Naser al-Din Shah Research Articles

Explanation and Analysis of the Function of Religious Rites and Rituals in the Lives of Shia Iranians During the Qajar Period

This study aims to explain and analyze the function of religious rites and rituals in the lives of Shia Iranians during the Qajar period. The research is considered a historical study and has been written using a descriptive-analytical method based on library resources. The information related to the study was collected through note-taking. In this research, the religious customs and rituals of the people during the Qajar period are discussed in various aspects, including birth, marriage, divorce, death, clothing, and the religious holidays of Nowruz, Ghadir, Qorban, Ramadan, and Muharram. The results of the study indicate that, similar to the Safavid era, religious rites and rituals were practiced during the Qajar period, and Qajar kings were also committed to performing customs at both the popular and aristocratic levels. During this period, with the beginning of Iran's contact with the West and Naser al-Din Shah Qajar’s first trip to Europe, Western culture and modernity entered the country significantly, and the methods of celebrating religious ceremonies and mourning during the months of Muharram and Ramadan underwent changes. Some religious customs, such as Chavosh Khani and Taziyeh, reached their peak during this period, while others, such as Bast Neshini, were temporarily discontinued and then limited to specific locations after the death of Amir Kabir.

Translator as Historical Re-Narrator: The Case of the Persian Translation of Clements Markham's History of Persia

Abstract This paper examines Mirza Rahim Khan's Persian translation (1885) of Clement Markham's A General Sketch of the History of Persia (1874) as a historical event. To this end, this article looks at two copies of the translation manuscripts: one written by the translator, which also includes revisions of his first draft, and the other an illuminated copy presented to Naser al-Din Shah, the fourth Qajar shah. A close comparative examination of the texts shows the translation reverberates three distinct voices: the writer, the translator, and his patron, the shah. The translator's shifts of meaning show that the changes, far from being slight and local, affect the whole text, resulting in a different narrative, mostly conforming to the ruling system. However, there are cases where Mirza Rahim expresses his dissident voice in the translation. Furthermore, this examination also reveals the socio-political condition under which the translation took place, shedding light on aspects of Qajar rule only revealed by analyzing translations of the time.

From Vision to Reality: Tehran’s Urban Expansion Under Naser al-Din Shah (1848–96)

In 1868, the city of Tehran underwent a new phase of physical transformation and development under the order of the third Qajar king, Naser al-Din Shah (r.1848–96). This article addresses the process of the city’s transformations from the perspective of the local elites in Naseri Tehran, examining how Qajar officials introduced the city’s expansion to the public and the extent to which these efforts measured up to the urban development project as it actually unfolded on the ground. Rooted in primary visual and textual sources, my research provides a historical context for this expansion process and its mechanisms. I demonstrate that the Naseri court projected a vision for Tehran modelled on the rhetoric of European examples. The discourse of turning Tehran into a European-style city was articulated through court chronicles and newspaper articles, especially those written by Mohammad Hasan Khan E’temad al-Saltaneh, a prominent politician and commentator during the Naseri period. By analysing this archival record, maps, and the spatial practices of the city’s residents, I argue that, despite its ultimate formal resemblance to European walled cities, the process of Tehran’s expansion and beautification took a different direction than what Naser al-Din Shah and his court originally envisioned.

Two Faces of Urbanization in the Muslim East: Tehran in the Second Half of the 19th Сentury — 1930s.

In this study the authors examine the main stages of evolution and social characteristics of the capital cities in the Muslim East on the example of Tehran, which over the course of a century has made its way from the medieval Shah's residence to the capital of a modern country. This period in the history of Iran was marked by a gradual modernization of state and society, associated with the personalities of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar and the new ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi, who managed to offer a radical way to transform the country basing on a new ideological doctrine, the symbolic expression of which was his renovated capital. The image of Tehran is reconstructed on the basis of urban planning outlines of the 1920s — 1930s, a wide range of narrative sources, mainly diaries of the Iranian rulers themselves and European diplomats and travelers, and information from Persian literary works.

How Qajar Iranian Princess Taj al-Saltana Saw a 19th Century Global Pandemic

Persianate cultures have been greatly influenced by the “mirror for princes” genre, which offers monarchs advice on how to treat their subjects justly and methods of being an ideal ruler. While scholars have chosen to study this genre from a male-centered perspective, how royal women shaped this genre has remained under-examined by current scholarship. This presentation argues that Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity (1884-1936) by Iranian Qajar Princess Taj al-Saltana, offers new ways of seeing how women used memoir writing to challenge the dominance of their male counterparts during times of pandemics. As the daughter of Naser al-Din Shah, Princess Taj al-Saltana, was able to carefully document one of the many cholera epidemics that ravaged late 19th century Iran from her unique perspective as a recognized intellectual and activist who advocated constitutionalism, freedom, and women’s rights in Iran. In addition to chronicling a cholera epidemic in Iran over one hundred years ago, Taj al-Saltana’s memoir holds interest for modern scholars interested in her handling of genre conventions, specifically how she indicts the ruling patriarchy of the Qajar government of Iran and its corruption which led to the failure to control cholera in the country, while simultaneously instructing female readers about the conduct of an ideal female ruler to build a healthier Iran. This presentation aims to show the way Crowning Anguish functions as a “mirror for princesses” and how we can come up with better strategies of resistance especially in the age of COVID-19 with the failures of patriarchal governments to stop pandemics.

Investigating the possible structural damage scenarios of Niavaran Complex in Tehran-Iran

The Niavaran Complex features a mix of architectural styles with elements from modernism and traditional Iranian architecture and is situated in the northern part of Tehran. The Sahebqaraniyeh Heritage Palace from the time of Naser al-Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty is located in this complex (1846–1896). Based on the initial investigation done by Iran’s Cultural Heritage Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, significant damages and cracking were observed in structural elements of the palace (walls and roofs). Since early 2014, the monument has been closed to the public, and in-depth assessment has been carried out. The study includes the seismicity of the Niavaran fault, soil liquefaction, landslides, land subsidence and historical aspects, such as the removal of stabilising walls about half a century ago and the reduction in underground water level. Detailed field investigation and experimental testing were performed by the Building and Housing Research Center of Iran. One of the main investigations was on the influence of deep excavations downstream in the south part of the palace. The outcomes of structural, geotechnical, geophysical and other related investigations indicated that the Niavaran Cultural/Historic Complex has been damaged significantly in the past decades and is in urgent need of retrofitting/strengthening.

Education System Health Condition in the Time of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar(1848-1896)

This research paper is to portray education system and health condition during Qajar dynasty specifically in the time of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled from 1848-1896. Regarding to health condition the situation was bad; shortage of medical services, disobeying health instructions, and spread of plague and cholera caused a large number of people to catch serious diseases who eventually died. It is worth to say that if there hadn’t been Western health staff and foreign medical aids, the public health of Qajar society would have been even worse. Referring to education and teaching field during the era of Qajar dynasty was that Iranian society depended on family disciplines to raise and educate their children. Having strong religious beliefs among people was the reason to force their children to enroll at schools of the mosques so that they could receive religious education.
 
 It can be said that with the help of some foreign agents and sincere local educators the condition of education system improved after they had introduced Western education methods and provided learning means.

A Study of Two Salam-e Nowruzi Paintings of Fath-Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah in Qajar Era from the Perspective of Leveling and Sharpening Principles of Gestalt

A Study of Two Salam-e Nowruzi Paintings of Fath-Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah in Qajar Era from the Perspective of Leveling and Sharpening Principles of Gestalt

Modernity, Borders and Maps: Iran’s Ability to Advocate for its Borders During the Reign of Naser al-Din Shah

ABSTRACT Iran’s encounters with Britain and Russia after the turn of the nineteenth century necessitated coming to terms with British and Russian imperialism, modern ideas of border implementation and the modern skills of surveying and mapping, all of which were to perform roles in modifying Iran’s pre-modern frontiers. Iran’s engagement with this imperial modernity proved to be an even greater challenge during Naser al-Din Shah’s reign in the second half of the nineteenth century. Iran’s ability, under the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, to counter and ameliorate the power and wishes of the British and Russians was facilitated by incorporating these modern methods. This paper will explore, set against a background of Iran’s own “enlightenment” in cartography and negotiating skills, how the Iranians were able to mitigate against the worst possible outcomes as their borders were re-drawn. Using Persian language sources and Iranian maps together with British archives, and concentrating on the Dargaz-Kalat region between 1881 and 1884, this paper will show that the Iranians did have agency and were not always the victims in this process.

Naser al-Din Shah’s 1873 Visit to the World’s Fair in Vienna

ABSTRACT Naser al-Din Shah's 1873 visit to the World's Fair in Vienna was devised by his advisors to encourage the Shah to adopt European-inspired policies for modernisation, and to put Persia on the map. The latter priority entailed several related goals: first, to pursue diplomacy with Persia's main adversaries in order to balance their influence; second, to forge alliances with other European nations; and third, to communicate Persian sovereignty in order to deter aggression. The Shah's visit to Vienna constituted a mixed success. The Austrian press alternately lampooned and fawned over the Persian ruler, using numerous orientalist tropes. However, the Shah managed to persuade Austria to help Iran's efforts at administrative reform and forged good enough relations to secure Austria's military aid several years later. At the same time, he did little to conscript Austrian know-how for Persia's industrialisation and preferred to spend his time with old acquaintances and interesting personages. Persia's exhibition at the World's Fair also met with both successes and failures. While it effectively communicated Persia's wealth and culture to the Europeans, it could not shake off the impression of Persia's backwardness, and did little to break Persia from the mould of a Euro-centric colonialist narrative.

Discourse Analysis of the Position of Fath-Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah’s Bodies in Qajar Semiosphere

Discourse Analysis of the Position of Fath-Ali Shah and Naser al-Din Shah’s Bodies in Qajar Semiosphere

The Emergence of the Horseman Sculpture in Tehran’s Urban Arts

The study tries to consider the procedure of construction and legitimization of a new kind of art and aesthetic. In Islamic period, we cannot trace the construction of three-dimensional (in European way) sculpture in Iran. It was in the Qajar era that Qoorkhaneh minister ordered some artists to sculpt Naser al-Din Shah's sculpture (horseman). This model was followed in the next epochs such as Pahlavi and Islamic Republic. The research revolves around the question of how the horseman sculpture, in contrast to the previous aesthetic, emerged as a new aesthetic; and how it was accepted as a new kind of art. The article is purposely a fundamental-theoretical study and it is a descriptive-analytical study in term of nature. Methodologically, it is a qualitative study in which the researcher applies Foucauldian concept of power/knowledge to answer the above questions. Additionally, it tries to consider how a work becomes a branch of urban arts in Iran. The study comes to the conclusion that the effect of knowledge which exerted by power in the Qajar era as well as establishment of the institutions and diplomacies in national level produced a kind of discipline and training aesthetic sense. This training gradually persuades some artists to accept the aesthetic and sculpture style and consequently they design and perform some works based on this pattern.

The Importance of Painting in Qajar Dynasty Based on the Sociology Point of View

<p>The paintings of Qajar dynasty are the most thriving and important artworks in Qajar dynasty. Studying Qajar painting helps importantly to identify and study the art and culture of Qajar dynasty. Existence of lots of paintings, diversity of designs, color and subject, combining tradition and modernism were factors for selecting this dynasty to investigate. As the painting is the visual history of each era, sociology studying of painting in this dynasty will make one to understand common culture and thinking of people in that society. Amount of influence of western culture especially during Naser al-Din Shah Era has been at the same time with the creation of these paintings and combination of these paintings with our past legacy schools lead us to the thinking and willing of Qajar artists. As Qajar art and different kinds of painting art were the foundation of contemporary Iran’s painting by a research around this Dynasty, the reasons of excellence, lacks and origins of contemporary painting of Iran can be understood. Research methodology at the beginning was based on library studies while there were little reading resources in books, magazines, internet, documentation, presence in places and photography and then studying of what was seen heard and read.</p>

Russian Terrorism in Tehran: A Qajar Princes’ Letters During the “Minor Tyranny” of 1908

ABSTRACTDuring the Minor Tyranny of 1908, a daughter of Naser al-Din Shah named Malakeh-ye Iran suffered the indignity of having her house in Tehran plundered when the autocratic Shah attempted to re-assert control over the newly won powers of the democratic Constitutional movement. It is generally thought that the ransacking of her house was due to the sympathetic views towards the Constitutional movement that she shared with her husband, Zahir al-Dawleh and their radical son, Zahir al-Soltan. Malakeh-ye Iran’s letters to her husband, who was in Gilan at the time of the attack, graphically describe this traumatic event and are intriguing because neither her supposed “pro-Constitutional” views are apparent, nor does she blame the autocratic Shah (and her nephew), Mohammad ‘Ali for the destruction of her home. It is to be speculated whether her reluctance to blame and criticise the Shah was due to her family connections or whether she feared that the letters might be intercepted and read by the Shah’s spies. Aside from shedding light on one of the most dramatic periods of the Constitutional Movement, the letters also demonstrate the erudition of a Qajar princess, and the bravery and courage of a hitherto unexplored character whose exploits and role during the Constitutional period deserve greater attention.

Manifestation of Power: Toopkhaneh Square, Tehran

Urban design and architecture are used as manifestations of power and control over a society. The city square is not just an architectural element; its structure has a nature that weaves together its contemporary social and political atmosphere and brings a new meaning and concept to the square. This paper aims to clarify the formation of Toopkhaneh Square (The Place of Cannons, or Barracks Square) whose military function and ominous name were physical evidence of the use of urban design by the ruling authority to control the citizenry. The transformation of Toopkhaneh Square is an example of power relations and the struggle for power, which have been projected on the body of the city. This research concentrates on power relations and urban transformations in the spatial analysis of Toopkhaneh Square throughout different periods of its history. The transitional process of Toopkhane Square to an Artillery Square in the Qajar Era dynasty of Naser al-Din Shah (1888) until the Islamic Revolution (1978) shows that the structural elements of the traditional square were modified, as its name, political status, meaning, and functions were changed to fulfill the modern needs and reflect the power struggle. This study analyzes Toopkhaneh Square as the representation of the ruling power and its politico-religious ideology in Iranian urban form.

An analytical and comparative study of male and female images in Qajar dynasty paintings during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah (1797–1834)

ABSTRACTQajar dynasty painting began in the reign of Fath-Ali Shah (1797–1834) and ended with the death of Naser al-Din Shah (1831–1896). In this period, art was influenced by the government; new rules assigned to art as to sociopolitical conditions and figurative paintings were exploited as a tool in governing the country. In the paintings ascribed to Fath-Ali Shah's period, women also appear alongside the images of men who were principally historical, political and religious key figures of their own time. The significant status of women was the most important factor in this. These images were not merely limited to eminent characters as musicians, dancers, servants, acrobats images were drawn as delicately and magnificently as male images and even enjoyed better radiance, vivacity, pep, variety and tonality than them. Male images were elegantly drawn in formal costumes, often with the same composition. The similarities and differences of male and female images in Qajar paintings can be assessed according to the criteria of composition, colour, positioning, and the number of figures, assimilation, the intricacies and the degree of characterization. This study also stresses the characteristics of men's and women's images in the paintings.

The Royal Harem of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–96): The Literary Portrayal of Women's Lives by Taj al-Saltana and Anonymous ‘Lady from Kerman’

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the royal harem and its functions during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848–96), on the basis of two independent Persian-language sources written by noble Iranian women at the turn of nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Naser al-Din's daughter, Taj al-Saltana (1884–1936), who in her famous memoirs vividly rendered her early years spent on her imperial father's court, and ‘Lady from Kerman’ (whose identity remains, for the moment, unclear), who authored a latterly published travelogue of pilgrimage to Mecca and the holy Shi'a places in contemporary Iraq held by her in the early 1890s. The second part of the latter account is entirely dedicated to the sojourn in Tehran, where, upon coming back from the sacred journey, the woman was a frequent guest at the royal harem. Both accounts are unique as they are the only known first-hand sources penned by the female insiders of the harem in nineteenth-century Iran. Furthermore, both authors, who actually met each other, describe the same figures and events – which provide an opportunity to compare their relations and augment our knowledge about Iran in the late Naseri period.

Reviewing Qajar Era Architectural Decoration with an Emphasis on European Designs in the Works of Shiraz

Abstract. Decorative motifs always are one of the inseparable Iranian architecture. Iranian architect has used a visual perspective. Iranian architecture has always had a genuine spirit. After Naser-al Din Shah’s visited Europe the relationship with the Western world made extensive changes in society whether on sociology or cultural features that had an influence on architecture and other things. In this period, there was a wave of Iranian westernism and the traditional architecture. In this era, Persian architectures were all looking for western styles in the form of imitation. In the meantime, some archaism in architecture era in decoration and reclamation of Islamic motifs with the order of governments became popular. Although, some architectural techniques such as plastering, tile, carving and so on. were used, the method was basically Iranian. The new techniques come from the western world. There are different varieties in motifs. Some of them are Iranian but others are from the west. Some of the building’s design has the same designs as traditional before Islam. In Qajar motifs abstraction and inspiration of environment widely are seen and the artist is trying to resuscitate environment and ornament images around him in building decoration. Excessive use of motifs made the building boring and busy. In this article, we are going to take a look at the common principles in Qajar Era.

Zoroastrians in Iran: What Future in the Homeland?

Zoroastrianism, a religion which arose among Iranian peoples some 3,000 years ago, was the religion of the majority of Iranians prior to the Arab conquests of the mid-7th century. Since that time, a steady process of to Islam has left a small Zoroastrian minority of 20,000 or less in Iran today. While community leaders are making efforts to keep the religion alive, factors such as emigration, intermarriage, and low birth rates now put the very survival of this ancient faith into question, not just throughout the global diaspora but within the land of its birth. Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest living faiths. Tracing back most likely to sometime in the 2nd millennium BCE,1 it became the national religion of many Iranian peoples and was the state religion of the Sasanian Empire from the 3rd century CE until the Arab conquest in the 640s. During the subsequent centuries, most Iranians converted to Islam, and a small group of Zoroastrians emigrated to India where they established the Parsi (Persian) community.2 In Iran, numbers have now dwindled to less than 20,000, at least according to official figures,3 although since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 there has been much speculation about the extent of re-conversion to Zoroastrianism by Iranian Muslims disaffected by the country's present Islamic regime. The causes of the Zoroastrian community's decline in Iran date back to the Arab conquests and have been compounded by some contemporary issues. In historical terms, there have been various explanations as to why a majority of Iranians abandoned their traditional faith in favor of Islam, especially since the long-popular conversion by the sword theory has now been largely discredited. Indeed, the evidence is rather that at least during the first century or so, the Arabs were actually mostly reluctant to allow non-Arabs into their prospering community,4 requiring them to acquire an Arab sponsor [mawla] through whom they could obtain a kind of honorary Arab tribal identity.5 That so many non-Arabs chose to do so can be taken as evidence that membership in this community was very attractive, and encompassed temporal as well as spiritual advantages. Another factor often cited is the dependence of the Zoroastrian priesthood on state support, which was lost to them with the fall of the Sasanians. Later, with the increasing application of the then-nascent norms of Islamic law from the 'Abbasid period onwards, legal issues such as family inheritances accruing entirely to individuals converting to Islam, the stipulation that children of mixed marriages be raised as Muslims, and the prohibition against proselytization by non-Muslims, as well as social issues such as localized persecution of non-Muslims by members of the Muslim majority, were all factors leading numerous Iranian Zoroastrians to embrace an Islamic identity. Contrary to some common perceptions, the Islamization of Iran was not instantaneous but rather took place over several centuries. Nevertheless, in urban areas an estimated 80% of the population had become Muslim by the 10th century.6 Over the subsequent centuries the rural communities followed, although their case is more difficult to document. What is clear is that the contexts in which Zoroastrianism survived in Iran were largely rural, especially in the villages around the cities of Yazd and Kerman.7 This reality persisted well into the 20th century. By the 19th century the living conditions of Iran's Zoroastrians had deteriorated to such an extent that the Parsis, who had begun to prosper in British India, began to send financial aid and lobby Iran's government on behalf of their co-religionists. It was through such pressure that the Qajar monarch Naser al-din Shah repealed the jizya (a tax on non-Muslim subjects) on Zoroastrians in 1882. Parsis, meanwhile, built schools and medical clinics for Zoroastrians in Iran.8 The 20th century saw additional helpful trends, such as the Iranian nationalism of Pahlavi ruler Reza Shah (r. …

Between Foreigners and Shi`is

After twenty-seven centuries of uninterrupted presence on the Persianplateau, the Jews of Iran have become so inextricably ingrained in everypossible aspect of Iranian life, culture, religion, and history that any valuablework of scholarship in Judeo-Persian studies, such as the one at hand,must by necessity entail an interdisciplinary approach. Between Foreignersand Shi`is, a ground-breaking work that will henceforth prove indispensableto any researcher ofmodern Judeo-Persian studies, is ameticulous pieceof scholarship that brings as much novelty to its own field as it does tomodernIranian historiography, Middle Eastern political studies, and Islamicstudies.Daniel Tsadik’s book provides a history of the religious, political, andsocial life of Iranian Jews under Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848-96).Relying on a wealth of previously untapped archival material, the authorexamines in particular detail episodes of persecution in Barforush in 1866-67 (pp. 60-78), in Shiraz at the hands of Hajj Sayyid `Ali Akbar Fal Asiri(pp. 130-37), in Isfahan at the hands of ShaykhMohammad Taqi Najafi (pp.137-49), and in Hamadan at the hands of Mullah `Abdallah (pp. 155-77).Examining these and other episodes of anti-Semitic persecution against thebroader backdrop of socio-political events throughout Iran at large, such asthe Tobacco Rebellion of 1891 and the great famine, he brings to light a hithertounnoticed dynamic in which Iran’s Jewish community emerges as therope in a three-way tug of war between the Shi`ite clergy, the Qajar court,and western diplomats, with each jostling for dominance in the fledglingnation that was becoming modern Iran ...