Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran
July 21, 2018 4:46 PM Subscribe
This is the greatest thing you will see today: a group portrait of Ismat al-Muluk, granddaughter of the King of Persia Nasir al-Din Shah, and her relatives, circa 1900. This photograph is part of Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran, an archive exploring the lives of women during the Qajar Dynasty (1796-1925) through a wide array of photographs and materials from private family holdings. Other pictures of Ismat al-Muluk include this funny/strange one featuring her dad, her sister and a chair and this tender one, with her husband and a goat. Also: her sister Fakhr al-Taj (seated) with her mom Ismat al-Dawlah (lying).
The late period of Qajar Dynasty, which ended in 1925, is credited for beginning the modernization of Iran, and the photographs of the archive chronicle the transition from traditional Persia to a more westernized Iran (for the upper classes at least). King Nasir al-Din Shah (1831-1896) had a keen interest in photography and patronized photographers such as Antoin(e) Sevrugin (Wikimedia Commons; Sevruguin's Images of the Orient. After Nasir al-Din Shah was assassinated, Sevrugin photographed the public hanging of his murderer). Many pictures of the archive depict the members of the royal harem - wives, servants, slaves - in the andarum, the women's quarter. Many pictures are annotated by Nasir al-Din Shah himself. Here are some remarkable photographs from the archive, mostly from the Qajar court in the late 19th/early 20th century:
The late period of Qajar Dynasty, which ended in 1925, is credited for beginning the modernization of Iran, and the photographs of the archive chronicle the transition from traditional Persia to a more westernized Iran (for the upper classes at least). King Nasir al-Din Shah (1831-1896) had a keen interest in photography and patronized photographers such as Antoin(e) Sevrugin (Wikimedia Commons; Sevruguin's Images of the Orient. After Nasir al-Din Shah was assassinated, Sevrugin photographed the public hanging of his murderer). Many pictures of the archive depict the members of the royal harem - wives, servants, slaves - in the andarum, the women's quarter. Many pictures are annotated by Nasir al-Din Shah himself. Here are some remarkable photographs from the archive, mostly from the Qajar court in the late 19th/early 20th century:
- Arghavan Baji (seated), female slave of Shukuh al-Saltanah, mother of Muzaffar al-Din Shah. Being the slave of the mother of a crown prince, Arghavan Baji is seated, while the other woman, a slave of lesser status, is standing behind her (source). In addition to this picture, the archive contains several documents concerning slaves and their sale, and there's a black woman being held in a sisterly way in this group picture of Nasir al-Din Shah's harem. The slavery or Circassian, Georgian and African people was still common during the Qajar Dynasty, and was only abolished in 1929 under Reza Shah Pahlavi.
- Eyebrows that would make Frida Kahlo jealous: Heavy and dark and The same, but painted over (?) (1908). Mahin al-Dawlah and Mahin al-Saltanah were two of the wives of King Muzaffar al-Din Shah (1853-1907). Here are the wives on a royal outing with their servants (note the black woman in the back).
- The women of Nasir al-Din Shah's harem. In the top left corner, a woman called Baghiban Bashi is wearing a Chinese costume. Baghiban (right) and another harem woman called Chirkasi, both in Chinese dress. The same two women in western (?) and traditional dress respectively.
- Aziz al-Dawlah, her daughters, her servants and others; another striking image of Aziz al-Dawlah's daughters.
- Akhtar al-Dawlah (Nasir al-Din Shah's daughter) and her maids
- Group of women from the Nasiri andarun, with goat
- Two different types of schoolgirls: in western clothes (Antoin Sevruguin) or (post-Qajar) with chadors and microscopes!
Amazing - thank you for publishing.
I find it excruciatingly difficult to imagine a scenario to explain the facial expressions or circus-like poses in some of these photos - particularly in your first link. Were they playing around, just having fun? Strange for a family of royals.
posted by aqsakal at 1:14 AM on July 22, 2018
I find it excruciatingly difficult to imagine a scenario to explain the facial expressions or circus-like poses in some of these photos - particularly in your first link. Were they playing around, just having fun? Strange for a family of royals.
posted by aqsakal at 1:14 AM on July 22, 2018
These are wonderful, thank you for sharing!
FYI – Chirkasi is not in Chinese dress; she's wearing a Japanese kimono. Looks to be a five-crest irotomesode.
posted by fraula at 8:25 AM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
FYI – Chirkasi is not in Chinese dress; she's wearing a Japanese kimono. Looks to be a five-crest irotomesode.
posted by fraula at 8:25 AM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Chirkasi is not in Chinese dress
Hey, that's what King Nasir al-Din Shah wrote on the picture. I guess that he didn't know much about Chinese and Japanese clothing. Btw, I just realized that Chirkasi (چرکسی) means Circassian so this woman was one of those famed "Circassian beauties" (and possibly a slave).
posted by elgilito at 10:50 AM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Hey, that's what King Nasir al-Din Shah wrote on the picture. I guess that he didn't know much about Chinese and Japanese clothing. Btw, I just realized that Chirkasi (چرکسی) means Circassian so this woman was one of those famed "Circassian beauties" (and possibly a slave).
posted by elgilito at 10:50 AM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
These are delightful and show a lovely sense of humor. We tend to think so one-dimensionally of people in black and white photos, these show some very touching and fun moments.
posted by Sophie1 at 1:59 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Sophie1 at 1:59 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
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