One Civilization and Two Interpretations: Rereading Two Works by Abdulḥusayn Zarrinkub: Du Qarn Sukut and Karnami-yi Islam

Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation

سیاوش Shohani ¹

1 - ندارد

Received: 2009-10-02 Accepted : 2009-12-06 Published : 2010-02-20

Keywords: toleration, rough treatment, cosmopolitism, peaceful&#x0D, &#x0D, coexistence, protected people, Islamic culture and civilizati, Islamic&#x0D, &#x0D, world, Abdulḥusayn Zarrinkub,

Abstract :

Islamic historiography has been full of ups and downs, and has beenaffected by many social and historical parameters, to such an extentthat some of these parameters, in the same way as a historicaldiscourse, have created a historiographical era. AbdulḥusaynZarrinkub’s works on the history of Iran at first centuries of Islamicperiod were of great importance and authority in academies in Iran.Du Qarn Sukut, written in thirties (Persian calendar), his most famouswork, presents a different account in comparison with Karnami-yiIslam, written in fifties. In his first account, Zarrinkub attacks theachievements of Islamic civilization in two first centuries, andconsiders Arab conquest as the reason of Persian’s misfortune; whilein his second account, admires this civilization, and considers thisencounter as a reason for flourishing and fruitfulness of bothcivilizations. This article tries to compare these two accounts ofIslamic civilization, and examine the aforementioned contradictionhermeneutically.