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  The Iranian society evolved in a particular way in the Qajarid period, as a pre-modern and traditional society. The introduction of modernity was the main factor behind these changes. The political result of the defeat of this modernity was the onset of the Pahlavid dynasty, which shaped changes in the Iranian society of the Pahlavid period based on this very modernity;the changes and developments through which the issue of the evolution of Iranian clothing is also raised. The present research is a fundamental study based on its goals, and a descriptive-analytical research based on its theme. To reach this objective, the required data were extracted from the previous researches and historical references, and undergone quality analysis to reach scientific results. The results showed that the changes in clothing of the Qajarid period, due to preservation of traditional structure, were only received and accepted by a small number of the court members and the intellectuals of the time, and the common folk persisted on sticking to the traditional norms of clothing. In the First Pahlavid era, under the rule of a dictatorial modernity system that conveyed trends from the top to create an identity for the society, changes in men’s clothing grew with the cooperation of the cultural sources of the society, but change in women’s clothing took on a different form due to the non-cooperation of this group.    

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The remains of the historical city of AskarMokram are situated in Khuzistan near the Band-e Ghir village in the form of various Tepes (hills) on either sides of the Gargar River. On the basis of historical and geographical sources, the city was established in the second half of the first century during the gradual development of the military camping place of Mokram- ibn- Motraf or Mokram- ibn- Fazar, the servant of Hajaj–ibn-Yusuf Saqafi in the Sasanian village or small city named Rostaqobad; therefore, the city is called “AskarMokram”. The city was gradually developed on either sides of Masroqan River and became famous as the center of Khoreh/Koreh with the same name, and as one of the most important cities of Khuzistan during the Islamic period. The strategic and military situation of the city, which was located in the way of Iraq and Khuzistan to Fars and Lurestan, and was considered before the establishment of the city (and actually is regarded as the main reason of the forming of AskarMokram), made the city more important. It seems that when the irrigation system of Masroqan River and the agricultural economy of the region were declined in the last centuries of the medial Islamic period, the importance of AskarMokram was reduced, and probably the city abandoned completely during the fifteenth century A.D.    In this article, it is attempted to render the comprehensive picture of the city during the Islamic period by the exact study of historical and geographical sources, and make comparison between them.

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Sassanid reign, as one of the most powerful Iranian dynasties, lasted for over four centuries before the Arab Moslems’ attack to Iran. The great Sassanid government managed to convert the Feudal Iran of Parthian era into a united and strong country thanks to its central government and Zoroastrianism nationalism; this not only recreated political power but also hugely revolutionized the cultural and social issues in Iran. However, different factors, after a while, led to the gradual weakness and suppression of this dynasty before the Arab Moslems’ attack. In this research, auditing the historians of all these four centuries of the early Islamic era including Abou- HanifehDinvari, Yaghoubi, Masoudi, Tabari, and EbneMoskouyeh exactly and from all aspects, many attempts have been made to figure out and analyze the reasons of this gradual weakness and overthrown of Sassanid Reign the emnloying a historical-descriptive method. The results of this research reveal that in the view of the historians of all these four centuries of the early Islamic era, the following factors were the most crucial reasons of Sassanid’s downfall and defeat before the Arab Moslems: religious prejudice, high position of Zoroastrian clergymen, well-borns’ increasing power, massacre of the royal family by Shirouyeh, the last Sassanid kings’ lack of authority, a military coup against the kings, long exhausting overseas battles, especially the constant wars against the Rome Empires, toppling the Ale-Lakhm by KhosrouParviz, economic pressures on people and heavy taxes, natural disasters like the Tigris and Euphrates rivers bursting their banks, and hidden helps.

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In ancient times, symbolic figures and badges in addition to decorative aspects represented important issues regarding culture, art and even social structures of a state and country. In the Sassanid period, symbolic figures (patterns) also boomed with respect to the interfusion of religion and politics, so that some examples of these symbolic figures can be seen in most of the artworks remained of the Sassanid period. The stucco art during the Sassanid era was one of the most developed arts which have reached the peak of its maturity in this period compared to the preceding periods and witnessed its widespread use in various symbolic forms in Sassanid buildings and palaces. The study of symbolic plant figures of the Sassanid period is a necessity that has unfortunately not been studied independently and extensively so far. With respect to the object of study, the present research is of a fundamental type and with respect to its nature and methodology, it is a historical study. The result of this research indicates that most of the symbolic motifs (patterns) found in the Sassanid stuccos religious origin; although these figures have been depicted in form of numerous and diverse plant figures, each of them is considered as a symbol of religious beliefs. Grapes and the tree of life are among the symbols symbolize fertility, blessing, and immortality in Iran and have always been seen in the stucco works during this period; also, the lotus figures represent one of the deities in Mazdisna religion.

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Among the various of Sasanian kings, Narseh (293-302 A.D.) is the one whose important and striking rock relief remained at Naqsh-i Rustam in Iran’s Fars province. This relief records investiture ceremony from Anahita ( known as Goddess of fertility and protector of water). Until now, various views and interprations have been put forwarded about the real identity and historical theme of this relief. But the attribution of a lady to Shapurdokhtak II (Narseh`s wife) is the latest and most controversial view given by Alireza Shapur Shahbazi, who has conducted excavations and archaeological studies at Takht-i Jamshid for several years. In fact, this attribution has also provoked the authors of the present article hence; he has tried to highlight the depiction through opinions of various researches. The present study supports the accuracy and validity of the attributed lady to water goddess Anahita and refuses other theories.

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Kooh-e Khajeh (Kajeh Mountain), with 120m height and 2-2.5km in diameter, is located at Hamoon Lake like an island. Since the archaic era, due to its specific geopolitical location, religious sacredness, and the natural beauty especially at the times of water-richness at Hamoon, this place caused the formation of settlements. Based on an intensive archaeological survey conducted in this region, seventeen sites have been identified of which thirteen possess earthenware. Through typological and chronological studies of potteries found at surface level, two era of settlement have been identified in this Mount: one refers to the pre-Islam era beginning from 3rd century B.C. until the end of Sassanians; the second belongs to the Islamic era particularly on the basis of glazed potteries scattered on the surface as well as some structures built during 6th and 8th century Hegira. The buildings and structures related to the pre-Islam era include palaces, defensive forts and citadels, and temples, whereas; the buildings of the Islamic era are exclusively related to some religious places such as shrines, mausoleums and cemeteries.

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In its course of evolution, the Sassanian rule accepted a change in temporal exigencies, condition and manner of governance of each ruler where more attention was paid to the institutional establishment, grades/ranking, titles, symbols and administrative hierarchy. In a way, the organizational manner, to a larger extent, could engulf the period into a curtain of ambiguity. One of those ranks was Vuzorg Farmzar that apart from having equivalents in different periods of time, with respect to its real application, encountered with sectional and temporal confusion as well. As such, an increase or decrease in jurisdiction of the above rank was influenced more by policies of each emperor. According to this fact, the issues which are to be dealt with in this article are: Which title was synonymous to the word “grand vizier” or “Vuzorg Farmzar” in the early Sassanid era? In which era of Sassanid dominion, the title “Vuzorg Farmzar” was addressed as “Hazarpat”? How was the factional evolution of the position of “Hazarpat”? This research is concerning to show that the word “Bidakhsh”, is a title that in the early Sassanid era was employed to endow titles of person such as “grand vizier” or “Vuzorg Farmzar” and after some time it was completely forgotten. The word “Hazarpat” was one of the other titles which was equivalent to “Vuzorg Farmzar” in the middle Sassanid era and we can distinguish three Functional phases for it: It was a militaristic position in the early Sassanid era, a militaristic- civil jurisdictive position in the middle era and a militaristic position once again at the end at of Sassanid era. Taking into account historical sources and epigraphic records, the current research tries to find out the basis and essence of “Vuzorg Farmzar” and titles synonymous to it as well as their actual or the honorary functions during the era In order to clarify, the extent of governance and administration establishment, on the top of which was the “grand vizier” (Vuzorg Farmzar). To achieve this goal, the connections of the titles such as “Bidakhsh”,“Hazarpat”, “Vuzorg Farmzar” and “Sepahbad” are questioned, by determining the existence, primacy and recency of these titles in epigraphic records and also in the historical sources in which the functional jurisdiction of these titles mentioned,the accuracy or inaccuracy of these hypothesis would be distinguished.

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The Economic Schedules of Shah Abbas I (1587-1629) are considered an important step forward in bringing a major transition in regional and international commerce during the medieval age. That could possibly performed through an extensive autonomy of the central government on the southern coast specially Hormuz and Kish islands that incurred national benefits in foreign commercial and logistic relationship especially with European countries. The strategic commodity of silk has had significant role in reconstruction of commercial ties between Iran and European countries. Using historical and geographical accounts (travelogue), this article tries to recognize the importance and status of the southern Iranian ports in silk trade with a case study of Bandar Abbas.  The findings show that the process of silk commerce in Iran was organized with a precise supervision of Shah Abbas himself and his efforts to come up with production centers such as Kashan, Yazd and Isfahan in central Iran as well as export centers in southern regions such as Laar and Bandar Abbas.    

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Locating fort settlements in Sistan region, Iran, during different historical periods have always been associated with changes in the direction of Hirmand River which have occurred due to various natural and human factors. This study aims to identify the relation between the Iranian province of Sistan hydrographic networks of fort settlement in the Qajar era. The research method is descriptive - analytical, historical – comparative, documentary, library and field study in Iran's Sistan area. Our focus is mostly on the issue of changes in hydrographic network of Hirmand River. The main question is to what extent have the changes in the direction of hydrographic network of Hirmand played a role in locating fort settlements of Qajar era in Iran's Sistan region. Records, documents, data and historical information related to the Qajar era were collected and comprehensively compared and analyzed regarding the current and the past situations in the Geographic information system (GIS) using ArcGIS software. The results show that the highest number of the locating and the density of fort settlements in the Qajar era are related to the hydrographic basin of Sistan river. The main reason is branching of the Hirmand River Hydrographic Basin through the Sistan canal or Sistan River in the West. Also from 6 to 12 AH in both the northern and southern Delta region of Sistan, Iran, there have been settlement areas. However in Qajar era 100 percent of settlements in the northern Delta area have been site selected.

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In the early 21^st century, during an excavating of a village on Farahan plain, some remains of an important monument including part of a large brick column and several walls were discovered. For a decade, despite national registration, no scientific and comprehensive study was performed on these remains until the time when the remains captured the attention of the authors of this paper during their archaeological study of the Farahan plain. Therefore, considering two main objectives, the chronology of the discovered pieces and determining their real identity, initially, a comprehensive archaeological survey was carried out on the Fardaghan region and samples were collected from different areas of this plain; afterwards, the cultural data were typologically compared. At the next stage, historical evidence was sought in written sources using a historical approach in order to determine the identity of the site. The results indicate that the current building belonged to the Sassanid period that has been also used during the Islamic era after a functional change. It is highly probable that this building is the one mentioned in some written sources such as Ibn Yaghoubi’s Mokhtaser Alboldan. In early Islamic centuries, this fire temple was changed into a fortified castle.

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For a long time, humans have used plant motifs on objects such as pottery, goblet, and others, which sometimes have a symbolic appearance and were very important in the relics of a particular period. One of the most important motifs, that has a Mesopotamian origin, is the tree of life. The tree of life is a plant that is found in many mythical traditions of the Near East such as Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Egypt. The flower of life or the motif of geometric rosette is another valuable motif with six petals. In this paper, the authors first discuss the symbols and symbolism and then investigate the background of the tree of life and then discuss the motif of geometric rostte or flower of life, and later focus on the Golden, Silver and Bronze findings at the sites of Marlik, Amarlu in Gilan and Kelardasht in Mazandaran related to iron age of Iran and investigate the impact of this symbolic motif on archaeological findings in the surrounding sites that have probably transformed the motif of the tree of life into the flower of life. This motif emerged among the communities of northern Iran during a period almost identical to the Assyrian era at the bottom of the Golden and Silver and Bronze goblets and is a kind of symbol of the tree of life that then the artists replaced the sacred tree with six petal rosette.

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Simultaneous with the arrival of Arabs, Sistan in the southeastern part of Iran although conquered, still preserved some of the pre-Islamic elements that could survive for centuries. The study and analysis of historical texts and resources reflect religious freedom among the people who had settled in Sistan for centuries. In that area, pre-Islamic Iranian beliefs such as Zoroastrianism and other religions and sects such as Christianity and Judaism were prevalent. Islam had also sects in Sistan, such as Kharijites (or the Khavarij), Karamis and Ismailis. In the meantime, the Khavarij, who were formed after the adversarial process and disintegration of the supporters of Imam Ali (PBUH) and later settled in the eastern parts of Iran due to the pressure of the Umayyads and Abbasids with branches such as Ghali Arzagheh, Atvieh, and Ajardeh, played an effective role in the survival of other religions and sects. In this research, the authors try to use the descriptive-analytical method by referring to historical sources. The goal is to give more clarity to the role of the Khawarij in the life and persistence of different religions in Sistan during the Islamic period, proving its accuracy by providing clear evidences and solid documents.

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The article, by using historical texts, attempts to reconstruct part of the ups and downs of the Caspian Sea’s southern coastal history, the importance of navigation on the shores and ports of the Caspian Sea, and the impact of Nader Shah's policies on the formation and prosperity of navigation in northern Iran. Based on library resources and a thorough analysis of the contents, the article seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What were Nader Shah Afshar's motives and goals in establishing shipping in the Caspian Sea? 2. Why the Russian government was suspicious of this issue? The findings of the study indicate that Nader Shah intended to boost the commercial prosperity of the country by forming a navy in the Caspian Sea and also achieve his political and military goals which were in contrast to the interests of the Russian Tsarist government. Finally, the main purpose of this study is to examine the state of trade, navigation, and shipbuilding during the Nader Shah period, by using the historical approach and archaeological evidence of the shipwreck off the coast of Chamkhaleh in Langarud County which is undoubtedly closely related to the political-military presence of the government and social presence. Hence, the role and position of local rulers of the Caspian Sea coasts and how they interacted with the Afsharid dynasty and foreign companies are noteworthy.
 

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Sistan, situated between southeastern Iran and western Afghanistan, mainly falls within Afghanistan’s present province of Nimroz. Iranian Sistan, or Western Sistan, lies in the northern part of Sistan and Baluchistan province, characterized by its flat terrain formed by Hirmand River sediments. Historical and archaeological studies reveal different cities throughout Sistan's history. Zaranka, Proftazia, and Ram Shahristan served as hubs in the Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods, respectively. In Islamic times (7th to 18th century), Zarang, Shahr-e Sistan, and Shahr-e Nou Sistan emerged as significant centers. Except for Zahedan-e Kohneh, which preserves the remnants of Shahr-e Sistan, the second capital of Sistan in the Islamic era, little information is available about the location of other central cities from this period. Zahedan-e Kohneh has earned the moniker "London of the East" due to its grand ruins, showcasing meticulous craftsmanship. The aim of this article is to study the architectural features and urban structure of the historical city of Zahedan-e Kohneh, which was the second capital (Dar alHukuma) of Sistan during the Islamic era (5th to 9th centuries AH). The results of studies show that engineers from Sistan a thousand years ago were very successful in designing and building this city, and in order to build a good and flawless city, they applied various sciences such as geometry, geography, geology, climatology, and ecology