The Decline of Historiography in Iran

Although some of the articles and notes in this collection are republished from selections of articles in which they were previously printed, most of them, due to their dispersion in publications that are not easily accessible to the public, had remained isolated and unknown in a remote state. Apart from their historical value, which impacts various issues such as historiography in Iran or brief studies on certain political figures of the Qajar era, this collection has another characteristic. Today, due to the extensive time spent on writing and compiling these pieces, as well as the fact that some aspects are not new in terms of current historical data and knowledge or contemporary perspectives on certain topics—or even inconsistencies in some parts of it with our current historical awareness or the approach we take toward some of the discussed matters—the collection is left with certain limitations. Some of the articles and notes in this collection, however, are exceptions to this rule. For instance, the memorandum of Mohammad Shah on the embassy of Hossein Khan and new insights about Amir Kabir regarding the drafting of the Iran-Britain agreement… hold a more documentary aspect and are acknowledged in this regard.