Performance of Justice in Qajar Society

Home , Islamic holidays, Qajar Iran, Salur (tribe), Usuli

Archive of SID

Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

SPECIAL SPECIAL ISSUE: ISSUE: JusticeJustice

Janet Afary1

Received: 2018/12/21 Accepted: 2019/8/16

Abstract This article examines the performance of justice in Qajar Iranian society (1789-1906) and the ways in which social hierarchies operated in the determination of justice. As in ancient or medieval European society, people were not considered equal before the law. Men were treated differently from women, while non-Muslims were subject to substantially different expectations and punishments. Sunnis and those belonging to other Shi’i schools of Islam such as the Isma‘ilis and Zaidis had fewer rights than Twelver Shi’is in legal disputes and were subject to more restrictions. But even men belonging to Twelver Shi’ism, the largest branch of Shi’ism and a majority of Iranian, were not equal before the law. In addition, partly because of the duality between ‘urfi customary law and sharia religious law, and party because of clerical power, laws were neither unanimous nor centralized, which meant justice was often arbitrary. Qajar justice commonly practiced corporeal punishment and executions, usually performed in public, and these served as a means of both chastising the people and entertaining them. Finally, the institution of slavery remained in force. Slaves, as moveable properties, occupied a position between humans and commodities and were subject to very different sets of regulations and punishments. One consequence of this patch quilt of laws was that European powers, starting in the Safavid era, demanded the right to adjudicate legal disputes between their citizens who resided in Iran and the local populace. These agreements, which were known as capitulation treaties, offered protection to persecuted minorities of Iran and runaway slaves. But they also allowed foreign powers to become involved in Iran’s domestic affairs and to monitor maritime trade in the Persian Gulf. All of these social hierarchies would be questioned in the course of the 1906 Constitutional Revolution and new laws would be promulgated in the hopes of creating a modern state with equal rights for citizens.

Keywords: Justice in Iran; slavery in Iran; minorities in Iran; capitulations in Iran

______1. Mellichamp Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

Introduction The British officer and scholar Sir Percy their provinces and the shah appointed and Sykes believed that before the 1906 dismissed their judges. The courts known as Constitutional Revolution, the shah had been “houses of justice” (divān khāneh), an absolute monarch whose unquestioned administered justice and the law was carried authority was rooted in the traditions of the out by the police (dārugheh). Village heads Achaemenid Empire: “In his person were resolved local conflicts through mediation fused the threefold functions of government: (Sykes, 1930, vol. 2:384-386; Amanat, 2008: legislative, executive, and judicial. He was the 125). pivot upon which turned the entire The shah also appointed ombudsmen, machinery of public life.” (Sykes, 1930, vol. 2: entitled vakil al-ru‘āyā (deputy of the people) 381) Yet despite this ascription of absolutism for the capital city and the provinces. This by Sykes and others, Qajar monarchs of the practice also had pre-Islamic roots but had nineteenth century were not entirely become more prevalent by the Safavid era. omnipotent rulers. Rather, the patrimonial By the late eighteenth century, the office of powers of the ruler were checked by the vakil had become hereditary, with a fixed clerical establishment, along with tribal salary. John Perry as compared Iran’s vakil leaders and local notables, including princes al-ru‘āyā to the Roman Republic’s tribunes of and other provincial governors the plebs, the most important institution that (Sheikholeslami, 1997). checked the powers of the Roman Senate and Two sets of laws also regulated society: the magistrates, and whose presence ‘urf customary law and sharia religious law, contributed to “the horizontal integration of though the boundaries between the two were society” (Perry, 1978: 214). The vakil not always clearly marked. The state adjudicated individual and group claims, and administered the ‘urf customary law. ‘Urf mediated property disputes between business was pre-Islamic in origin and covered penal partners and conflicts within guilds. The law (crimes against the state), such as vakil also advocated for peasants and artisans resistance to the authorities, theft, highway against the tyranny of the rich and powerful robberies and murders, military and and served as a vertical intermediary between government affairs, taxation, and issues that the shah and his subjects.1 the mojtaheds (jurisconsults/high clerics) In contrast, sharia religious law was had delegated to the state. This customary derived from the Quran and the hadiths (oral law varied from region to region and was traditions attributed to the Prophet), the generally undocumented. It was supposed to judgments and hadiths attributed to the Shi’i reflect “common-sense and traditions, or imams, and the decisions of the Shi’i jurists. precedents, orally handed down” (Benjamin, Sharia law often dealt with religious matters 1887: 439). Governors set up ‘urf courts in and offenses; family affairs, such as marriage,

1 The existence of this institution facilitated public of Parliament (MPs) were initially referred to as vakils acceptance of the 1906 Parliament. In fact, members of the Majles (Perry, 1978 :213).

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

divorce, inheritance, contract and land branch of Shi’ism espoused by a majority of disputes; and the judicial process (Sykes, Iranians, equal before the law. In addition, 1930, vol. 2: 384-386). The first American partly because of the duality between ‘urf and Minister in Iran, Samuel Benjamin, believed sharia law, and party because of clerical that the leading mojtahed was deemed power, laws were neither uniform nor reasonably impartial in his judgment and centralized, which meant justice was often that his authority was therefore far superior quite arbitrary. Qajar justice commonly to others. He observed that while a verdict practiced corporeal punishment and based on ‘urf law could be appealed to higher executions, usually performed in public, and authorities, including the governor or the these served as a means of both chastisement shah, that of the ulama was “accepted without and mass entertainment. Finally, the demur as final” and was not referred to the institution of slavery remained in force. governor or the shah. He thus concluded that Slaves, as moveable properties, occupied a while the “urf occupies a prominent place in position between humans and commodities the administration of justice, the Shahr and were subject to very different sets of laws (sharia) constitutes by far the more and punishments. important legal authority of the land.” A One consequence of this patch quilt of “word from him [the leading mojtahed] laws was that European powers, starting in would hurl the Shah from his throne, or be the Safavid era, demanded the right to the fiat and doom of every Christian and adjudicate legal disputes between their foreigner in the land” (Benjamin, 1887: 439- citizens who resided in Iran and the local 440). populace. These agreements, which were Both the state and the ulama claimed to known as capitulation treaties, also offered uphold the principles of justice, yet their protection to persecuted minorities of Iran notions of justice differed dramatically from and runaway slaves. But they allowed foreign those of modern times. This article will powers to become involved in Iran’s examine the performance of justice in the domestic affairs and to monitor maritime Qajar era and how social hierarchies trade in the Persian Gulf. Traditional mattered most in its determination. Similar practices of justice would be questioned in to ancient or medieval European society, the course of the Constitutional Revolution people were never considered equal before and new laws would be promulgated in the the law. Men were treated differently from hopes of creating a modern state with equal women, while non-Muslims were subject to rights for all citizens and ending foreign substantially different expectations and capitulation treaties. punishments. Sunnis and those belonging to other Shi’i schools of Islam such as the The Circle of Justice and the Four Social Isma‘ilis and Zaidis had fewer rights than Classes Twelver Shi’is in legal disputes and were Before the institutionalization of Shi’ism subject to more restrictions. Nor were men some five centuries ago in the Safavid era, belonging to Twelver Shi’ism, the largest when a majority of Iranians continued to

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam, the shah’s function was to preserve the overt conceptions of justice were predicated on domination of these classes and the rights establishing a successful and prosperous that pertained to each according to its social government. As in medieval European and function.2 Ottoman societies, in medieval Iran justice Nizām al-Mulk Tusi (1018–1092), the did not mean equal treatment of individual Persian Sunni scholar and vizier in the Seljuq free men; rather, justice was a guarantor of Empire, and author of Siyāsat Nāmeh (The the corporate system itself. A just ruler Book of Government), argued that social supported the military, which provided stability required a great king with wisdom security. Security in turn facilitated economic and justice. He defined justice as a balancing prosperity, which ultimately supported the act. To the extent that the king upheld the shah and completed the circle. An Islamic rightful social hierarchies, stability and doctrine of the circle of justice, with roots in prosperity would flourish in the country (See pre-Islamic bureaucratic empires of the Nizām al-Mulk, 1978: 9 and Lambton, 1962: ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean 102). Two centuries later, the renowned Shi’i world, defined this social model. A scientist and philosopher Nāsir al-Din Tusi prosperous and just government and its (1201–1274) concurred that the “first administration relied on the labor of peasants condition of justice is that [the ruler] should under the landowners; merchants and keep the social classes [asnāf] of mankind in artisans who also contributed to the wealth of correspondence [motekāfi], with each other, the community; the taxes on this wealth for just as a balanced temperament results supported the military; and the military from the correspondence of the four supported the ruler and his realm (See elements [earth, water, air, fire], so balanced Darling, 2008 :11). societies are formed by the correspondence Hence the circle of justice relied on of the four social classes (See Nāsir al-Din maintaining the equilibrium of four social Tusi, 1994: 305. For an English translation of classes: (1) men who tilled the land— the text, see Nasir ad-Din Tusi, 1964: 230).”3 peasants and farmers; (2) men of This quadripartite statement became a commerce— merchants, masters of crafts, benchmark for medieval Muslim and tax collectors; (3) men of the sword— conceptions of justice. As Louise Marlow has governors and other political and military pointed out, “Tusi’s description became figures; and (4) men of the pen— those who immensely popular, especially in the Perso- facilitated the workings of the Turko and Indo-Islamic cultural areas, where administration, religious judges, scientists, it was rapidly established as a standard, physicians, accountants, and poets. One of indeed a normative, model for the

2 This “quadripartite social model” can be traced the 3 I have cited the more accurate translation of this Zoroastrian religion and the Sasanian State. It appears passage in Marlow, 1997: 7, which I have slightly in the writings of medieval Shi’i and Sunni writers modified. alike (See Marlow, 1997: 7 and Lambton, 1962: 91- 120).

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

conceptualization of society” (Marlow, 1997: Some powerful governors, police officials, 8.). and clerics manipulated the evidence, Likewise, the fifteenth-century Sunni extracted confessions through torture, and writer, Husain Vā‘iz Kāshefi (d. 1504–1505) meted out sentences according to the bribes elaborated a similar view of social hierarchies they received. Hāj Sayyāh, an Iranian world for Iran’s political leaders: traveler who subsequently became an activist To each of mankind there is a particular in the Constitutional Revolution, recalled rank, which was prescribed a long time that local governors and police planted ago. If any man should transgress evidence to frame individuals: “Often a beyond his limits, Quarrels will arise to pickpocket placed a bottle of wine in the left and to the right. Keep everyone someone’s pocket . . . or the [authorities] paid in his proper station and then sit down a prostitute to accuse a respectable man of with prosperity in thine own place molesting her.” Contingent upon the (Cited in Sheikholeslami, 1997: 6). payment of a substantial bribe, the accused This system of social hierarchy gave the would be released once his confession was shah enormous control over the lives of extracted through torture (Sayyāh, 1967: members of the royal court, his ministers, 483). Ella Constance Sykes, who and public officials: “Anyone who held office accompanied her brother Percy Sykes, also in the state was considered to be the slave of reported on the link between bribes and the the shah; his property, his life and the lives of sentences. She pointed out that clerics were his children, were at the disposal of the shah” often the only recourse available to the (Savory 1980: 34). Grand vizirs who lost favor victim, when faced with an avaricious with the shah frequently lost their lives governor: (Sykes, 1930, vol. 2: 382-83). But the shah’s Justice is usually summary; no witness is authority also provided a measure of security asked to take an oath, and false for the lowest classes of society, sometimes testimony is common. Both sides bribe protecting them from tyrannical governors, to the extent of their resources, and he princes, large landholders, religious leaders, who has the longest purse will usually and other elites as the shah and his envoys win his case unless he is so obviously in interceded on behalf of the subject the wrong that the governor fears public populations. opinion, or the priesthood, usually in In this highly-stratified society the same opposition, supports the cause of the crime could result in a range of punishments, poorer claimant... Law is as a rule cheap depending on the social class of the and speedy; but where money is in perpetrator and the accused, and the city or question, the governor will take his share town in which the crime was committed. when he has adjudicated. Although in Iranian and Western observers alike have theory all have a right of appeal to the commented on the procedure whereby the Shah, yet few avail themselves of the three positions of defense attorney, privilege, knowing that in such a case prosecutor, and judge were rolled into one. everything would in all probability be

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

swallowed up by the royal judge and his By the eighteenth century the ulama had courtiers (Sykes, [1910] 2005: 61-62). split into the two different schools, Akhbāris The arbitrary nature of justice and the vast and Usulis. The Akhbāris refused to employ corruption of the system meant that victims ijtihad (independent reasoning) and were often reluctant to launch an accusation. maintained that all the reports (akhbārs) Even wealthy and influential Muslims feared attributed to the various Shi’i Imams and the taking their case to the authorities, as the Prophet were equally valid. In contrast, the governor or the king might demand a fortune Usuli jurists turned to independent in return for a favorable verdict. reasoning in drawing new opinions while basing themselves on the Quran and the Rise of the Usuli Clerics and the hadiths. Gradually, the Usuli ulama gained Decentralized Practice of Justice ascendancy and by the nineteenth century With the emergence of the Safavid dynasty, they had acquired control of the madrassas the Shi’i clerical establishment gained greater and the mosques, which gave them access to power and authority throughout the new vast religious taxes and endowments. state. In theory, Twelver Shi’i jurists The vast majority of the ulama in this era maintained that in the absence of the Hidden were trained as faqihs, specialists in Islamic Imam all forms of temporal rule were law. At the head of the ulama were the illegitimate and unauthorized. But in reality, venerable mojtaheds, clerics who were often the clerics cooperated with the Safavid state educated at the Shi’i centers of Najaf and and became state functionaries, gaining Karbala. Their training accorded them the unprecedented authority in the process. right to interpret the Quran and the sharia, to Even before the rise of the Safavid form their own judgments on matters dynasty, Shi’i jurists had developed a detailed pertaining to the sharia, and to appoint legal system based on logical reasoning communal prayer leaders for every village (ijtihad) and created principles of Islamic law and town (Nasr, 1974: 271-93). (usul-e feqh). However, no attempt was made Throughout this period, the dichotomy to unify Shi’i law in the Safavid era. In the between sharia and ‘urf laws had remained eighteenth century, the Shi’i Usuli school more or less intact despite occasional became dominant in the country. Usuli skirmishes over the boundaries of these laws. jurists, who regarded themselves as As Abbas Amanat points out, “the jurists representative (nāyeb) of the Hidden Imam simply did not see the need for a centralized until Judgment Day, maintained that each corporate identity or for disturbing the ordinary believer had to follow (taqlid) a delicate balance with the state upon which particular mojtahed and receive guidance they continuously negotiated their power. from that cleric in religious matters. The The state in turn preferred ambiguity Usulis instituted a series of madrassa whereby through consent and coercion it religious schools and judicial courts across hoped to persuade the jurists to comply with the country (Amanat, 2008: 172-173). the state’s otherwise waning power and prestige” (Amanat, 2008: 126).

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

This situation would alter in the mid 1974: 271-93. See also “Mudjtahid,” nineteenth century with the rise of the Encyclopedia of Islam 1991, vol. 7, 1991: messianic Babi movement and later the 296). These traditions mitigated against Baha’i faith, both of which rejected the claim various attempts to establish a legal that in the absence of the Hidden Imam the consensus since writing a uniform religious Usuli jurists as a group represented him. code of law involved establishing a consensus Threatened by this dramatic challenge to among various marja‘ taqlids concerning the their authority, the jurists joined hands with interpretation of the law. Such a consensus the state to forcibly eradicate Babi/Baha’i would have come in conflict with the influence. In the course of this process, the decentralized nature of the top Shi’i Usuli clerics finally recognized the need to leadership and was resisted for much of the establish a marja‘ (clerical leader) who served twentieth century (Zerang, 2002: vol. 1). as an example to others with his “higher standards of morality, learning, and social Corporeal Punishment: Justice for the justice” (Amanat, 2008: 126). Poor and Performance for the Public The title of marja‘ was first conferred on Traditional justice used physical Sheikh Morteza Ansari (1799-1864). Soon punishments both individually and the position of marja‘ came to play a new collectively. Retribution (qasās) or “an eye for political role, first in the Tobacco Protests of an eye” was an acceptable form of 1891-1892 and later in the Constitutional punishment for many routine crimes. The Revolution. At times, the marja‘ challenged penalty for carrying out an insurrection was the authority of the shah and the outside ruthless and unforgiving. Both ‘urf and sharia imperialist powers. On other occasions, law sanctioned corporal punishment, when new social movements threatened the including mutilation and amputation of the equilibrium of the ancient circle of justice of body, as well as collective punishment. the ruling classes, the marja‘ sided with the Mutilation took place in public, often in monarch. At the turn of the twentieth festive ceremonies, which served both to century as the number of marja’s increased, a discipline and entertain the people. Usually few emerged as distinguished marja‘ taqlids there was a specific corporeal connection or sources of emulation for ordinary between the crime and the method of believers. A marja‘ taqlid had considerable punishment. A thief’s hand was cut or a freedom to interpret the law. Each Shi’i lower-class rapist who had attacked an adherent followed a particular marja‘ taqlid upper-class child was castrated. Between and received guidance from him in all 1893 and 1904, the public directory for the ambiguous rituals and doctrinal matters. city of Shiraz alone listed “118 amputations— Different Iranian communities often 41 fingers, 39 feet, and 38 ears—110 followed one or another marja‘ taqlid, floggings, 48 decapitations, 17 hangings, 11 depending on their ethnicity. Upon the drawing-and-quarterings (usually by four death of a marja‘ taqlid, his followers selected horses), 4 live-wallings [in which a person is another as their principal guide (See Nasr,

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

plastered into a wall], and 2 disembowelings” power of the state and the ulama were (Cited in Abrahamian, 1999: 21). reactivated and occasions through which Corporal punishment turned the judicial people vicariously experienced revenge and process into a theatrical performance, which what Nietzsche called ressentiment. could at times establish a degree of social Ja’far Shahri illustrated this through a equilibrium at a relatively cheap cost. Such graphic description of executions in Tehran ceremonies had been common in medieval in the early twentieth century: “The Europe and were routinely practiced by the executioner was a coarse, blood-chilling Catholic Church. As Michel Foucault has drunk, who wore red clothes and tied a pointed out in the case of Europe, modern dagger to his waist. A fearsome-looking man, justice pretends that its purpose is to protect with a hat made of animal skin and thick society and to cure and rehabilitate the scattered moustaches, he had a truly odious criminal. The criminal is incarcerated for “his appearance and his mere sight raised the hair own good.” He might be deprived of many on your back.” Since the executioner received rights, but we are told the purpose is to no salary, he made a living by parading the rehabilitate his mind and normalize his condemned man around town and forcing behavior. The pain inflicted on the body is him to beg. He severed the ears and nose of deemed not intentional; rather, the “body the condemned and placed them on a tray. serves as an instrument” for rehabilitation The prisoner was chained, given the tray, and (Foucault, [1975] 1977: 11). In contrast, made “to beg and earn money for days, if not premodern justice in Europe or the Middle months, before he was executed.” At other East did not hide the fact that one of its times, the executioner “passed a chain purposes was revenge and reassertion of through his nose” and pulled the prisoner power. It did not camouflage its violence with around in this manner (Shahri, 1978, vol. 1: elaborate legal procedures carried out behind 418-19). closed doors. It took public responsibility for When the prisoner became too weak to the violence inherent in its practice and saw beg, the execution moved forward, and death it as glorifying its strength. came in an even more grotesque spectacle. Also, as in medieval Europe, Iranian While the public surrounded the criminal justice was enforced in a theatrical and watched his every move, the executioner performance aimed at gratifying the public. “circled the crowd, returned to the In Foucault’s words, torture was the “art of condemned, pushed him to the ground, put maintaining life in pain,” of dragging out the his fingers in the condemned man’s nose, anguish for hours and, if possible, days pulled his head back, and slithered the dagger without killing the victim and ending his over his throat.” At this point, a relative or anguish (Foucault, [1975] 1977: 33). A friend of the condemned often bribed the carnival-like atmosphere often accompanied executioner in hopes that he would limit the public executions. Amputation and agony of the condemned man by killing him executions served two other purposes as well. quickly. If no one paid, the poor man’s They were public ceremonies in which the

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

torment would be drawn out (Shahri, 1978, In this way, the execution brought a vol. 1: 418-19). measure of social equilibrium to the populace Even the less brutal hangings were and assured it that while life was cruel and public productions. Here the condemned precarious, there was some justice in this man was expected to entertain his audience: world and those who violated the social order Usually standing by the noose, the would be punished. condemned performed deeds that the spectators found fascinating and gripping: Justice and the Enslaved One stood to pray and asked God to Iran’s slave trade expanded during the forgive him. One expressed his sorrow Safavid era, increasing the number of and counseled people to “Propagate military slaves who served the king as Virtue and Prevent Vice.” One blamed bodyguards and of those who worked as love, women, gambling, liquor, bad artisans and stonemasons in the royal friends, parents’ lack of love, and so workshops (See Minorsky, 1980 and forth. One cried and pleaded as if there Keyvani, 1982). Slaves were employed in was still a way out and begged to this and major public works projects, including the that for help. One pretended great construction of buildings, roads, and bridges. confidence and sang or danced in In this period, individuals who could not merriment. One threatened friends, repay a loan could also be sold into slavery.4 colleagues, and relatives and cursed The use of slave labor increased in the them or promised to take revenge! Most early 1800s to meet the needs of the growing [of the condemned] blamed the law, the cash-crop economy. Slavery was court, the judge, and the whole judiciary; incorporated on a larger scale into they claimed to be innocent and damned nationwide commercial networks as well as the system (Shahri, 1978, vol. 1: 400). local economies.5 Slaves arrived from the When the prisoner was hanged, the south via the Indian Ocean and the Persian spectators’ response varied depending on the Gulf and from the north and east via land circumstances of the case and the method of route and the Caspian Sea. Iranian pilgrims punishment. If the crowd felt the hanging also purchased back slaves from markets in was excessive or unjust, people wept for the Mecca and Karbala. For this reason, Iranians poor soul. But if the punishment was deemed called black slaves hajji (man) or hajjiyeh just and the condemned a cruel murderer, (woman), one who has made a holy people “expressed their joy and clapped pilgrimage. At the port city of Bushehr and hands” as the man’s body dangled in air in Shiraz slaves were stripped naked and (Shahri, 1978, vol. 1: 399-400).

4 Ladan Rahbari, “All the King’s Slaves: Vulnerability Santa Barbara. October 19-20, 2018. and Sexual Captivity during the Safavid Period,” paper 5 Thomas M. Ricks has characterized Iran in this era presented at Slavery and Sexual Labor in the Middle as a “slave society and economy due to the integral and East and North Africa, Fourth Annual Conference of essential role played by slaves.” (See Ricks, 2002: 78). the Iranian Studies Initiative, University of California,

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

inspected by potential buyers in private in the same period, surviving documents homes that served as slave markets. suggest that life remained brutal for enslaved The enslaved women of northern people, even those of the royal court (Azad, Caucasus and fair-skinned Ethiopians were 1985: 412-414). Iranian and Western generally preferred for concubinage, while observers seldom commented on the the more dark-skinned blacks of East Africa emotional and sexual violence that slaves were used as maids, nannies, and domestics endured. The memoirs of Lady Mary Sheil, (See Ricks, 1989: 65; Floor, 2007; Sykes, Carla Serena, Jakob Polak, and Taj al-Saltana [1910] 2005: 69). In addition, an internal make only brief references to the kanizes’ slave trade stemmed from the desperation of tragic lives. They discuss jealous wives who indigent families, but sometimes also resented their husbands’ favorite kanizes, involved kidnapping. Local traders suggesting a strong antagonism between purchased girls and boys from mostly poor wives and kanizes. Sunni Afghāni, Tājik, Khorāsāni, Kurdish, Both military and elite households and Baluchi parents. Border wars, such as the offered opportunities for manumission and Russo-Iranian wars, tribal wars, and outright integration (Babaie, et al. 2004: 2-3.). Unlike slave raids also resulted in new captives in the West, color was not as insurmountable (Sheil, [1856] 1973: 209; Polak, [1865]1976), a barrier to the economic and social Vol. 1: 248; Floor, 2007: IV). integration or the promotion of former slaves A master had a number of obligations (Sykes, [1910] 2005: 68). Religious toward his slaves. Iranian slaves were precedents also offered some social mobility provided with food and shelter, were not to male Iranian slaves. The Quran recognizes shackled routinely, and could purchase their the institution of slavery and recommends, freedom. Occasionally, slaves of both sexes but does not require, the freeing of Muslim learned to read and write. Like prostitutes, slaves as a sign of devotion to God and gholāms (male slaves) and kanizes (female penance for one’s sins (see suras 16:71; 5:89; slaves) often had their own guilds. Marriages 4:92; 90:11–13). With permission of their between slaves were common, in part master, slaves could own property, testify in because the Quran encourages masters to legal disputes, engage in commerce, or find husbands and wives for their slaves. initiate marriage. Without his explicit When a master married his kaniz to another permission, they could engage in any of these man, slave or free, he renounced his sexual activities. Masters occasionally freed slaves concubinage rights over her, but not his on birthdays or weddings, or other rights to enslave the offspring of that union celebratory occasions, or manumitted them (Qahraman Mirza, 1995: 1752; Ricks, 2002: in their wills. Gholams could also purchase 84; Polak, [1865]1976: 249–51; Taj al-Saltana, their freedom by engaging in trade and [1914] 1982; Sheil, [1856] 1973: 209). retaining a percentage of the transactions. Although European travelers reported Over time, some could save enough to buy that Iranians treated their slaves well, when their freedom. In reality, both gholams and compared to the plantation slavery of the US kanizes were sold, exchanged, rented,

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

inherited, or owned by several masters. Slave Shaykh Rezaei and Azari, 1999: 139, 177, owners had unrestricted sexual access to their 184). kanizes and gholams and this right was not Iran’s slave trade was drastically questioned. curtailed by the late nineteenth century. After A legal route to manumission for a kaniz the Russo-Persian Wars of 1926-1928, when was bearing her master’s child. While a child Iran lost substantial territories in the born of slave parents remained a slave, a child Caucasus, the two countries signed a peace whose father or mother was free, and who agreement known as The Turkmanchāy recognized the child, could be freed and Treaty (1928). This agreement included a inherit property. A kaniz who gave birth to a clause banning the sale of Armenians, master’s child was called an "umm walid," Georgians, and Circassians of the Caucasus (mother of child). If the master denied and gradually the supply of enslaved paternity, however, the child remained a Caucasians dwindled in Iran. Also, in 1857 slave (Algar, 1999: 4; Tucker, 1998: 172). Iran agreed to cooperate with Britain in While by tradition, an umm walid was suppressing the slave trade in the Atlantic supposed to be manumitted upon her Ocean and the Persian slave. In 1882, British master’s death, this did not always happen. officers secured from Nāsir al-Din Shah the And even when the father recognized the right to free any slaves found on an Iranian child as his, it did not mean his heirs would ship they inspected. Finally, the institution of follow suit by freeing the child or giving him slavery was heavily criticized during the an inheritance.6 course of the Constitutional Revolution, Since slaves who were severely though a formal ban on slavery would arrive mistreated had the right to protest, a master’s two decades later when Iran joined the 1926 failure to abide by social customs regarding Geneva Convention against the slave trade. slavery could result in the intervention of a This treaty formally ended slavery on the judge and sale of the slave to another owner. Iranian side of the Persian Gulf, but the trade But since a respectable master never sold his continued in the sheikhdoms at the slave, and other elite members were reluctant peripheries of the Gulf (Information on slave to purchase the slave of other families, in trade appears in Ricks, 1989; Ricks, 2002; such circumstances a disgruntled slave owner Floor, 2007; Benjamin, 1887: 170; Sheil, usually released his gholām or kaniz without [1856] 1973: 243–45; Sykes, [1910] 2005: 224- manumission, forcing the slave into 229. See also Afary, 2009: 51-60). The UAE prostitution or vagabondage (Algar, 2007; abolished slavery in 1963 but severe

6 Eric Massie, “The Bonds that Bind: Slavery and 20, 2018 and Anthony A. Lee, “Ziba Khanum of Yazd: Familial Relations in the Persian Gulf, 19th and 20th An Enslaved African Woman in Nineteenth-Century Centuries,” paper presented at Slavery and Sexual Iran” paper presented at Slavery and Sexual Labor in Labor in the Middle East and North Africa: Fourth the Middle East and North Africa: Fourth Annual Annual Conference of the Iranian Studies Initiative. Conference of the Iranian Studies Initiative. University of California, Santa Barbara. October 19- University of California, Santa Barbara. October 19- 20, 2018.

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

exploitation of migrant laborer and domestic chastity, might be closely related to a culture's workers, which has been compared to fears of sexual contamination. Bodily contact slavery, continues to this date. with those who are defined as “others” remains a source of social and/or religious Justice and Gendered Bodies anxiety. Women’s contact with unrelated The treatment of women stemmed from their men and outside groups, who are viewed as lower position in the social hierarchy, their sources of pollution, poses a grave threat to limited rights according to religious texts and the fabric of society. traditions, and the accompanying As a result of these factors women’s restrictions imposed specifically on women’s rights to justice were not the same as men’s. bodies. Shi’i Iranian society is one of the Women were allotted only half the weight of world’s many “pollution-conscious cultures” men in legal disputes under the practices of (Douglas, [1966] 2002: 1). Notions of ritual Islamic law. Women's access to public arenas pollution and purity are often related to a was extremely limited, their personal community’s need for order, stability, and freedoms few in number, and their position social stratification. Many cultures view the in marriage highly precarious. Men’s rights orifices of the body from which blood, to polygyny and easy repudiation (talāq) gave semen, and urine are issued, as them overwhelming advantages over women conspicuously violable locations of human in legal matters. vulnerability, because they expose us to Until the twentieth century, female unforeseen dangers. Accordingly, in cultures pedestrians were not allowed to walk in the that give primacy to patrilineal systems of center of the road in Tehran. Like najes non- descent, women are viewed reductively as the Muslims, they walked alongside the walls. In “door[s] of entry to the group” as a safeguard the first half of the twentieth century, with against ritual pollution (Douglas, [1966] women entering the public domain to go to 2002: 127). school, to shop for their families, and Societies of this kind exercise a variety of eventually to take jobs in steadily rising moral double standards in disputes where numbers, anxieties about women’s women and minorities are involved. Shi’i emergence into the new public spheres Iranian society, similar to Orthodox Judaism, (streets, parks, schools, universities, cinemas) strictly delineates acceptable parameters for increased among observant men and women. behavior by gender and religion. The fear of This would contribute immensely to political transgression lurks just out of sight, ready at and social conflicts of the twentieth century the slightest provocation to interrupt the (For details see Afary, 1996 and 2009). social order. The sexual and reproductive functions of women's bodies turn them into Justice for Minorities and Non- contested sites of potential ritual Conformists contaminations (najes; pl. nejāsāt). Indeed, Another characteristic of premodern justice the concept of honor (nāmus), and the was the unequal treatment of minorities, perceived need for control over female whether Sunni Muslims or non-Muslims,

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

who were treated as second-class citizens or their women kidnapped and forcibly less. In Shi’i Iranian society, the maintenance converted to Islam.7 Babi and Baha’i of social, and religious distinctions was of minorities living within Muslim paramount importance. A majority of Shi’i communities did intermarry with Muslims theologians included Christians and Jews or but were at greatest risk for violence. They “People of the Book” in the category of were denied the customary protection of the infidels (koffār) who were therefore ritually dhimmis (recognized religious minorities) impure (Tsadik, 2007: 17). under Islam and frequently, on one pretext or Persecution of religious minorities and another, were attacked and even forced to non-conformists in Shi’ite Iranian society convert. can be traced back to the late Safavid era, but Shi’is and minorities routinely was reinvigorated a century later with the interacted during commercial and business ascendency of the Usuli school. The Usulis transactions. In fact, mistreatments of became zealous advocates of the doctrine of religious minorities were often motivated by “Ordering Good and Forbidding Bad” (amr- economic and political reasons and then e be ma‘ruf va nah-ye az monker), a dogma justified on religious and legal grounds which required “communal vigilance against (Tsadik, 2007 :4). Segregation was ideological and moral non-conformity” of maintained through a series of sartorial, other sects and sporadic persecution of non- spatial, and dietary rules and regulations. Muslims (Amanat, 2008: 173). Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians were Qajar monarchs continued this policy of expected to wear color-coded patches on intolerance toward Sunni Muslims and non- their clothing and to observe more than fifty Muslims (For treatment of minorities in the kinds of restrictions in their daily Safavid era, see among others: Taremi, 1996; interactions with the Muslim community, Fischel, 1950: 119-60; Momen, 1985; though these restrictions were not always Matthee, 1998: 219-46). Periodic persecution enforced (Levy, 1989, vol. 3 :404-9; See also of Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews and Afary, 2002 :139-74). In more religiously converts to the Babi and the Baha’i faiths conservative communities, non-Muslims continued in the latter part of the nineteenth were prohibited from walking on the streets century. Sometimes on Islamic holidays, on rainy days because “water and moisture Shi’is pillaged Jewish synagogues and transferred their uncleanliness.” Similar Armenian churches. From time to time, the restrictions might be enforced during the hot homes of non-Muslims were ransacked, and seasons, since it was believed that a non-

7 Occasionally Jews, Christians, and other non- enslaved so much as forbidden access to their Muslim women were kidnapped, converted to Islam, community of origin due to conversion. The Jewish and taken as wives. In March 1839, an angry Tehran residents of the city of Mashhad, in northeast Iran, also crowd stormed the Jewish quarter, burned down the underwent forced conversions in the early nineteenth synagogue, looted homes, and snatched six young girls century, though many covertly maintained their who were subsequently married to the Imam Jom’eh, Jewish identity (See J. Pirnazar, 2001: 41-60 and Leader of the Friday Prayer. These women were not interview with Monir Pirnazar, May 12, 2006).

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

Muslim’s sweat “transferred his impurity” they wear white stockings, a sign of high (Issawi, 1971: 63). Bathhouses were status. A mojtahed who caught a Zoroastrian segregated in Shi’i Iranian society, though merchant wearing white stockings “ordered not in Sunni regions of the Middle East. Non- the man to be beaten and the stockings taken Muslim Iranians were not supposed to pray off” (Malcolm, 1906: 47). Neither or sing loudly, and their weddings had to be Zoroastrians nor Jews could mount a donkey held in private. Finally, men from minority or horse while in a Muslim’s presence. communities who converted to Islam, called However, as a sign of respect for experienced Jadid al-Islam (new Muslims), were entitled Jewish doctors they were at times permitted to their family’s entire inheritance, leaving to do so. In some communities until the the rest of the family destitute, if they had also 1860s, Zoroastrians were banned from open not converted (See Soroudi, 1994: 143 and trade and from sending their children to Tsadik, 2007: 22-23). The same law meant school. These fines had to be paid on the spot. that a Shi’i man who married a non-Muslim In 1880, one of Yazd’s leading mojtaheds woman, could claim the entire inheritance of ordered Zoroastrians to wear a conspicuous that family, after the death of the father of his patch on their shirts and gave them three new wife, leaving the woman’s mother and days to comply. Though the community siblings destitute. reluctantly agreed, women in the community Dhimmis were required to pay a jaziyeh, responded by turning the patch into a annual tax in cash or kind. There was no decorative accessory. definite rate for this tax and the amount Periodic rampages against minority varied annually based on what the local imam communities, on one pretext or another, decreed. A typical jaziyeh was two tumans were also common and provided orgiastic per year, equal to ten days’ worth of wages. festive occasions for the majority. Ja‘far One purpose of the jaziyeh was to humiliate Shahri reports that the Muslim community the dhimmi and encourage him to convert. of Tehran ransacked the Jewish ghetto, The tax collector might smack the dhimmi known as ‘Udlājān, once or twice a year. They while receiving the funds from him or recast the old Christian blood libel against demean him in other ways (See Tsadik, 2007: Jews, claiming that they were “stealing 25-26). Muslim children and using their blood to Napier Malcolm, a Nastorian Christian bake matzo” for the religious festival of missionary, catalogued various forms of legal Passover. Another common accusation, discrimination against Zoroastrians in the which may have been true, was that southern city of Yazd at the turn of the Armenians and Jews were selling alcohol to twentieth century. Prejudice toward Yazd’s Muslims, which was permitted in their own large Zoroastrian community included religions but prohibited in Islam. A mob sartorial laws under which Zoroastrians were would then “rape the wives and children [of forbidden to wear eyeglasses and rings. They the Jews], drink their wine and liquor [araq], could not wear certain colors of clothing, blue, black, bright red, or green. Nor would

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

steal their property, and haul away their wine liberties. He held that concepts such as barrels and leave” (Shahri, 1990, vol. 1: 132).8 freedom and democracy were irreconcilable Such punishments were also inflicted on with the sharia, and opposed granting equal Babis. Massacres of Babi converts and their rights to Iran’s minorities (Zargarinejad, family members, torture, and flaying the 1995: 162). He also refused to recognize the heels remained common forms of Parliament as a legislative body, nor would he punishment in the mid nineteenth century in recognize an independent secular judiciary. both cities and towns. The ultimate He maintained that the judicial and punishment was saved for a group of Babis legislative powers had to remain with the convicted of regicide. In 1852, after four ulama (Zargarinejad, 1995 :166). Nuri was Babis attempted to assassinate Nāsir al-Din concerned with the diminished authority of Shah, thirty Babi leaders were sentenced to the ulama under the new order. He death for heresy. They were paraded in the continued to insist that "equality and Islam streets, and divided to be punished by various may never coexist." Nuri called the MPs who sectors of society, such as members of the pushed for the ratification of these civil rights court, Qajar tribes, members of the military, as “base, knavish and dishonored people.” government ministers, merchants, and The sharia had given Muslims special bazaar guilds. This was an attempt to privileges, both as Muslims and as men, yet implicate the whole community and thus they wished to deny themselves and others lessen the possibility of revenge against one these advantages. To Muslims who dared to person or one group of Muslims. Thus move beyond such prejudices and made the distributed, a festive orgy of cruelty was astonishing claim that "I should be equal and unleashed upon them. Many were cut to brother with the Zoroastrian, the Armenian, pieces or blown apart with canons, but the and the Jew!” Nuri had only one response: slowest and most brutal method of torture “May God curse those who do not value was reserved for the ringleader, Suleiman themselves” (Zargarinejad, 1995: 159-161 Khan (Sheil, [1856] 1973::276). and Mojtahedi, 1979: 58-60). Minority rights became a heated subject Iran’s minorities also fought for their of discussion in the course of the drafting of rights during the Constitutional Revolution. the 1906 constitution and its 1907 Zoroastrians complained about the prejudice supplements. Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri, the and harassment they faced daily and conservative cleric from Tehran who had demanded the ratification of Article 8 for briefly supported the constitutionalists in the both legal protection and recognition. “Is the summer of 1906, became a key opponent of sacred word equality for all the people of the modern democratic reforms and its civil nation, or is it only for some people?” they

8. Tsadik estimates that there were 40,000 Iranian Jews history of Muslim polemics against Jews, some of out of a population of 10 million in the early twentieth which were composed by Jewish converts to Islam century (See Tsadik, 2005: 276). There is also a long who wished to prove their allegiance to the new religion (See Tsadik, 2005: 95-134).

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

asked in one such petition (See Mozakirat-e rights for their citizens living inside Iran. Majles Rabi’ II, 6, 1325 (May 14, 1907): 169. Capitulation refers to a treaty in which a See also Mozakirat-e Majles, Jamadi 1, 5, sovereign state, unilaterally relinquishes 1325 (June 17, 1907)).9 Armenians authority over some of its domestic judicial threatened to seek sanctuary at European matters to a foreign state. In a legal dispute legations if such rights were not ratified involving a native and a foreigner, the (Mojtahedi, 1979: 60). The Azerbaijan foreigner is either immune from prosecution, Central Committee of the Dashnak or he may involve his consulate for Armenian Party demanded that the adjudication, in which case he receives a Parliament establish “equality before the law more favorable verdict. without distinction of faith and Capitulations agreements dated back to the nationality.”10 As a result of these pressures, Mongol domination of Iran. Britain and Article 8 of the Supplementary France had acquired some limited Constitutional Law, which recognized all capitulations rights in the Safavid era and [male] Iranians equal before state law, was extended it to their well-to-do co-religionists ultimately ratified. Equal rights for in Iran. In 1715, shortly before his death, minorities were also incorporated into Louis XIV requested protection for Catholic articles dealing with the nation's finances. citizens of Iran as part of a trade agreement These articles nominally outlawed the with that country. But after Iran’s defeat in practice of collecting jaziyeh taxes from non- the 1926-28 Russo-Persian wars, the Iranian Muslims and paved the way for the more government agreed to grant much more extensive reforms of the Pahlavi era. extensive extraterritorial rights to the Russians. Soon, Britain and France also Capitulations Rights and Iran’s Justice began to demand increased capitulations System rights for their citizens. They became In the nineteenth century, European advocates of religious minorities, merchants imperialist powers began to take advantage of and local dignitaries, who sought protection Iran’s unequal judicial laws to further at their consulates in disputes with Muslims interject themselves into its political system and also sheltered and manumitted runaway and carve a greater sphere of influence for slaves (Nateq, 1996). themselves. The arbitrary nature of Iranian Various groups of Iranians applied for justice, and the fact that in conflicts between these protections. Slaves were aware that Muslims and non-Muslims, sharia law Britain and Russia had abolished slavery in prevailed, gave an opportunity to European the territories under their control and states to demand ever increasing capitulation granted manumission documents to some

9 But members of the Zoroastrian community refused 10 I am grateful to Houri Berberian for a copy of this to align themselves with Jews and Christian statement. See also her Armenians and the Iranian Armenians, perhaps because they ranked higher in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 (Boulder: old religious hierarchy of Iran. Westview Press, 2001).

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

runaway slaves who proved they were children to Russian schools, requested captured, rather than born in slavery. 11 They Russian citizenship, and then refused to pay appealed to European legations, narrated taxes or even to pay back large debts to local their captivity tales, and sometimes secured governors and merchants on the grounds their freedom.12 The Iranian government and that they were Russian citizens and not the merchant community loudly protested subject to Iranian law (Chelongar 2003, pp. this intervention into Iran’s internal affairs. 74-75). But they never tried to deal with the primary Hasan Taqizadeh was the one leading justification for these Western interferences, Iranian politician who understood the namely the institution of slavery. connection between Iran’s unjust treatment Parsi merchants from British-ruled of its own people and the manner in which India, who were in continuous contact with European powers had used this issue to their Zoroastrian co-religionists in Iran, interject themselves into Iran’s judicial pressed the shah to protect their system and dominate both Iran’s domestic communities and Nāsir al-Din Shah issued politics and its waterways in the Persian Gulf several edicts (farmāns) that outlawed some (See Mojtahedi, 1979: 58-59). of the sartorial, sumptuary, and trade Taqizadeh had several concerns: He restrictions on Zoroastrians and Jews. But the pointed to the fact that European consulates edicts were ignored by the ulama and Parsi had developed close contacts with recognized merchants continued to turn to the British religious minorities who had few legal rights legation for redress of their legal claims.13 and offered them legal protection in their Other beneficiaries were wealthy Shi’i disputes with Shi’i Iranians. The Russians Iranians who became Russian citizens. lent their support to wealthy Armenians, the When a Russo-Iranian citizen was in a legal British backed successful Zoroastrian dispute, he no longer had to bribe the Iranian merchants, and the French assisted Jewish governor to win a favorable verdict. He could doctors and merchants. In this way, foreign simply appeal to the Russian legation to settle powers interfered in Iran’s internal affairs. the matter (Zerang, 2002, vol. 1: 106-8). Elite Taqizadeh believed that if the laws were Iranians quickly realized they could use this changed and Iran’s minorities were granted provision to their advantage. They sent their equal protection, this would be a stepping

11 Capitulation agreement, going back to the early [1865]1976), Vol. 1: 251-254). See also Eric Massie’s sixteenth century, often included provisions for forthcoming dissertation on this subject. University of refugee slaves. The capitulation agreement between California, Santa Barbara 2019. the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman and French monarch 13 Nasir al-Din Shah’s reformist minister, Mirzā Taqi Francis 1 (1515-1547) included articles that provided Khān Amir Kabir (d. 1952), did initiate a wide array of sanctuary for runaway slaves, if they managed to reach administrative, economic, military, health, and the house or the ship of a French resident (See cultural reforms. But he also ordered the killing of Chelongar, 2003: 15). many Babis and the execution of the founder of the 12 The embassies were cautious not to grant too many new movement the Bab (Malcolm, 1906: 50). certificates of manumission (Floor, 2007: IV; Polak,

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

stone in establishing the foundations for a 1909 and reestablishing the constitutional modern secular nation with equality before order in Tehran in 1909. the law for all. He believed that these Even though Capitulations rights were domestic reforms would also help end strictly enforced by the Russian and British European excuses for intervention and the government in Iran, it was the Armenian justification for capitulation agreements (See Chief of Police of Tehran, Yefrem Khan, who Mojtahedi, 1979: 58-59). bravely took it upon himself to arrest Russian But Taqizadeh also saw Iran’s minorities and British citizens who broke the law. He as an underutilized asset for the nation. incarcerated wealthy Iranian merchants who Armenian and Zoroastrian merchants had refused to repay loans, arrested British extensive economic ties with their co- administrators who got drunk and troubled religionists abroad. Also, many minorities the neighborhood, and stood up for the had attended the Christian missionary junior Iranian soldiers of the Cossack schools or, in the case of Iranian Jews, were Brigade who were abused by their Russian educated by the more secular Alliance officers (Chelongar 2003: 110-111). Israelite, and therefore had a Western Constitutionalists tried to end education and were familiar with Western capitulation rights, but did not have the languages. This background made them power to do so. After 1917, the new Soviet valuable assets for a modernizing Iran regime, unilaterally renounced the unequal (Nateq, 1996). Finally, Taqizadeh was Tsarist treaties with Iran, including all convinced that a modern nation, which capitulation rights acquired after the hoped to have extensive commercial ties to Turkmanchāy Treaty. The struggle to end the West, could not have a two-tier legal other European capitulations agreements system—one for Muslims and another for occupied the Iranian state in the first half of non-Muslims and foreign visitors. Thus, to the twentieth century (Chelongar 2003: 119), modernize and build Iran’s economy and while legal reforms that reduced inequalities society, the judicial system also had to be between Iranian men and women and reformed. Muslims and non-Muslims continued in the During the Constitutional Revolution, second half of the twentieth century, and Iranian minorities, particularly Armenians until the 1979 Revolution. and Zoroastrians (as well as secret Babis) played a critical role in calling for greater Conclusion democratic rights in the nation and fighting Modern definitions of justice are quantifiably for such rights. Some of the leading orators of different than those supported by history and the Constitutional Revolution had Babi tradition. Whereas traditional distributive affiliations. Armenians appealed to their justice sought to apply different standards to coreligionists in the Caucasus who came to uphold the social hierarchy, the stated the aid of the embattled constitutionalists in intent—albeit not the reality—of modern Azerbaijan and Gilan. They played a pivotal global justice is to treat people of different role in ending the Minor Autocracy of 1908- classes, ethnicities, and genders equally at a

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

formal level. The Constitutional Revolution the streets, at the universities, or in the attempted to alter some of these premodern workplace, while slavery finally died out. notions of justice. Article 8 of the 1907 Eventually, religious minorities left their Supplementary Constitutional Law declared quarters and became more integrated in all (male) Iranians equal before the law. urban communities. The notions that Iranian Iranian minorities, Armenians, (male) citizens should be treated equally Zoroastrians, Jews, and Babis and Baha’is all before the law regardless of station and social participated in the revolution, even if they standing, that mutilation and amputation had to down play or hide their religious were cruel and inhumane punishments, that affiliation. Social democratic newspapers, slavery ought to end, that laws should be such as Sur-e Esrāfil (1907-1908) and Iran-e uniformly applied in different cities and Now (1909-1911) shamed the public over the towns, and that Iran’s minorities should be treatment of minorities and the continuation equal before the law were all introduced of slavery. New public spaces such as schools during the Constitutional Revolution. But and councils opened up to women and the the introduction of these unprecedented civil segregation of streets and other public spaces liberties did not end the many social gradually ended. In the next several decades, hierarchies of Iranian society and the struggle casual social contact between unrelated men over the theory and application of the new and women, Muslims and non-Muslims laws continued to define Iranian politics in became increasingly acceptable, whether in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

References Ad-Din Tusi, Nasir Nasirean Ethics. London: George Marmon. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1964. 1999. Abrahamian, Ervand. Tortured Confessions: Prisons Algar, Hamid. “Barda and Bardadari: IV. Regulations and Public Recantations in Modern Iran. Governing Slavery in Islamic Jurisprudence.” Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Encyclopedia Iranica. Accessed January 16, 2007. California Press, 1999. (www.iranica.com/newsite) Afary, Janet. “From Outcastes to Citizens: Jews in Al-Mulk, Nizām. The Book of Government or Rules Qajar Iran,” in Esther’s Children: A Portrait of for Kings: Syar al-Moluk or Siyāsat nama of Iranian Jew, edited by Houman Sarshar, 139-74. Nizam al-Mulk. Translated by Hubert Drake. Los Angeles & Philadelphia: The Center for London, Henley and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Iranian Jewish Oral History and the Jewish Paul, 1978. Publication Society, 2002. Amanat, Abbas. “From Ijtihad to Wilayat-i Faqih: The Afary, Janet. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Evolution of the Shiite Legal Authority to Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and Political Power” in Shari’a: Islamic Law in the the Origins of Feminism. Cambridge: UP, 1996. Contemporary Context. Edited by Abbas Afary, Janet. Sexual Politics in Modern Iran Amanat and Frank Griffel. Stanford: Stanford Cambridge: UP, 2009. UP, 2008. Al-Din Tusi, Nāsir. Akhlāq-e Nāseri. Tehran: Amanat, Abbas. “The Historical Roots of the Khwārazmi Press, 1994. Persecution of Babis and Baha’is in Iran” pp. Algar, Hamid. “Barda and Bardadari.” In, Slavery in 172-173. In The Baha’is of Iran: Socio-Historical the Islamic Middle East. Edited by Shaun Studies. Edited by Dominic Parviz Brookshaw

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)

and Seena B. Fazel, 172-173. London and New Keyvani, Mehdi. Artisans and Guild Life in the Later York: Routledge, 2008. Safavid Period: Contributions to the Socio- Azad, Hasan. Posht-e Pardehha-ye Haramsara. Economic History of Persia. Berlin: Klaus Second edition. Urumiyeh: Anzali Press, 1985. Schwarz, 1982. Babaie, Susan, Kathryn Babayan, Ina Baghdiantz- Lambton, Ann Katharine Swynford. “Justice in the McCabe, and Massumeh Farhad. Slaves of the Medieval Persian Theory of Kingship,” Studia Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran. London and Islamica 17 (1962): 91-120. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2004. Levy, Habib. Tarikh-e Yahud, vol. 3. Beverly Hills: Babayan, Kathryn. Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Sazeman-e Farhangi-ye Iranian-e Yahudi-ye Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Kalifornia, 1989. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Center for Middle Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Eastern Studies, 2002. Princeton University Press, 1984. Babayan, Kathryn. “Sufis, Dervishes, and Mullas: The Malcolm, Napier. Five Years in a Persian Town. Controversy Over Spiritual and Temporal London: John Murray, 1906. Dominion in Seventeenth-Century Iran.” in Marlow, Louise. Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Safavid Persia. Edited by Charles Melville, pp. Islamic Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge 117-18. London: I.B. Tauris and Center for University Press, 1997. Middle Eastern Studies, University of Matthee, Rudi. “Between Aloofness and Fascination: Cambridge, 1986. Safavid Views of the West.” Iranian Studies 31, Benjamin, Samuel Greene Wheeler. Persia and the no. 2 (Spring 1998): 219-46. Persians. London: John Murray, 1887. Minorsky, V. Tadhkirat al-Muluk: A Manual of Chelongar, Muhammad Ali. Kapitulasion dar Tarikh- Safavid Administration. Second Edition. e Iran. Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz, 2003. Cambridge: Gibb Memorial Trust, 1980. Darling, Linda. “Islamic Empires, the Ottoman Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi’i Islam. New Empire, and the Circle of Justice,” In Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985. Constitutional Politics in the Middle East. Edited Nasr, Hossein. “Religion in Safavid Persia,” Iranian by Said Amir Arjomand. Oxford and Portland Studies 7, nos. 1-2 (Winter-Spring 1974): 271- Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2008: 11-32. 293. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Perry, John R. “Justice for the Underprivileged: The Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Ombudsman Tradition of Iran,” Journal of Near Routledge [1966] 2002. Eastern Studies 37, no. 3 (1978): 214. Ensiya Shaykh Rezaei and Shahla Azari. Gozareshha- Pirnazar, Jaleh. “Yahudian-e Jadid al-Islam-e ye Nazmiyeh az Mahallat-e Tehran, 1303–1305 Mashhad,” Iran Nameh 19, nos. 1-2 (Winter- AH. Vol. 1. Tehran: Sazman-e Asnad-e Melli-ye Spring 2001): 41-60. Iran, 1999. Polak, Jakob Eduard. Persien, das Land und seine Fischel, Walter. “The Jews of Persia Under the Kajar Bewohner: Ethnographische Schilderungen Vol. Dynasty.” Jewish Social Studies 12, (1950): 119- 1. Hildesheim and New York: Georg Olms 160. Verlag, [1865]1976. Floor, Willem. “Barda and Bardadari: IV. From the Qahraman Mirza ‘Ayn al-Saltaneh, Qahraman Mirza, Mongols to the Abolition of Ruznameh-ye Khaterat-e ‘Ayn al-Saltaneh. Vol. Slavery.”Encyclopedia Iranica. Accessed January II. Edited by Massoud Salur and Iraj Afshar. 16, 2007. www.iranica. com/newsite. Tehran: Asatir Press, 1995. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Ra’in, Isma’il. Mirza Malkum Khan. Tehran: Safi Ali the Prison, Translated by Alan Sheridan. New Shah Press, 1970. York: Pantheon Books, [1975] 1977. Ricks, Thomas M. “Slaves and Slave Trading in Shi’i Issawi, Charles. The Economic History of Iran, 1800- Iran, AD 1500–1900.” In Conceptualizing/Re- 1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Conceptualizing Africa: The Construction of 1971.

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Performance of Justice in Qajar Society … ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1)

African Historical Identity. Edited by Maghan Tsadik, Daniel. Nineteenth-Century Iranian Jewry: Keita. Leiden, Boston, and Cologne: Brill, 2002. Statistics, Geographical Setting, and Economic Ricks, Thomas M. “Slaves and Slave Traders in the Basis. Journal of the British Institute of Persian Persian Gulf, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Studies 43: 1(2005): 275-282. Centuries: An Assessment.” in The Economics of Tsadik, D. “Religious Disputations of Imami Shi’is the Indian Ocean Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Against Judaism in the Late Eighteenth and Century. Edited by William Gervase Clarence- Nineteenth Centuries.” Studia Iranica 34 (2005): Smith, 65. London: Frank Cass, 1989. 95-134. Savory, Roger. Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge: Tsadik, D. Between Foreigners and Shi’is: Nineteenth- Cambridge University Press, 1980. Century Iran and Its Jewish Minority. Stanford: Sayyāh, Hamid, Khāterāt-e Hāj Sayyāh ya Dowreh-ye Stanford UP, 2007. Khowf va Vahshat. Tehran: Ibn Sinā Press, 1967. Taremi, Hassan. ‘Alameh Majlesi’. Tehran: Tarh-e Shahri, Ja’far, Tarikh-e Ejtema’i-ye Tehran dar Qran- Now, 1996. e Sizdahom. Vol. 1. Tehran: Rasa Publications, “Mudjtahid,” Encyclopedia of Islam . Vol. 7, (Leiden: 1990. Brill, 1991). Shahri, Ja’far. Tehran-e Qadim. vol. 1. Tehran: Tucker, Judith. In the House of the Law: Gender and Enteshārāt-e Mo’in, 1357. Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. Sheikholeslami, Reza. The Structure of Central Berkeley: University of California, 1998. Authority in Qajar Iran, 1871-1906 Atlanta: Wheeler Benjamin, Samuel Greene. Iran and Iranians. Scholars Press, 1997. London: John Murray, 1887. Sheil, Mary. Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia. Zerang, Muhammad. Tahavvol Nezam-e Qaza’i-ye New York: Arno Press, [1856] 1973. Iran. Vol. 1. Tehran: Markaz-e Asnad-e Enqelab- Soroudi, Sorour. “The Concept of Jewish Impurity and e Islami, 2002. Its Reflection in Persian and Judeo-Persian Taj al-Saltana. Khaterat-e Taj al-Saltaneh. Edited by Traditions.” Irano-Judaica VI (1994): 142-170 Mansureh Ettehadieh (Nezam Mafi) and Cyrus Sykes, Percy. A History of Persia. Vol. 2. London: Saʿduniyan. Tehran: Nashr-e Tarikh-e Iran, Macmillan and Company Limited, 1930 [1914] 1982. Sykes, Ella Constance. Persia and Its People. London: Zargarinejad, Gholam Hussein. Rasa’el -e Elibron Classics [1910] 2005. Mashrutiyat. Tehran: Kavir Press, 1995.

www.SID.ir Archive of SID

Afary, J ______Intl. J. Humanities (2019) Vol. 26 (1): (73-94)