A History of slAvery And emAncipAtion in irAn, 1800–1929 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK A History of Slavery and Emancipation in Iran, 1800–1929 BeHnAz A. mirzAi University of texas Press Austin Copyright © 2017 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2017 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713- 7819 http://utpress.utexas.edu/rp- form ♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of Ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper). liBrAry of congress cAtAloging- in-­PuBlicAtion dAtA Names: Mirzai, Behnaz A., author. Title: A history of slavery and emancipation in Iran, 1800/1929/ Behnaz A. Mirzai. Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2016024726 | isBn 9781477311752 (cloth : alk. paper) | isBn 9781477311868 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isBn 9781477311875 (library e-book) | isBn 9781477311882 (non- library e- book) Subjects: lcsH: Slavery—Iran—History. | Slave trade—Iran—History. | Blacks— Iran—History. | Slaves—Emancipation—Iran—History. | Iran—History. Classification: lcc Ht1286 .m57 2017 | ddc 306.3/620955—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024726 doi:10.7560/311752 to my sons BeHrouz And rouzBeH in memory of my fAtHer, mAHmoud THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK contents A Note to the Reader ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 chapter one. Commerce and Slavery on Iran’s Frontiers, 1600–1800: An Overview 26 chapter two. Slavery and Forging New Iranian Frontiers, 1800–1900 35 chapter tHree. The Trade in Enslaved People from Africa to Iran, 1800–1900 53 chapter four. Patterns of Enslavement 74 chapter five. Slaves in Nineteenth- Century Iran 91 chapter six. Slave-Trade Suppression Legislation 131 chapter seven. Antislavery Debates Within Iran 159 chapter eigHt. Emancipation 180 Final Thoughts 206 Glossary 215 Notes 217 Bibliography 291 Index 315 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK A note to tHe reAder in tHe Hopes of explaining the transformations of the slavery system in Iran not only to academic specialists in Iranian history, but also of reaching an audience unfamiliar with the history of Iran and literature on slavery in the Middle East, I have avoided the use of specialized jargon. My aim is to maintain the spellings of names exactly as they appear in ar- chival sources in the endnotes unless there is a major discrepancy, in which case I employ the correct modern spelling. transliteration In this book, I have used the transliteration system of the International Journal of Middle East Studies for Persian, Arabic, and Turkish words. translations Translations of all foreign sources (Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and French) are mine. Dates Dates in this book are written in the Gregorian style. In endnotes, the dates of English sources are Gregorian, Persian documents of sAm and books are cited in Hijri Shamsi (modern Iranian or solar calendar), and Persian docu- ments of vuK are Hijri Qamari (Islamic or lunar calendar) unless noted Sh. (Hijri Shamsi). Units of MeasUre weigHts Man is an Iranian unit of weight equal to 3 kg. Ray is an Iranian unit of weight equal to 11.87 kg.1 currency It is impossible to determine the exact value of coins used in Iran. The most common coin in circulation was the toman. Some coins were minted in Iran while others were foreign. The exchange in every province and city differed x a note to the reaDer considerably, and there was a constant fluctuation in the value of coins. The following rates have been determined based on information extracted from historical sources. In the book the value is given in the original currency con- verting into toman in parenthesis, but it should be noted that the rate of ex- change is approximate. 1) The German crown (GC) was one of the most common coins circulating at Musqat, having been imported from Baghdad. In 1825, GC100 = Br 217.2 2) Bombay rupees (Br) were a currency imported from India in exchange for goods shipped from Bushehr. In 1842, £1 = Br 10.3 In 1917, 100 Rupees = 183 Qran.4 3) The toman (T) was an Iranian gold coin used chiefly in circulation with a fluctuating value. One toman consisted of ten silverqran .5 In the mid- nineteenth century, T1 = $5.6 In the late nineteenth century, T1 = $1.6.7 4) Themahomedee (M) was a copper coin. In 1825, $1 = Ma20, or T1 = Ma100.8 5) The British pound (£). In 1883, £1 = T2.5.9 6) The Spanish dollar ($). In 1840, £1 = $2.5.10 In 1853, £1 = $4.11 7) The pence (Pe). In 1883, T1 = Pe100.12 8) Shamees (Sh) was a currency used in Basra. In 1847, £1 = Sh13.3.13 9) Piastres (PI) were silver coins minted in the Ottoman Empire. In 1840, PI 15 = $1.14 10) Manat was a Russian currency. In 1910, 1 manat = 1.5 qran.15 AcKnowledgments given my ABiding certAinty of the importance of sharing the subject of this book with the wider academic community, this work has been a labor of perseverance. It is the culmination of many years of research as well as the support of those in archival organizations and research institutions in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and from descendants of diasporic enslaved people communities scattered throughout Iran and the Persian Gulf region. There is a considerable demand from scholars, teachers, and students for a book on the subject of slavery and emancipation in Iran. Teaching the course “Slavery in the Middle East” without recourse to a textbook on the subject in- spired me to seriously consider reworking my dissertation, “Slavery, the Abo- lition of the Slave Trade, and the Emancipation of Slaves in Iran, 1828–1928,” and preparing it for publication. Although it began as a doctoral thesis, in 1999 my research was hindered by circumstances beyond my control: these included the relocation of many Iranian archives along with complications and changes associated with docu- ment release policies and catalogue systems. Notwithstanding, I was always able to count on the support of staff and other archivists at various insti- tutions. At Brock University, the staff of the James A. Gibson Library de- serve special appreciation. In Iran, these included Mahmoud Esmaeilnia, Ramin Seirafi Far, and Beheshte Daneshmand at the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Farimah Baqeri, Kobra Moqimi, and Roqayeh Shokri at the Research and Document Information Division of the National Archive and Library; Parvin Sadr Seqat al- Islami, manager of the Gulestan Palace; Javad Hasti and Zahra Asadian at the Photo Collection Center of Gulestan Palace; Mr. Khalili and Mr. Moradi at the Library, Museum and Document Centre of Iran Parliament; Abdulkarim Mashayekhi at the Centre of Iranian Studies—the Bushehr Branch; as well as staff at the Ministry of Environment and the Central Library of the University of Tehran. I would also like to ex- press my gratitude to the founder of the Jumaʾ Al Majid Center for Culture and Heritage in Dubai for sharing his archives and assigning staff to assist me, including Shaikha Al Mutairi as well as the staff at the Zanzibar National Library in Tanzania, who were immensely helpful. In Europe, I am grateful to the staff at National Archives of United Kingdom and British Library in London and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. At these institutions and elsewhere, I have been able to count on the assis- tance and suggestions of many scholars at various stages in the preparation xii acknowleDgMents of this book and related publications, including two documentary films. In that regard, I would like to express my appreciation to Mohamad Tavakoli- Targhi, Hichem Ben- El- Mechaiekh, Lawrence Potter, Barry Grant, Martin Mhando, and Gwyn Campbell. I specially thank Abdul Sheriff and Olivier Pétré- Grenouilleau for reading chapters of this book and for their helpful suggestions. Edward Alpers, Ehud Toledano, and Indrani Chatterjee deserve special acknowledgment for the critical reading of the entire manuscript and offering detailed comments. During my long journey from graduate school to this book, I learned enormously from intellectual discussions and guidance of my then classmate, Olatunji Ojo, now my colleague at Brock University, to whom I thank for his generosity and thoughtful comments. I particularly want to single out and thank Houchang Chehabi for his continuous support, assistance, and many useful suggestions. Also, I would like to thank Paul Lovejoy for supervising my dissertation that developed into the current book. While working on this project, I was fortunate enough to share my re- search with many academics whose comments and insights nurtured my own ideas. Several organizers of academic forums and conferences deserve special thanks: Yann Richard, who invited me to deliver a talk on slavery in Iran at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 2000; Gwyn Campbell, who in 2000 orga- nized the events: Slave Systems in Asia and the Indian Ocean: Their Structure and Change in the 19th and 20th Century and Unfree Labour & Revolt in Asia and the Indian Ocean Region in 2001 at Université d’Avignon; the Intercultural relations in multicultural societies event at the universities of Tehran and Soreh in 2008; the unesco Slave Route Project events: The cultural interactions re- sulting from the slave trade and slavery in the Arab-Islamic world in Morocco in 2007, and Slave Trade and Slavery in the Arab Islamic World: Untold Tragedy and Shared Heritage in Nigeria in 2012; and Mohamad Tavakoli- Targhi at the Uni- versity of Toronto who organized the Iranian Studies Seminar Series in 2013. At the grassroots level, I would also like to thank Mansureh Ettehadieh, the late Abdulhusayn Navai, and the late Ehsan Naragi, who shared their own personal and family memories of slavery in Iran.