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The Structure and Function of the Household of a Qajar Merchant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Shireen Mahdavi
Shireen Mahdavi*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Utah
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Extract

Private life during the Qajar period is not a subject on which much primary material is available. In an earlier work I made use of material from the Mahdavi Archives in Tehran to describe the life and career of Haj Muhammad Hasan Amin al-Zarb, the first major Iranian entrepreneur. Material from the same archive and other sources allows us a glimpse into the daily life of the household of Amin al-Zarb in Tehran. A native of Isfahan, Muhammad Hasan came to Tehran from Isfahan sometime about 1853. He arrived in the capital and, in his own words, “aside from a few items of clothing and an ᶜabā, my worldly goods consisted of a box of scales and weights (miqāl), the work of Isfahan that I had bought for eleven qirāns, and one hundred riyāls in cash.” By 1863 he had begun the most extensive commercial enterprise in Iran and become the richest and most influential merchant in the country.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , Fall 1999 , pp. 557 - 571
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1999

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References

1. Mahdavi, Shireen, For God, Mammon, and Country: A Nineteenth Century Persian Merchant (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999)Google Scholar. ᶜAbā is a traditional Persian cloak. The riyāl, the unit of currency, was the equivalent of the qirān ten of which equaled a tūmān which in 1839 was worth ten shillings and by 1891 only five. (See Issawi, Charles, ed., The Economic History of Iran, 1800-1914 [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971], 348–56Google Scholar.)

2. Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, and Country, 173Google Scholar.

3. See: Floor, W. M., “ The bankers (sarrafs) in Qajar Iran.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 129, 2 (1979): 263–81Google Scholar.

4. For this kūchah see Khan, Sultan Sayyid Riza, Naqshah-yi Iṣfahān “Facsimile Edition” (1302/1884-85), 9 P. T.Google Scholar

5. See: al-Zarb, Amin II, “Yādigār Zindigānī,” in Savād va Bayāż, Afshar, Iraj, ed., 2 vols. (Tehran: Kitab Furushi-yi Dihkhuda, 1970)Google Scholar trans. Mahdavi, Shireen, “Memento of a Life,” Iran 30 (1992): 107–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. Eastwick, Edward B. Journal of a Diplomat's Three Years Residence in Persia. 2 vols. (London: 1864) Reprint (Tehran: Imperial Organization for Social Services, 1976)Google Scholar, describes an awjaq of the mid-nineteenth century, 249.

7. See Shaida, Margaret, The legendary cuisine of Persia (United Kingdom, Lieuse Publications, 1994)Google Scholar for a description of meals consumed by various classes. See also ᶜAbd al-Rahim Kalantar Zarrabi, Tārīkh-i Kāshān ed. Afshar, Iraj (Tehran: Intisharat-i Amir Kabir, 1954), 246–48Google Scholar.

8. See: al-Zarb, Amin II, “Yādigār Zindigānī,” 194Google Scholar.

9. According to one account he went to Kirman in 1853. See Ardakani, Husayn Mahbubi, Tārīkh-i mu˒assisāt-i tamaddunī-yi jadīd dar Īrān. 2 vols. (Tehran: University of Tehran, 1978), vol. 2, 49Google Scholar. For a more complete account of the Kirman episode see Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, and Country, 26-31.

10. On sakmadūzī see Iran ᶜAla Firouz, “Needlework” in Jay, and Gluck, Sumi, eds., A Survey of Persian Handicraft (Tehran: The Bank-i Melli Iran, 1977), 210–17Google Scholar. Also Ackerman, Phyllis, “Islamic Textiles. A History”, in Pope, Arthur Upham and Ackerman, Phyllis eds., A Survey of Persian Art 16 vols. (London: Oxford University Press, 1967) vol. 5, 2157–62Google Scholar.

11. Ardakani, Tārīkh-i mu˒assisāt, vol. 2., 49Google Scholar.

12. According to a private communication from Dr. Asghar Mahdavi.

13. al-Zarb, Amin II, “Yādigār Zindigānī,” 197Google Scholar.

14. The exact location of Haj Muhammad Hasan's house can be seen on the 1309/1891 map of Tehran and is mentioned by name. See ᶜAbd al-Ghaffar, Naqshah-yi Tihrān dar zamān-i Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh (Tehran: Sahab Geographic and Drafting Institute. Facsimile Edition)Google Scholar.

15. For the position of women under the Qajars see my article “Women and Ideas in Qajar Iran,” Asian and African Studies 19 (1985): 187–97Google Scholar.

16. The word ursī originated from the word rūsī “Russian.” Great craftsmanship went into the making of an ursī window. Elaborate lacey geometrical patterns were created and the spaces in between filled with stained glass. As a status symbol, the design of each ursī had to be different.

17. Private communication from Dr. Asghar Mahdavi. On Qajar domestic architecture, see: Bakhtiar, A. A., and Hillenbrand, R., “Domestic Architecture in Nineteenth-Century Iran: the Manzil-i Sartip Siddihi near Isfahan,” in Qajar Iran: Political, Social and Cultural Change, 1800-1925, Edmund Bosworth, C. and Hillenbrand, Carole, eds. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983)Google Scholar and Polak, Jakob Eduard, Persien, das land und Seine Bewohner 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1865) translated into Persian by Jahandari, Kaykavus. (Tehran: Intisharat-i Khwarazmi, 1982), 45–60Google Scholar.

18. Ẕarᶜ was the basic unit of measurement and in some instances the equivalent of 1.12 meters and in others the equivalent of 1.04 meters. The well would have thus been between 36 and 38 meters deep.

19. Amin al-Zarb II, “Yādigār Zindigānī,” 216-17 The original text confuses the fact that an ursī is a sash window rather than a room.

20. Private communication from Dr. Asghar Mahdavi.

21. Man. A measure of weight, approximately 3 kilograms.

22. Private communication from Dr. Asghar Mahdavi.

23. 1000 dīnārs equaled one qirān (or riyāl) The price of bread would have been therefore about one shilling a man, according to equivalencies of the time.

24. Chārak, a unit of weight equal to 737 grams.

25. al-Zarb, Amin II, “Yādigār Zindigānī,” 216–17Google Scholar.

26. Ibid., 214-15.

27. The maktab was a non-governmental school run by mullas in which Persian, a little Arabic sufficient for reading the Qur˒an, and sometimes a little arithmetic were taught.

28. al-Zarb, Amin II, “Yādigār Zindigānī”, 219–22Google Scholar.

29. For more on the taᶜziya see Chelkowski, Peter J, ed. Taᶜziya, Ritual and Drama in Iran (New York: New York University Press, 1979)Google Scholar. The mann-i Tabriz (also known as the batman) was equal to 2.95 kilograms. The testament of Amin al-Zarb to his son Haj Muhammad Husayn dates probably to just before his first European trip in 1304/1887. For the full text of the testament see Mahdavi, For God, Mammon, and Country, 187–93Google Scholar.

30. See the Register of Letters for the years 1290-91/1874-75, no. 149, Mahdavi Archives. Tehran.

31. Letter from Haj Muhammad Hasan Amin al-Zarb in Paris to his son and agents in Tehran, dated 8 Ẕi al-Qaᶜda 1304/29 July 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

32. Letter from Haj Muhammad Hasan Amin al-Zarb in Paris to his son and agents in Tehran, dated 11 Ẕi al-Qaᶜda 1304/1 August 1887, Mahdavi Archives, Tehran.

33. Kharvār, a unit of weight equivalent to 300 kilograms. See al-Zarb, Amin II, “Yādigār Zindigānī,” 226Google Scholar.

34. See: Afshar, Iraj and Mahdavi, Asghar, eds., Majmūᶜah-yi asnād va madārik dar bārah-yi Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn mashhūr bih-Afghānī (Tehran: University of Tehran Press, 1963), especially 93–146Google Scholar.

35. See Register of Letters from Haj Muhammad Hasan Amin al-Zarb in Tehran to Haj Abu al-Qasim in Istanbul 1287/1870, no. 103. Mahdavi Archives.

36. For the location of the garden see the map of 1309/1891 in ᶜAbd al-Ghaffar, Naqshah-yi Tehran.

37. Sikanjibīn is a sweet vinegar syrup. For these dishes and their method of preparation see Shaida, The Legendary Cuisine of Persia.