2011). A History of the Iranian Plateau: Rise and fall of an Empire. Bloomington: iUniverse Shoup, J. A. (2011). Ethnic groups of Africa and the Middle East: An encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. Read More