Midterm Study Guide:
2a. What was the role of tribes in the rise of dynasties in the Middle East according to IbnKhaldun?
- Two basic elements in sociology in civilizations: city life and nomadic life
- Islamic period: 7th century to 14th century
- Desert and Cities
- Desert - nomadic tribes, tents, great military power because of rough life conditions (fit)
- Asabiyyah - solidarity, group loyalty that is lost when move to cities, but helps when conquering
2b. What was the role of tribes in the fall of dynasties in the Middle East according to IbnKhaldun?
- Unify and form a new dynasty
- Religious leader teaches them how to be unified (necessary)
- Education makes them soft, affects military power and qualities (easier life in the city)
- Become settled and spoiled
- Lost asabiyyah (group solidarity)
- Therefore military superiority allows a new group to rise
2c. Can this role also be seen in the empires of ancient Mesopotamia?
- Yes
- First Babylonian Empire, Hammurabi, Amorite Tribes
2d. Compare and contrast the organization of the Arabian (Middle Eastern) tribes with that of the Turko-Mongolian tribes of inner Asia.
- Arabian: insulated, marry within selves, alliances difficult, cohesive, egalitarian, equal
- Both: nomadic, pastoralists, stateless societies, really no government, form confederation
- Turko: exogamy, political alliances, hierarchy
2e. How did this difference affect the pattern of state formation in pre-modern Middle East?
- Ruling elite, (caste) set up as soon as area was conquered
- Difference between government class and subjects (de-ethnicized)
- Go to mamluk option (royal slaves)
- Network of schools, courts, civic institutions, etc.
3a. Give a brief description of the Ottoman political and military organization in the classic period, including the three major features of this political and military organization?
- Ottoman Empire Administration: Sultan → Patriarchal Service = Inner/Outer Service (military) → Bureaucracy - includes judiciary (hadis = judges) → Judiciary under chief
- Timor - land assignment
- Janissary - example of mamluk option (best option)
- Timor holders (Siphano) - cavalry soldiers, leases of land given to horsemen
- Christian Balkan boys went to Istanbul for Sultan service (foot infantry soldiers)
- Janissaries become governors and administrators (outer service: provincial government)
- Cavalrymen - outer service (inner service: palace gods)
3b. How did IbnKhaldun's pendulum become unhinged in the Ottoman empire?
- Janissary - successful mamluk option = permanent base
- Timor holders secured/controlled land also
- Unhinged because of Ottoman's solid military system
- Conquered all of North Africa
- Land assignment - loyal cavalry
- Unhinge military power of tribes
- Town/village - settled agricultural life vs. nomads
- Peasants not military threat
- 16th century = Ottomans conquer Egypt and becomes predominantly settled
- Population settled > nomads
- More politically quiet, military cannot beat janissaries and timor holders
3c.What was the impact of Shi'ism on the Safavid political and military organization in Iran?
- Judiciary was unable to be incorporated in Shi'ism
- Remained concerned with state/secular law, religious courts were much weaker
- Shift emphasis of legitimacy of king
- Iran Shi'ism = not well integrated, religious and military/political system unlike Ottomans
3d. How would you describe and characterize the Iranian system of government in the nineteenth century? Describe its main features.
- In the course of the first half of the 19th century, Iran irrevocably lost many of its territories in the Caucasus which it had been ruling intermittently encompassed for millennia.
- Began political interactions with the Russian Empire
- Imperialism
3e.Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Safavid and Ottoman states.
- Ottomans had a stronger military and political organization because of janissary and timor holders, and were able to incorporate that into their government and elaborate bureaucracy with the judiciary
- Safavid (Iran) - weaker/more vulnerable and a larger tribe than the Ottomans
- 16th Century army was all tribal - no janissaries, tribal, etc.
- 17th Century Shah the threat → tried to initiate a royal slave system - musketeers and used for high administrators later
- Regime dependence on trial armies decreases
- Religious judiciary remains separate, bureaucracy smaller and nomadic population increases
3f. Compare "patrimonialism" and "historical bureaucratic empires" in the Ottoman Empire and Iran.
- Property of the king (shah or sultan)
- Personal authority
- Officers are servants of the king
- Center of administration is household of the ruler/court (Ottoman Empire)
- Elaborate bureaucracy
- Iran (17th Century Iran becomes historic bureaucratic empire because of the mamluk option → royal slaves for generals through conquests → mostly Christian musketeers (10 to 12 thousand) as specially trained and put under royal slave generals until collapse in 1722)
- Iran 19th Century → system replicated (looked at as a patrimonial monarchy) and the bureaucracy was small → a few people
4a. When did the decline of Muslim powers begin, and how was the character of modernization in the Middle East affected by this decline?
- 18th Century sharp decline and loss of power
- modernization → defense of modernization of state because of loss of power
4b.What was the pattern of defensive modernization in nineteenth-century Iran?
- Create a standing army
- Army ranking system
- Training school
- Taxation, financial reforms
- Administrative reforms (bureaucratic)
- Legal/Judicial reforms - advocacy for rule of law
4c. What were the reasons for its failure?
- Political reasons
- Imperial pressure (Russia, Great Britain)
- Religious opposition
- Patrimonialism culture
- Shah opposition
- Agrarian based economy
- New economy (army) needed money for salaries
- No land tax
4d. Discuss the obstacles to the reform and modernization of the state in nineteenth-century Iran.
- Defense modernization
- No free resources that couldn't get without land taxes
- Imperial interference
- Shah resistance
4e. Was the process of constitution-making in the Middle East from the 1860s and 1870s and in the first decade of the 20th century initiated by different social groups?
- 1861 - Tunisian
- 1876 - Ottoman
- Written by reforming bureaucrats who were part of the political elite
- Iran (chapter two of reading) - reforming bureaucrats and merchants ($), religious leaders and intelligentsia (brains)
4f. How deep was the social impact of the early constitution-making in each period?
- First period - not a deep impact → only affected elite → no social mobilization
- Second period - mobilization for all, even tribes
4g. How was the course of the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 in Iran affected by Iran's dual power structure?
- Hierarchy and state
- Shah and Shiite religious leaders
- Religion and state
- Religious powers pulled in because of influence over people
- Power over shah
- Checks and balances like
4h. What were the components of the ideology of the Constitutional Revolution?
- 1905 - 1911
- State building, modernization
- Reforming bureaucracy
- Representatives/parliamentary government
- Democratic monarchy
- Political nationalism
- Intelligentsia, merchants
- National bank
- Debate on rule of Islam in constitutionalism - no law passed by parliament should go against Sharia law
5a. What economic and political factors can explain the success of state building under Reza Shah in Iran?
- Higher government revenue (p. 214)
- Organization of customs
- Favorable income source (? cash)
- British imperialism
- Monarch corporation
5b. Give a brief account of his reforms and modernization of Iran.
- Anything not done in the 19th century
- Standing army
- Centralized administration in Tehran, ministries
- Educational system
- Judicial reforms
- Civil code/common law
- Registration, religious
- Infrastructure (roads)
- Economic development
5c. What was the impact of Reza Shah's modernization of the state on Iranian society?
- Educational system
- Building roads
- Trade
- Economic integration
- Internal migration
- Conscription
- National integration
- Growth of professional middle class
- "New middle class"
- Architects, lawyers, doctors
- People employed by the state
- Higher number of bureaucrats
- Teachers
- 1,000 families → new class (middle class)
- Nomadic tribes lose - disarmed by Reza Shah's army → 25% to 12% population and lose military power
- Religion hierarchy weakened - loses influence
5d. What was the impact of the modernization of the state on the social structures of Iran in the 1920s and 1930s?
- Military building
- Judiciary Reform
- Civil Code
- Secular judges from schools and with law degrees
- Expanded and implemented law passed in 1911 to make land private and privately owned
- Relatively short period of time
- Increased Iranian nationalism
- Integrate Iran
- Make it a nation state
- Nation building integration and effect on society
5e. How did the modernization of the state and the reforms of the Pahlavi Shahs (1925-1979) affect different classes and social groups?
- Social structure
- Classes created and destroyed
- New middle class
- Rubber stamp parliament
- From the 1930's on Iran was more dictator like
- Neo-patrimonial
- Religious class was not destroyed but lost a good amount of power
- Tribes destroyed
- Traditional middle class
- Bazaar- center of town
- Merchants and craftsmen
- Oil Companies and planes (F16)
- Mohammad Reza Shah - White Revolution
- Land reform
- Women had the right to vote
- Controlled elections
- Increase in army size and the number of government employees and contracts
- Increase in the new middle class
- Rural middle class
- Land owning peasants
- Power sharing
- Destroyed the 1,000 families
- Destroyed what his father created