تحقیقات تاریخ اجتماعی (Mar 2013)
The Decline of Hydraulic Civilization from the Point of View of Foreigner Travel Writers in Qajar Era
Abstract
Western travel writers, particularly in two recent centuries, have been the outside reporters of situation in Iran that can be interpreted as situation of civilizational-cultural decline and backwardness. Special climatic and geographical condition in Iran, drought, shortage of water and hydraulic foundation particularly qanats were phenomena which made them pay attention to. In to recent centuries which have been the period of insecurity and chaos, building and keeping the hydraulic foundations faced a lot of problems. so numerous foundation especially qanats and following that many villages and agricultural fields were going to destroy. Foreign travel writers who looked outside sensitive, informed, and curious inspectors recorded most careful and influenced reports about this process and mutual relationship with current process of decline in Iran. The purpose of this article is presenting regular and systematic analysis of those reports. According to those reports, natural and historical events; despotism; lawlessness; management crisis; spread of oppression and insecurity; the successive attacks of internal and marginal tribes; cultural, moral, and educational conditions; a kind of questions related to politics and foreign relationship such as land burning policy and some territorial and marginal difficulties related to recent era; numbers of neighboring countries and government; and at last damaging results and consequences of world wars in 20th century have been the most important factors of extinction of water foundations and following that damaging of Iran’s villages, rural areas, and towns . In this article, this process is interpreted as the process of decline and downfall of hydraulic or qanat civilization.
