Search Results

This chapter seeks to replace notions of Zoroastrian intolerance around which historians have so frequently organized their analyses of Iranian society in late antiquity with a model of the differentiated, hierarchical inclusion of religious others rooted in Zoroastrian cosmological thought. First, it recovers the cosmological perspective of Zoroastrian religious authorities on the culturally diverse population of Iran, which gave rise to a range of accounts of the place of bad religions in the social and political order. Rather than seek, or even imagine, the systematic exclusion of religious others, priestly scholars developed techniques for their regulation and disciplining, with the goal of ensuring that they did not jeopardize the operation of the institutions of the Good Religion. If ancient Zoroastrians are best known for their dualism, their concepts of mixture, intermingling, and hierarchical order will emerge as equally salient in Iranian political culture. Second, it demonstrates a strong correlation between such theoretical discussions and the political practice of the Iranian court based on a comprehensive and critical reexamination of the East Syrian hagiographical sources. It is shown that Zoroastrians in late antiquity should be known for having practiced differentiated, hierarchical inclusion rather than intolerance.

The Khujandīs of Isfahan, a family of Shāfi،ī ،ulamā، constituted the leading family during the Seljuq period until the Mongol invasion. From the end of the fifth/eleventh century, the Khujandīs headed the local Nizāmiyya madrasa, in addition, they were also hereditary holders of the city's main office, the riyasa. The duration of their influence, the extent of their network and their capacity for political action was unequalled in Seljuq-controlled territory. As the leading family in the greatest city of western Iran, the Khujandīs appear recurrently in the sources of the period. However, they are often overlooked in Western historiography. The studies devoted to them are often inaccurate and incomplete. This chapter aims to make a non-chronological presentation or a prosopographical reconstruction of the Khujandīs history. It seeks to provide a general overview of how the history of the Khujandīs is representative of the developments in Iranian society under Seljuq rule, the relationship between Iranian elites and the Turkish lords, the increasing militarization of the society and the intensification of religious struggles.

This chapter discusses the spread of venereal disease in Iran, its link to prostitution, and how it raised concerns over the morality of Iranian society and the honor of the nation's men as defenders of women's virtue. It argues that the maternalist discourse—and the hygiene movement in general—liberated the modern Iranian woman by opening up discussion of previously taboo subjects such as sexuality and encouraging a public reassessment of family life and women's rights in the domestic partnership. While the campaign to control prostitution and venereal disease may not have sufficiently curbed these ills in Iranian society, but it created a public space in which the discussion of such topics became permissible.

Persistent upheavals in Afghanistan since 1978 have resulted in the exodus of a large number of its citizens, with neighboring Iran and Pakistan becoming host to most of these forced migrations. According to Iran’s census figures, there were 1,452,513 documented Afghans living in the country in 2011. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has given a figure of 951,142 for documented Afghan refugees in Iran as of May 2015. In addition to this, UNHCR also reported 620,000 Afghan visa holders and from 1.5 to 2 million undocumented Afghans. The Iranian government has emphasized repatriation as a policy goal vis-à-vis Afghan migrants and has carried out voluntary return initiatives with the assistance of international organizations. However, the voluntary return of 902,000 Afghans from Iran between 2002 and 2012 appears to have been offset by fresh migration that has maintained their overall population in the country.

This chapter presents a column published on May 25, 1908, which reads like a philosophical treatise on the existence of good and evil in the world. We enjoy happy moments in life because we know there can also be sad moments. Without darkness, light would be meaningless. Without bitterness, we cannot appreciate sweetness. On closer inspection, it is a social democratic critique of religious thought, a secular analysis of economic and social injustice in Iranian society. One man has all the comforts of life, while another suffers from cold, hunger, and poverty. One family lives in total security, while another is devastated by the revenge of anticonstitutionalists. In the end there is no justice in this world.