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Isfahan 1881–1891: A Close-up View of Guilds and Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Thomas Philipp
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Extract

During the last third of the nineteenth century, Isfahan was the third largest city in Iran after Tehran and Tabriz. As was the case everywhere else in Iran, the process of economic linkage with Europe was beginning to have an impact on Isfahan, too. But the city was also caught in its own history and geography. It had lost its role as the center of political power in Iran and had experienced 150 years of sorry decline. In 1860 a German traveler noted:

The sight was exceedingly depressing. Instead of the magnificence we had expected we encountered a frightfully desolate place, where ruined and dilapidated houses, palaces, and mosques indicated the earlier delineation of streets and squares in the old royal city by their rubble only…. Long rows of collapsed houses were occasionally interrupted by inhabited houses.

It seems that not until 1880 was the population slowly increasing again.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1984 , pp. 391 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1984

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References

Notes

1. Gilbar, G., “Demographic Development in late Qajar Persia 1870-1906,” Asian and African Studies XI (1976), p. 149.Google Scholar

2. Bruggsch, H., Reise der K. Preussischen Gesandtschaftnach Persien 1860-1861 (Leipzig, 1862), II, p. 49.Google Scholar

3. Khan, Mirza Hosayn, Joghrafiya-ye Isfahan, ed. Setudeh, Manuchehr (Tehran, 1342 A.H.).Google Scholar

4. See his report, Beschreibung vom Bau der Telegrafenlinie (unpublished).

5. A small selection of these photos has been published in: Scarce, Jennifer J., “Isfahan in Camera--19th Century Persia through the Photographs of Ernst Hoeltzer,” Art and Archeology Research Papers VI (April 1976), London.Google Scholar Many of the photos were also published in: Assemi, M., Ernst Hoeltzer, Persien vor 113 Jahren (Tehran 1977).Google Scholar The book was published by the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Art. The reproductions are of very poor quality. Assemi included also a few poorly edited sections from some of Hoeltzer's manuscripts. The book apparently was never distributed and copies are almost impossible to find. See also Stein, D., “Early Photography in Iran,” History of Photography VII (1983), pp. 257–291CrossRefGoogle Scholar for a short treatment of Hoeltzer's photographic works.

6. Harvard's Widener Library has now a complete set of typewritten copies (in German) of the extant manuscript of Höltzer:

  1. 1)

    1) Beschreibung der Stadt Isfahan, 144 pp.

  2. 2)

    2) Undated ms., 40 pp. (Travel through Russia to Iran, 1863)

  3. 3)

    3) Undated ms., 26 pp. (general cultural and economic description of Iran)

  4. 4)

    4) Beschreibung vom Bau der Telegrafenlinie, 66 pp.

  5. 5)

    5) Erinnerungen an Herrn Dr. G. von Siemens, 7 pp.

  6. 6)

    6) Meine Beteiligung an einer Expedition im Mittellaendischen Meer in Jahre 1859, 42 pp.

  7. 7)

    7) Description of various photos (in English), 20 pp.

  8. 8)

    8) Reise in die Gebirge der persischen Nomadenvoelker der Kashgais und Bachtiaren, 103 pp.

  9. 9)

    9) Einige Details ueber die Hauptplaetze und Gebaeude der Stadt Isfahen, 51 pp.

  10. 10)

    10) Undated ms., 11 pp. (Description of textile printing, a Persian marriage, brief c.v. of Höltzer, one poem)

  11. 11-21)

    11-21) Letters to his family, written mostly between between 1863 and 1870, but a few undated. Altogether roughly 500 pages typed, concerning his life, experiences, and observations in Iran.

7. Joghrafiya, pp. 9, 74.

8. Ibid., pp. 1 and 2.

9. W. Floor, “The Guilds of Qajar Iran, unpublished dissertation, Holland, n.d., p. 80.

10. Mahdi, Mohammad, Nesf-i Jahan fi ta'rif al-Isfahan (Tehran, 1964).Google Scholar

11. Khan Vaziri, Ahmad Ali, Joghrafiya-ye Kerman (Tehran, 1966).Google Scholar

12. For a reappraisal of the study of guilds, see Baer, G., Fellah & Townsman in the Middle East (London, 1982), pp. 213–222Google Scholar, “Ottoman Guilds: A Reassessment” and Floor, W., “The Guilds in Iran--An Overview from the earliest beginnings till 1972,” in ZDMG CXXV (1975), pp. 99–116.Google Scholar

13. Baer, 1982, p. 213.

14. Floor, 1975, p. 100.

15. Joghrafiya, p. 94.

16. Beschreibung, p. 52.

17. Joghrafiya, p. 118.

18. Beschreibung, p. 54.

19. Ibid., pp. 46, 50.

20. Floor, 1975, p. 108.

21. Ilyas ‘Abduh Qudsi, “Nabdha ta'rikhiya fi ‘l-hiraf ad-dimishqiya,” in Acts du 6ieme Congres International des Orientalistes (Leiden, 1885, 2nd part, section 1: pp. 1-34.

22. Qamus as-sinaᶜat ash-shamiya, 2 vols. (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar, ed. by Zafir al-Qasimi. The first volume was written by Muhammad Sa'id al-Qasimi (1843-1900); the second by his son Jamal al-Qasimi.

23. See for instance, Baer, G., Egyptian Guilds in Modern Times (Jerusalem, 1964)Google Scholar, or Floor, “The Guilds of Qajar Iran.”

24. Mohammad Mahdi, pp. 125-6.

25. Curzon, , Persia and the Persian Question (London, 1892), II, p. 41.Google Scholar

26. Joghrafiya, p. 101.

27. Beschreibung, p. 58.

28. Joghrafiya, pp. 94-95.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid., p. 97.

31. Gilbar, p. 150.

32. Joghrafiya, p. 99.

33. Curzon II, p. 44.

34. The number of guilds should not lead us to any speculation about the number of artisans involved since the occupational groups varied greatly in size at any given time.

35. Beschreibung, p. 73.

36. Wirth, E., Der Orientteppich und Europa (Erlangen, 1976), ch. III.Google Scholar

37. Beschreibung, p. 70.

38. Ibid., p. 71.

39. Joghrafiya, p. 98.

40. Rafeq, A. K., “The Law Court Registers of Damascus,” in Berque, J. and Chevallier, D., eds., Les Arabs par leur Archives (Paris, 1976), p. 149.Google Scholar

41. Joghrafiya, p. 108.

42. Beschreibung, p. 62.

43. Joghrafiya, p. 111.

44. Ibid., p. 102.