A Theoretical Reflection on the Social Stratification of the Safavid Society; by Approaching the Situation of Urban Classless Groups

Mohammadi, Seyed Mohammad Hosein

doi:10.22034/chs.2024.473462.1004

A Theoretical Reflection on the Social Stratification of the Safavid Society; by Approaching the Situation of Urban Classless Groups

Document Type : Original Article

Author

seyed mohammad hosein mohammadi

PhD in History of Islamic Iran and Research Expert at Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22034/chs.2024.473462.1004

Abstract

By taking over the communication and information system of the society, the upper groups try to promote, strengthen and reflect their views as a standard model in the society; this process of creating and strengthening the public communication system causes the voice and image of people outside the dominant groups to be removed or manipulated or not transmitted properly. The little information available in the sources about the classless, silent or subaltern groups in the Safavid period does not reflect their lived experiences and real situation; because their voice and image are not properly reflected in official and historical sources, and in other words, they are represented at will of other social groups such as upper groups. Classless groups in this article mean social groups that are not mentioned in the conventional social categories of the Safavid era; In fact, they are not recognized and are considered “classless” according to the interpretation of this article. Accordingly, the present article seeks to answer the question, what is the position of these classless groups in the social stratification system of the Safavid Era? The approach of the current research is exploratory and its method is qualitative, and it tries to trace the classless groups as a way to know the subaltern social strata of the Safavid society, based on microhistory method, which is one of the study axes in modern cultural history. In fact, the nodal point of the studies and surveys of the microhistory are those that have not been taken into account in the narrative of traditional history.

Keywords

Marginal Group

Social Stratification

Cultural History

Safavid Era

Subalterns

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