Qajar Rule Research Articles

Տաթևի, Ս․ Թադեի և Ս․ Ստեփաննոս Նախավկայի վանքերը ԺԹ դարի առաջին կեսին

From the beginning of Qajar rule in Iran the Armenian monaste-ries of Syunik and Artaz suffered the hardships of the Russo-Persian conflict and wars for the regions of Transcaucasia. The Persian docu-ments of the Matenadaran throw light on some political and economic developments around the monasteries and help elucidate some aspects of Qajar policy as regards the Armenian sanctuaries under their rule. Tatev monastery, located in the territory subject to the khan of Karabagh had passed under the rule of Russian empire after the treaty concluded in Kurakchay in 1805 and then after the fights of the Russo-Persian war of 1804 - 1813 its annexation to Russia was confirmed by the treaty of Gulistan. The monastery served as a refuge of the Russian troops fighting for the region. The monasteries of Artaz remained under the rule of Qajar Iran after the treaty of Turkmenchay concluded in 1828, at the end of the second Russo-Persian war. The Qajar governement supported the mo-nasteries of St. Thaddeus and St. Stepannos, the apostles, and tried to keep away its Armenian followers, the inhabitants of Azerbayjan from migration to the regions passed under the rule of Russia. In spite of these attempts the major portion of the Armenians of Azerbayjan migrated. However, the Qajar powers granted some estates to the monasteries in the villages around them and protected their rights with royal decrees and other documents in order to secure their survival in later Muslim environment.

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.

Shiite Pilgrimage to Atabat in the Context of Iranian-Iraqi Relations in Second Half of the 19th - Early 20th Centuries

The article is focused on the study of various aspects of the Shiite pilgrimage to the holy land of Iraq - atabat, which was an important part of the Shia-Sunni and interstate relations of the two neighbouring countries. Having a long history and having been actively practised during the entire period of the Qajar rule in Iran, it was interrupted in the 1920ies for political reasons connected with the adoption of new principles of state building in both countries. The article, based on archival documentary materials and travelogues both in Russian and Persian, partly introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, creates a detailed picture of the pious wandering of the Shiа which is analyzed in its religious and political aspects.

Domestic and external considerations in the struggle over regency in early Qajar Iran: The princely rivalry between ʿAbbas Mirza and Muhammad-ʿAli Mirza

One of the questions which characterized the first two decades after the rise of the Qajars to the Iranian throne was the fierce rivalry between the two leading princes during the reign of Fath-ʿAli Shah, namely, ʿAbbas Mirza Nayib al-Saltanah and Muhammad-ʿAli Mirza Daulatshah. The main cause of this rivalry was the nomination of the former to the position of crown prince and regent instead of the latter, who was the elder of the two. The aim of this article is to explain the reasons for this seemingly unjust decision on the part of Fath-ʿAli, and to discuss the intensity of this princely rivalry, analyzing its repercussions on various domestic and external affairs during the first decades of Qajar rule in Iran.

A Modern Contagion: Imperialism and Public Health in Iran's Age of Cholera by Amir A. Afkhami

Reviewed by: A Modern Contagion: Imperialism and Public Health in Iran's Age of Cholera by Amir A. Afkhami Robert Peckham Amir A. Afkhami. A Modern Contagion: Imperialism and Public Health in Iran's Age of Cholera. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. xiv + 276 pp. Ill. $54.95 (978-1-4214-2721-8). From 1817, a cholera epidemic that began in Bengal diffused across much of the Indian Subcontinent and along the proliferating pathways of global trade that had opened up in the wake of European—above all, British—imperial expansion. By 1820, cholera had reached China and a year later it was reported in the Middle East. Amir A. Afkhami's A Modern Contagion: Imperialism and Public Health in Iran's Age of Cholera examines the impact of cholera on the development of modern Iran. The book develops three interconnected arguments. First, in the spirit of Charles Rosenberg's classic study The Cholera Years, Afkhami suggests that Iran's epidemics provide a "sampling technique" to throw into relief entangled social, political, and economic processes.1 In his own words, cholera furnishes a "prism" for "showing the multiple, and often contradictory, social and political determinants of medicine and public health" (p. 3). Second, he contends that Iran's transition to modernity under the Qajar dynasty (1796–1925) created new conditions that in turn produced novel susceptibilities to disease. In particular, centralized government and the country's integration into burgeoning transnational trade networks facilitated cholera's spread and endemicity. Third, Afkhami tracks cholera's impact on the country's institutional developments across domains: from medicine, sanitation and hygiene, to social and political milieus. In other words, he claims that [End Page 143] cholera acted as a catalyst for institutional changes that looped back to influence how the disease was itself understood and experienced. There is an apparent tension, here, between the different roles assigned to cholera. If cholera is a "prism," can it simultaneously be a catalyst for transformation and an ontological object of study in its own right? The answer, as Rosenberg maintains, is yes, and Afkhami carefully braids these multiple cholera narratives into his singular but multi-layered history. While the comma-shaped cholera bacterium (Vibrio cholerae) that, when ingested, can cause fatal infection, is the subject of his book, cholera is also a methodological tool for making visible intermeshing social, political, and economic processes linked to modernity. Cholera, in other words, enables the historian to have her cake and eat it. The book, which draws impressively on a wide range of original sources, is organized chronologically, albeit with cross-cutting themes. Afkhami begins by mapping the institutional developments that marked the early period of Qajar rule as Iran opened up to international currents and modernized. He shows how these transformations were connected to a growing public health consciousness among the governing elites. Hygienic modernity was both reflective and constitutive of new social, political, and economic configurations. The cholera outbreaks of 1889 and 1892 serve as case studies for demonstrating how existing disease susceptibilities were amplified by Iran's progressive incorporation into a steam-driven international marketplace. Iranian responses to cholera, Afkhami concludes, were shaped by a wider geopolitics as imperial powers, notably Great Britain and Russia, jostled for spheres of influence across Asia. This power politics was played out, particularly at the turn of the-century during the Third Plague Pandemic, in the realms of sanitary imperialism. A recurrence of cholera in 1904 is used to illustrate the impact of new microbiological models of disease causation and transmission on Iranian society. Afkhami considers the espousal by local administrations and civic groups of Western-inspired sanitarian measures, highlighting the staunch opposition to them by a religious leadership. The failure of the Qajar administration to contain cholera led to increasingly strident calls by revolutionaries for government reform. At the same time, attempts to modernize Iran's health system by a constitutional government were overshadowed by imperial rivalries. The country's embroilment in a "Great Game" politics ultimately reduced its status, Afkhami argues, to that of a "proto-colony." A Modern Contagion provides a fresh perspective on cholera's entwined local and global histories, opening up new avenues for comparative...

Roʾyā-ye Ṣādeqe (The True Dream): Indictment of the Shiite Clerics of Isfahan, an English translation with facing Persian text

The True Dream is a scathing condemnation in the form of a satirical play of what was perceived as major ills besetting late nineteenth-century society in Qajar Iran, such as corruption in the political and religious establishment, bigotry, and lawlessness. Given that during the Qajar period—not surprisingly—the text could be published only anonymously, the question of what actually constituted the original text as well as that of its authorship remained somewhat shrouded in mystery. In fact, it was not until after the end of Qajar rule when, in 1933, the journal Armaghān published a version that—notwithstanding some arguable defects—served as a textual foundation for Bahram Choubiné’s 1986 edition (Intishārāt-i Mardi-i Imrūz) and established the identity of its authors with reasonable certainty. In his introduction to this new parallel-text edition, which contains an English translation facing the Persian text, Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab accurately and diligently chronicles the genesis of the text itself and the history of its edition (19). He starts his introduction by pointing out the importance of this particular text as an instructive example for the interaction between history and literature (1), and mentioning the stir it created when it was first published in 1900–1901 (19). Before addressing the question of authorship (1), he briefly yet robustly touches upon the status of dreams in Islamic religious and intellectual tradition as a privileged access to truth (1). I would have wanted to see a few words concerning dreams as a topos and a metaphoric device in literature, particularly since, at the end of the introduction (19–20), he makes a number of very helpful observations on other literary characteristics of the text like the resurrection theme as a recurring motif in Islamic literature and its use of satire in connection with elements of stage drama. This would have further elaborated on the effective history of The True Dream in the environment of its time. But, then again, even a rigorously researched and translated text such as this has room for minor improvements. Seyed-Gohrab goes on to give information on the two main villains of the drama, the governor of Isfahan Ḍill al-Sulṭān, son of the Qajar ruler of the time Nāṣir al-Dīn (r. 1848–96), and the town’s senior cleric Āqā Najafī (1–2). Then, in the context of his discussion of the immoral and criminal acts they were accused of in The True Dream, he highlights their persecution of real (or suspected) followers of Bahāʾism (2). A little elaboration on the tenets of the Bahāʾī doctrine would have been in order, especially for readers less familiar with Iranian and Islamic studies to gain insight into the theological aspects of the conflict between the Shi‘ite establishment and Bahāʾism. But to be fair, Seyed-Gohrab’s remarks help readers understand that Bahāʾism was also used by representatives of the religious establishment as a convenient argument against those they saw as a challenge to their influence, notably reformers. Most of the introduction is an insightful presentation of the ideas of the three authors, who, interestingly, were themselves clerics (3–17). I would have liked to see remarks elucidating the ideas of Mīrzā Āqā Khān Kirmānī, who is mentioned as an acquaintance of Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn (5), and what similarities or differences may have existed between the two thinkers. What makes Seyed-Gohrab’s depiction of the three authors especially palpable is his use of contemporary—sometimes even eyewitness—sources and, in the case of Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn, the recollections of his son, the famous novelist Muḥammad ʿAlī Jamālzāda.Seyed-Gohrab’s discussion of the literary characteristics of The True Dream in the context of Persian literary history is the primary merit and advantage of this new edition compared to Choubiné’s edition. In his introductory remarks, Choubiné, whom Seyed-Gohrab refers to in his introduction, elaborates on the other topics Seyed-Gohrab addresses. Unfortunately, however, Choubiné’s observations, since they are in Persian, are lost on readers unfamiliar with this language, and Choubiné’s decision to translate the text of The True Dream into German and French rather than English may not have been the best in terms of accessibility for an international scholarly readership. Sen McGlinn‘s conscientious English translation opposite the Persian text and explanations for potentially unclear terms and contexts now makes The True Dream readable for students and researchers of Iranian history, society, politics, and literature. Exploring this text is rewarding indeed, for it voices many of Iran’s internal grievances that lay at the root of the country’s Constitutional Revolution. This is a good example of how an otherwise lesser-known text can come to world attention through conscientious scholarship and translation. The Iranian studies series at Routledge has a history of filling important vacuums in the field and this monograph is in line with that reputation.

A FAMILIAL STATE: ELITE FAMILIES, MINISTERIAL OFFICES, AND THE FORMATION OF QAJAR IRAN

AbstractThis article examines the social makeup of the early Qajar administration or chancery (dīvān). Using a wide range of Persian sources, the article focuses on those individuals who held offices in thedīvānand traces their family, social, and geographic backgrounds, highlights their marital ties, and reveals their sources of economic and social prestige. In doing so, the article draws attention to patterns of continuity and change between Safavid, Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar rule, and to the familial and informal nature of political power during the early Qajar period (1785–1834). Ultimately the article suggests that an analysis of the social makeup of thedīvān, and of what political office-holders actually do, offers a more fruitful pathway for understanding the formation of Qajar Iran than a focus on institutions and political structures.

The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834

AbstractThis article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.

Thoughts on an Illustrated Copy of the Divan of Muhammad Khan Dashti from the 1270s (1853-1863)

Qajar painting is best known for its large images. These large images have generated most of the scholarly writing on Qajar figurative art. This was a natural outcome of the shift of emphasis from illustrated manuscripts that were the primary channel for the figurative arts of the Safavid era to life size paintings that were initiated by the Qajars. As a result, considerably more research is needed to understand the state of the arts of the book under Qajar rule. This paper focuses on a previously unpublished manuscript of the Divan of Muhammad Khan Dashti dated to the 1270s (1853-1863), which has thirty textual illustrations that can be divided into two distinct groups: the former showing a number of amorous couples, and the latter comprising of images of the Karbala incident. The discussion of the combination of the usual and the idiosyncratic found in these images aims to shed further light on the production and consumption of both manuscripts and figurative art in the Qajar era.

Entertainments East and West—Three Encounters between Iranians and Europeans during the Qajar Period (1786–1925)

The establishment of Qajar rule by Agha Muhammad Khan in 1786 initiated a period of relative stability in Iran which lasted through the nineteenth century to 1925. His two most important successors, Fath ‘Ali Shah (1797–1834) and Nasir al-Din Shah (1848–1896), during their long reigns, saw the stabilization of Iran's borders to their present limits and maintained a cautious balance in domestic policy with the religious, administrative, and commercial authorities, and in international relations with European powers. One of the main results of Qajar foreign policy was increased contact between Europeans—such as diplomats, military personnel, technical and educational experts, merchants, archaeologists, and curious travelers who spent long periods of time in Iran, and the Iranians who received them. As hospitality is one of the main features of Iranian social culture, receptions and entertainment played a major role in both formal diplomacy and at private picnics and parties.

Kamran Aghaie. « Religious rituals, social identities and political relationships in Tehran under Qajar rule, 1850s-1920s », in : Robert Gleave, ed., Religion and Society in Qajar Iran. Londres et New York, Routledge Curzon, 2005, pp. 373-392.

Cette etude vient s’ajouter aux nombreuses contributions anciennes et recentes sur les ceremonies liees a la commemoration du drame de Karbalā et sur l’attitude du pouvoir vis-a-vis de ces rituels populaires. L’apport essentiel de cet article concerne la construction de tekiyes a Teheran et leur localisation, retracee notamment d’apres les donnees du « recensement officiel » de 1869 (note 38). Les patrons ou donateurs en profitent pour rehausser leur prestige. Outre des notables teheranais, o...

The Bakhtiyari Tribes in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

I n June 1909, eight hundred Bakhtiyari horsemen (sawars) rode from their summer pastures in the Zagros Mountains toward Tehran to restore the Majlis (Parliament), and defend the constitutional movement in Iran. By early July, a twelve-hundred-man Bakhtiyari cavalry with one mountain gun had gathered at Rubat Karim, just southwest of Tehran, and planned to join nationalist mujahideen fromGilan and the Caucasus at the Karaj River. The Bakhtiyari and the nationalist mujahideen entered Tehran on 12 July from the hills north of the city through the Bahjatabad Gate and then moved to make their headquarters at Baharistan, the site of the old Parliament bombarded by the forces of Muhammad ‘Ali Shah during the coup of 1908. By 16 July, the number of Bakhtiyari tribesmen in Tehran had swelled to nearly two thousand, forcing the shah’s Russian-led Cossack Brigade to surrender and compelling the sovereign to seek refuge in the Russian Legation. As the event unfolded, it appeared that under the banner of constitutionalism (mashrutiyat), the Bakhtiyari were poised to become the next tribal dynasty of Iran. As supporters of the constitutional cause, the Bakhtiyari tribes were fondly portrayed in the revolutionary press as “the protectors of the nation” (hami-yi millat) from Qajar rule and European imperialism. An article in the 5 July 1909 edition of the revolutionary newspaper Habl al-Matin (Firm Rope) beckoned the tribes to come to Iran’s aid: “Oh lucky Bakhtiyari, oh persevering Qashqa’i, oh brave Shahsavan, oh Pushtikuhian, oh Kalhurian—rise up (‘barkhizid’). Unite for Islam and the nation. Put aside your differences and drive away the foreigners from the sanctuary. Don’t stand content while your country’s independence is blown

The Babi and Baha'i community of Iran: A case of “suspended genocide”?

The Baha'i community of Iran has its origins in the Babi movement, a religion which began in Iran in 1844. Its founder, Sayyid ‘Ali Muhammad Shirazi, who took the title the Bab (1819–1850), was exe...

初期ガージャール朝とテヘラン

The purpose of this article is to examine the relations between the early Qajars and Tehran, their capital.The development of Tehran undeniably began in the late eighteenth century, when the city was established as the capital under the Qajars. However, the relations between the early Qajars and the city have never been discussed completely. In addition, even the exact dates of the establishment of Tehran as the capital and the beginning of the Qajar rule over Iran have never been correctly mentioned in previous studies. On the other hand, some researchers claim, in the absence of substantial evidence, that since the Qajars originally belonged to Turkish tribal groups, they did not have much interest in urban areas.The main points regarding the relations between the early Qajars and Tehran are as follows:1. Aqa Mohammad Shah chose Tehran as his capital in the spring of 1785, when he entered the city. He brought with him artisans and builders from Esfahan to build his palace. He also brought his family from Mazandaran to Tehran. He was crowned in the spring of 1796 in Tehran, and started issuing his royal decrees after the Safavid form, which means he was enthroned as legitimate ruler of Iran.2. It is true that the early Qajar court indulged in seasonal travels, mainly staying in Tehran during winter. However, unlike the Mongols, they spent two-thirds of the year in the capital. They always stayed in Tehran for the important occasion of Nowruz —the Iranian new year—and celebrated it by holding a ceremony. Only twice in forty-eight years did they hold this ceremony in other places. The ceremony was based on the legend of Jamshid, the legendary Iranian king. The Qajars initiated this custom and were succeeded by the Pahlavis.

Names and Appellations in the Shahsevan-E Baghdadi Confederacy

Cette étude met en evidence les critères bien précis qui servent à attribuer noms, surnoms et titres honorifiques dans la tribu des Shahsavan Baghdadi (l'une des confédérations tribales du centre de l'Iran). L'étude tente également de determiner l'origine des noms et surnoms utilisés, tout cela à travers l'analyse de 994 noms et 221 titres honorifiques.Le travail conclut à l'intervention de trois facteurs dans le choix des noms: region, langue et culture nationale qui agissent seuls ou en combinatoire. En revanche, le choix du surnom est determiné par 18 variables parmi lesquelles les 'caractéristiques corporelles visibles' jouent le premier rôle.

Face of the seven spheres: the urban morphology and architecture of nineteenth‐century Isfahan (part two)

“Have you seen Isfahan, that city like Paradise, that holy cypress, that soul nourishing Eden, that palace of the nation and that throne of government, that face of the seven spheres, that eye of the seven lands,” Jamal al-Din al-IsfahaniOne essential aspect in the discussion of nineteenth-century Qajar approaches to the Safavid city and Qajar architecture is the fact that Isfahan was no longer the capital, with the inevitable consequences that many Safavid palaces, no longer used by the city's ruling elite, had lost their administrative purpose. Architecture was created and used in a socio-political context, which determined the scope of new construction, function, style, and form. Natural deterioration and socio-economic change also required new constructions for changed purposes.Construction activity and architectural aspirations in nineteenth-century Isfahan were inseparably tied to the state of the city's overall prosperity, the affluence and beneficence of the city's leading patricians, the relationship of the Tehran court to the city, and, to some extent, the self-image and prestige in which the city perceived itself at various times during Qajar rule.

The Khanate of Erevan under Qajar rule 1795–1828. By George A. Bournoutian. (Persian Studies Series, No. 13.) pp. xxvii, 355, 6 maps, Costa Mesa, Calif. and New York, Mazda Publishers in association with Bibliotheca Persica, 1992. US $35.00.

The Khanate of Erevan under Qajar rule 1795–1828. By George A. Bournoutian. (Persian Studies Series, No. 13.) pp. xxvii, 355, 6 maps, Costa Mesa, Calif. and New York, Mazda Publishers in association with Bibliotheca Persica, 1992. US $35.00.

The khanate of Erevan under Qajar rule, 1795-1828

The khanate of Erevan under Qajar rule, 1795-1828

The legitimacy of the early Qajar rule as viewed by the shi'i religious leaders

The legitimacy of the early Qajar rule as viewed by the shi'i religious leaders

Qajar Rule in Fars Prior to 1849

Qajar Rule in Fars Prior to 1849