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8 - TRIBES, CITIES AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Claude Cahen
Affiliation:
University of Paris IV
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Summary

The problem confronting the writer of this chapter may be summarized in the question: by what process did pre-Islamic Iran turn into the Iran of Islam? Although it is only the social implications of the question which need to be considered here, they are by no means simple. In Iran, as in all the countries of the Near and Middle East, the spoken and written language changed several times over the years, with the practical consequence for modern learning that few scholars are able to study the history of the country continuously from one linguistic period to the others; there are few experts who have a good knowledge of both pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran. Moreover, for pre-Islamic Iran the direct documentary evidence available is unfortunately too meagre to answer all the questions which an Islamicist might in retrospect wish to ask, and even the Arabic documentation which followed the Islamic conquest is, for the first two or three centuries, sadly deficient. The history of the Sāsānian period is often presented with Islamic bias, for the purpose of leading to conclusions which authors of the Islamic period wished to demonstrate, reflecting the conflicts and problems of their times. The same is true of the accounts which they give of the period of the conquests. For these reasons, there are too few substantial studies of the crucial problems of Iranian history during the first centuries after the intervention of Islam for it to be possible to present a synthesis of them. The chapter which follows will therefore consist mainly of somewhat disconnected notes, for the most part of a hypothetical and provisional nature.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1975

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References

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Bunyatov, Ziya, Azerbaidžan v 7–9 vv. (Moscow, 1965);
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Cahen, C., “Note sur l'utilisation des ouvrages de droit musulman pour l'histoire” in Atti dell Terzio Congresso di Studi arabi ed islamici (Naples, 1967).Google Scholar
Cahen, C., “L'Évolution de l'iqtā‘”, AESC, vol. VIII (1953); Lambton, A. K. S., Islamic Society in Persia (London, 1954); Dennett, D. C., Conversion and Poll Tax in Early Islam (Cambridge, Mass., 1950); Løkkegaard, F., Islamic Taxation in the Classic Period (Copenhagen, 1950); Lambton, A. K. S., Landlord and Peasant in Persia (Oxford, 1953); Cahen, C., “Reflexions sur le waqf ancien”, Studia Islamica, vol. XIV (Paris, 1961); Cahen, C., “Mouvements populaires et autonomisme urbain dans l'Asie musulmane du Moyen Age”, Arabica, vols, V, VI (Leiden, 1958–9); Serjeant, R. B., “Materials for a History of Islamic Textiles”, AI, vols, IX–XIV (1942–8) (and see under Textiles; Cohen, H. J., “The Economic Background and the Secular Occupations of Muslim Jurisprudents”, JESHO, vol. XIII (1970); Cahen, C., “Quelques problemès concernant l'expansion économique musulmane au haut Moyen Age”, Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull' Alto Medioevo, vol. XIII (Spoleto, 1965); Bulliet, R. W., The Patricians of Nishapur, A Study in Medieval Islamic Social History (Cambridge, Mass., 1972); Sociétés et compagnies de commerce en Orient et dans l'Ocean Indien, ed. Mollat, M. (Paris, 1970); and the translations from Arbic texts made by Ben Shemesh, A. under the title Taxation in Islam (Leiden, 1965–9).Google Scholar
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Ibn, Hauqal. al-Masālik wa'l-mamālik, ed. Kramers, J. H.. Leiden–Leipzig, 1938–9 (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, 8 vols. (Leiden), vol. 11).
Ibn Hauqal, . al-Masālik wo” l-mamālik, ed. Kramers, J. H.. Leiden-Leipzig, 1938–9 (BGA, vol. II).
Spuler, B., Iran in früh-islamischer Zeit (Wiesbaden, 1952);
Planhol, Xavier, Les Fondements géographiques de l'histoire de l'Islam (Paris, 1968) and the review in JESHO, vol. XII (1969); Pigulevskaya, N., Les Villes de l'état iranien (Paris, 1963); Hourani, A. and Stern, S. (eds.), The Islamic City (Oxford, 1970), especially the article of J. Aubin; Lambton, A. K. S., Islamic Society in Persia (London, 1954). Still useful are Mez, A., The Renaissance of Islam (Patna, 1937); Lapidus, I. M. (ed.), Middle Eastern Cities (Berkeley, 1969); article by Tskitishvili, O. in JESHO, vol. XIV (1971).
Shaban, M. A., The ‘Abbāsid Revolution (Cambridge, 1970);

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