Comparative study of the ownership and inheritance and its impact on the government of feudalism and Iran in the early centuries of Islam

Morsalpour, Mohsen; Bamerinejad, Isa

doi:10.30466/jhf.2024.121521

Comparative study of the ownership and inheritance and its impact on the government of feudalism and Iran in the early centuries of Islam

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mohsen Morsalpour ¹
Isa Bamerinejad ²

¹ Associate Professor, Dept. of History, Univ. of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.

² Master of Arts in History of Islamic Iran, Dept. of History, Univ. of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.

10.30466/jhf.2024.121521

Abstract

The concentration and continuation of the military and economic power of the aristocracy in the feudal system in England was influenced by ownership and inheritance, which was different from the ownership and inheritance in the Iranian governments of the first centuries of Islam, which caused dispersion. Although the feudal system created different mechanisms of ownership, in the end, the rule of seniority in inheritance was accepted. This system continued based on land ownership and the mutual relationship between lord and vassal and strengthened the economic and military bases of the feudal lords. However, in Iran during the early Islamic centuries, due to the existence of inheritance rules, assets were generally divided among the survivors of the deceased, and the children of the new nobility quickly became small owners without power and accumulated wealth. The current research aims to investigate the effect of ownership and inheritance in weakening Iranian rulers and nobles in the early Islamic centuries and compares it with ownership and inheritance in England. Therefore, the article’s approach is comparative-adaptive and of the general comparison type. The current research is based on these questions: What was the difference between ownership and inheritance in the structure of the government system of England in the feudal period and Iran in the early Islamic centuries, and what consequences did they cause? The research findings show that feudalism and the rule of seniority perpetuated the aristocracy that challenged and limited the king's power. But in Iran, the rule of inheritance turned the nobles into small owners who could not face the rulers' unbridled power.

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