Introduction to Entertainment in Qajar Persia

Abstract

As far as written records and oral traditions indicate, entertainment in the Qajar era touched on all aspects of life, both public and private. Contrary to Western opinion about this period, Qajar society exhibited a great variety of entertainments, many of which (even when public) were not visible to the outsider, given the constraints of a strongly traditional society and of the class-bound nature of many of the entertainments requiring access to the court, the aristocracy or the inner sanctums of the houses of the grandees. Nevertheless, the picture that now emerges is one of plenty rather than penury, and a closer look at the variety of entertainments is thus eminently relevant and in order.