A Comparative Study of the Demands of Petitioning Actors in the Rural Society of Kermanshahan during the Constitutional and Reza Shah Eras (1906–1941 CE)
Keywords:
Kermanshahs, petition writing, social demands, rural society, constitutionalism, PahlaviAbstract
The petition (ʿarīża) is considered one of the important historical documents encompassing multiple social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions, but it holds particular significance in the field of social history. This type of document not only reflects the everyday concerns of the people but also conveys their social perspectives and attitudes toward governments and political–social transformations. In other words, petitions represent the interactions of people with one another and with governing authorities. In the history of Iran, villages have always been among the main centers of petition writing, used as a means to seek justice, remedy grievances, and regulate relations with authorities and other communities. This article aims to identify and compare the concerns and issues of the rural society of Kermanshahan during the Constitutional Revolution and the reign of Reza Shah, based on data obtained from petitions of those periods. Employing a qualitative and comparative content analysis approach, the study examines, interprets, and analyzes the available petitions from both eras and seeks to answer the following question: What were the demands of social actors in the rural society of Kermanshahan during these two periods, and how did these demands evolve? The findings reveal that these demands can be analyzed within four main categories—social, political, economic, and cultural—and have fluctuated under the influence of historical transformations and events within the sphere of rural life. During the Constitutional period, political and social demands primarily revolved around security issues and the elimination of oppression, whereas in the Reza Shah era, the rural population’s concerns were more focused on everyday social and economic matters and on how to interact with representatives and officials of the central government.
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