The Spirit of Power: The Mechanism of Power Transition (The Pattern of Power Transition in the History of Iran)

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Sasan Tahmasbi

Assistant Professor, Department of History, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/jhistory.2025.90837.1347

Abstract

The will to power is the most important philosophical concept for explaining the causes and processes of power transition, and one of the main driving forces behind the acquisition and maintenance of power. Yet, the will to power alone is not sufficient to secure or retain authority. Therefore, this study employs a descriptive-analytical-inferential method and seeks to answer this question: What is the fundamental mechanism of power transition, and what pattern has power transition followed throughout Iranian history? Findings show that while the will to power is a necessary condition for acquiring and maintaining power, it is the “spirit of power” (a broader alternative that encompasses the will to power) that ultimately provides the grounds for acquiring, maintaining, and expanding power. It is when this spirit declines that the ruling power gives way to new actors who possess the spirit of power. Consequently, no people, nation, or region has achieved superior power more than once. Power has shifted not only among people and nations, but also among social groups and classes.

Keywords

• power
• the will to power
• spirit of power
• power transition
• history of Iran

Main Subjects

• History of Islamic Civilization

---

References

al-Jābirī, Muḥammad ʿAbid. Andīshih Ibn Khaldūn; ʿAṣabīyat wa Dawlat. translated by Aḥmad Furādī Ahvāzī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 2019/1398.

Arisṭū. Sīyāsat. translated by Ḥamīd ʿInāyat. Tehran: Shirkat  Sahāmī Kitāb-hā-yi Jībī, 1979/1358.

Aron, Raymond. Marāḥil Asāsī Andīshih dar Jāmiʿihshināsī. translated by Bāqir Parhām. Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 1991/1370.

Āzarang, ʻAbd al-Ḥusayn. Suqūṭ-hā, Fūrūpāshī-hā. Tehran: Intishārāt Jahān Kitān, 2022/1401.

Bayhaqī, Abū al-fażl. Tārīkh-i Bayhaqī. ed. ʻAlī Akbar Fayyāḍ. Mashhad: Intishārāt-i Ferdowsi University, 1978/1356.

Bīgdilī, Muḥsin. Rīshihyābī Zamīnih-hā-yi Inḥiṭāṭ Dawlat Ṣafavīyih (az Āghāz tā Furūpāshī). Tehran: Pazhūhishgāh-i ʻUlūm-i Insānī va Muṭāliʻāt-i Farhangī, 2021/1400.

Bluhm, William Theodore. Naẓarīyih-hā-yi Niẓām-i Sīyāsī. translated by Aḥmad Tadayun. Tehran: Nashr Ārān, 1995/1373.

Carpini, Giovanni de Piano. Safarnāmah-yi Piano Carpini. translated by Valī Allāh Shādān. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Yasāvulī, 1985/1363.

Dībā, Fāṭimah va ʻAlī Kirmānī. "Zamīnih-hā-yi Tashkīl Ḥukūmat Qarākhatāʾīyān dar Sharq Irān va Māvarāʾal-Nahr va Ravand Suqūṭ ān-hā". Faṣlnāmah-yi Jundī Shāpūr, yr. 6, no. 22 (Summer  2020/1399): 49-58.

Durant, Will. Tārīkh Tamadun. Vol. 1 (Mashriq Zamīn: Gāhvārih-yi Tamadun), translated by Aḥmad Ārām, Tehran: Intishārāt-i Iqbāl, 1958/1337; vol. 3 (Qiyṣar va Masīḥ), translated by ʻAli Aṣghar Surūsh. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Iqbāl, 1962/1341; vol. 6 (Iṣlāḥ Dīn), translated by Farīdūn Badrahī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Iqbāl, 1966/1345; vol. 7 (Āghāz ʻAṣr Khirad), translated by Ismāʿīl Dulatshāhī, Tehran: Intishārāt-i Iqbāl, 1969/1348.

Herodotus. Tārīkh Herodotus. translated by Murtiżā Sāqibfar. Tehran: Intishārāt Asāṭīr, 2011/1389.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. translated by Ḥusayn Bashīrīyah. Tehran: Nashr-i Niy, 2001/1380.

Ibn Aʿtham Kūfī, Abū Muḥammad. al-Futūḥ. translated by  Muḥammad  ibn Aḥmad Mustawfī, ed. Ghulām Riżā Ṭabāṭābāʾī Majd. Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 2008/1386.

Ibn Khaldūn, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān. Muqaddamah. translated by Muḥammad Parvīn Gunābādī. Tehran: Bungāh-i Tarjamah va Nashr-i Kitāb, 1974/1352.

Ibn Saʿd. Ṭabaqāt. translated by Maḥmūd Mahdavī Dāmghānī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Farhang  va Andīshih, 2011/1390.

ʻIlal Barūftādan Ṣafavīyān; Mukāfātnāmah. Ed. Rasūl Jaʻfarīyān. Tehran: Markaz Chāp va Nashr Sāzimān-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1993/1372.

Kamālī Sarvistānī, Khusrū va Maryam Jaʻfarī Sarvjahānī. “Barrisī Taṭbīqī ʻIlal Iqtiṣādī Suqūṭ Ḥukūmat-hā-yi Ṣafavīyih va Mughūlān Kabīr Hind”. Faṣlnāmih-yi Tārīkh Islām, no. 74 (2019/1397): 211-240.

Krusinski, Judasz Tadeusz. Safarnāmah-yi Krusinski (Suqūṭ Ṣafavīyih va Pādishāhī Nādirshāh). translated by Sāsān Ṭahmāsibī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Amīr Kabīr, 2023/1402.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. Shahrīyār. translated by Dāryūsh Āshūrī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Kitāb Parvāz, 1987/1366.

Marvī, Muḥammad Kāẓim. ʿĀlam Ārāynādirī. ed. Muḥammad Amīn Rīyāḥī. Tehran: Kitābfurūshī Zavār, 1985/1364.

Masʻūdī, Abū  al-Ḥasan. al-Tanbīh wa al-Ishrāf. translated by Abū al-Qāsim Pāyandih. Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 1986/1365.

Masʻūdī, Abū  al-Ḥasan. Murūj al-Dhahab wa Maʻādin al-Jawhar. translated by Abū al-Qāsim Pāyandih. Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 2011/1390.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Chinīn Guft Zartusht. translated by Dāryūsh Āshūrī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Āgāh, 1976/1355.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Irādih-yi Qudrat. translated by Majīd Sharīf.  Tehran: Intishārāt-i Jāmī, 1998/1377.

Pūr ʻIzat, ʻAlī Aṣghar va Ghazālih Ṭāhirī ʿAṭār. “Barrisī Dalāyil Furūpāshī Ḥukūmat va Tamadun Bāstānī Hakhāmanishīyān”. Pazhūhish Ḥuqūq va Sīyāsat. no. 21 (2006/1385­): 79-118.

Russell, Bertrand. Qudrat. translated by Najaf Daryābandarī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Khvārazmī, 1983/1361.

Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr, Tārīkh Ṭabarī. translated by Abū al-Qāsim Pāyandih. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Bunyād Farhang Irān, 1976/1354.

Toynbee, Arnold. Barrisī Tārīkh (Ḥikāyātī az Tamadun-hā-yi Barjāy Māndih va Munqariż). translated by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ārīyā. Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻIlmī va Farhangī, 2014/1393.

Weber, Max. Akhlāq Protestant va Rūḥ Sarmāyihdārī. translated by ʻAbd al-Maʻbūd Anṣārī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Samt,  1992/1371.

Yaʻqūbī, ibn Wāżiḥ. al-Buldān. translated by Muḥammad Ibrāhim Āyatī. Tehran: Bungāh-i Tarjamah va Nashr-i Kitāb, 1978/1356.