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Everyday Life in Late Qajar Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Shireen Mahdavi
Shireen Mahdavi*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Utah, USA
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Abstract

The social history of Iran in general and that of the Qajar era in particular, has been little studied. The subject of this paper, private life in the late Qajar period, has barely been touched upon, probably because it is a subject on which there is not much primary material. There are no comprehensive accounts of people's daily lives of any class or occupation. In this article an attempt is made to give an account of the daily domestic life and activities of the household in the Qajar period. As there were major differences between the daily life and households of urban and rural areas, the discussion is limited to urban areas and Shi'i households. The article discusses the roles of the various members of the household as well as the consumption patterns of the family and those from inside or outside the household who catered to its needs.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 355 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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References

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2 All the material from the Mahdavi Archives are unpublished and were put at my disposal by the late Dr. Asghar Mahdavi, to whom I am deeply indebted.

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9 The word originated from Rusi meaning “Russian.” Great craftsmanship went into the making of an ursi window. Elaborate lace-like geometrical patterns were created and the spaces in between filled with colored glass. As a status symbol and sign of prestige, the design of each ursi had to be different.

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30 Desmet-Grégoire, Hélène, “Bread,” Encyclopaedia Iranica. 4: 444–47Google Scholar

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33 Ibid., 366–77.

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35 Ibid., 1: 421–24, 5: 29–37. Also Polak, Safarnama, 93.

36 Mahdavi, “Structure and Function,” 557–71, also Mustawfi, Shahr-i Zidigani, 159; Glenn, The Administrative and Social History of the Qajar Period, 107.

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38 The major formulator of this system of medicine, which was practiced in Persia up to the nineteenth century, was Avicenna (980–1037). He was a Persian who united the two great traditions of scientific and philosophical knowledge—that of Galen and Aristotle—in his numerous works. See Mahdavi, Shireen, “Shahs, Doctors, Diplomats and Missionaries in 19th Century Iran,” British Journal of Middle East Studies, 32, no. 2 (2005): 169–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Afshar, Ganjina-yi ‘Aksha, 296.

40 Ibid., 295.

41 Ibid., 294.

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44 For details of the evolution of women's costume see Scarce, Jennifer, Women's Costume of the Near and Middle East (London, 1987)Google Scholar.

45 For a general discussion of clothing during the Safavid and Qajar periods see Diba, Layla S., “Clothing,” Encyclopaedia Iranica 5: 785–808Google Scholar; also Vogelsang-Eastwood, G. M., An Introduction to Qajar Era Dress (Rotterdam, 2002)Google Scholar; and for another general discussion and history see Ravandi, Murtiza, Tarikh-i Ijtim'ai Iran, 8 vols. (Tehran, 1990), 7: 61–140Google Scholar.

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47 Charitable individuals paid for the excavation of these qanats which were frequently known by the name of the individual who had commissioned the qanat.

48 These abanbars were also commissioned by charitable individuals.

49 See: Shahri, , Tehran-i Qadim, 3: 221–43Google Scholar

50 Pit pit was the sound made when the cotton was beaten and panpa means cotton.