Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
PhD Student in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2
Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Development Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.
10.22080/sod.2026.30317.1028
Abstract
Throughout history, written texts have constituted one of the most significant arenas for the manifestation of social realities. Among these, epistolary and bureaucratic prose (munshaʾāt), beyond their rhetorical and aesthetic value, contain indications of political mentality, power relations, and modes of representing social issues, and therefore can be utilized as important sources for the sociological analysis of history. In this regard, the munshaʾāt of Mirza Abolqasem Qaem-Maqam Farahani, beyond their literary significance, provide a meaningful context for understanding historical and social mechanisms. The present article, emphasizing the role of literary and bureaucratic texts in identifying social and political structures, examines the munshaʾāt of Mirza Abolqasem Qaem-Maqam Farahani during the Qajar period. The necessity of this research arises from the fact that, in domestic scholarship, formal literary texts have rarely been analyzed as social data, and the role of bureaucratic language in producing political legitimacy and organizing social relations has received limited attention.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and employing a qualitative method, this study analyzes a selection of diplomatic and administrative letters through a descriptive–interpretive framework, examining rhetorical elements, forms of address, lexical patterns, and the historical–social context of the texts. Focusing on bureaucratic correspondence (tarsol) as a powerful instrument for displaying authority, consolidating dominance, legitimizing rule, and managing conflicts and crises enables an understanding of functions that extend beyond purely literary dimensions and facilitates access to the social and political layers embedded in the texts. This study seeks to reduce the gap between literary studies and historical social sciences and to demonstrate that bureaucratic literary works can serve as reliable sources for reconstructing patterns of power, political culture, and social transformations in premodern Iran.
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