Why have many artists chosen the digital sphere to represent their artwork? How has it impacted the appearance of their work and the meanings conveyed? Hazine is seeking 3-4 pieces on the digital world and art from the Mashriq, the Maghreb, East Africa, West Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Turkey, or Iran. If you’re an artist, tell us what drives you to employ digital tools in your artwork and how these tools influence your work? Have you collaborated with other artists online? If you’re a consumer of art, how has viewing art online changed your relationship with it? Does it change the nature of consumption? Send pitches to hazineblog[at]gmail.com by Friday, January 22, 2021. To ensure a more organized process, please only send pitches and ideas by e-mail rather than through comments to this post.
Pitches should be no longer than 300 words and should be accompanied by a few sentences telling us who you are. Pitches (and pieces) are accepted in English and Arabic; we accept essays and are open to different forms. We are open to different forms of style as we expand this category of the site but do have a look at the essays we’ve run previously, like this one on typography and this one on archivy, because they demonstrate what we’re really looking for: a strong point of view. Completed essays –if accepted– will be 2000 words or less. Deadlines for completed pieces are flexible. Each piece is paid 100 USD upon publication.
لماذا اختار الكثير من الفنانين المجال الرقمي لممارسة الفن؟ كيف أثّر ذلك على شكل أعمالهم الفنية والمعاني التي يريدون إيصالها؟ ترغب خزينة في نشر من 3-4 مقالات عن العالم الرقمي وعلاقته بالفن في المشرق والمغرب وشرق أفريقيا وغرب أفريقيا وجنوب صحراء أفريقيا وآسيا الجنوبية وجنوب شرق آسيا وتركيا وإيران. إذا كنت فنانًا، أخبرنا ما الذي يدفعك نحو استخدام الأدوات الرقمية في أعمالك الفنية وكيف تؤثر هذه الأدوات على إنتاجك الفني. هل قمت بالتعاون مع فنانين آخرين على الإنترنت؟ إذا كنت من متابعي الفنون، كيف أثّرت مشاهدتك للأعمال الفنية على الإنترنت على علاقتك بالفن؟ هل غيّر الإنترنت طبيعة استهلاك الأعمال الفنية؟ قم بإرسال نبذة أو فكرة عن المقال الذي تريد أن تكتبه يوم الجمعة، 22 يناير، 2021 كحد أقصى إلى البريد الإلكتروني hazineblog[at]gmail.com.
لضمان عملية منظمة، نرجو إرسال النبذ والأفكار عبر البريد الإلكتروني فقط وليس من خلال تعليقات على هذا المنشور.
يجب ألا تكون النبذة أكثر من 300 كلمة وترافقها بعض السطور عن الكاتب. تقبل خزينة النبذ والمقالات باللغة العربية والإنجليزية، وترحّب بأساليب الكتابة المختلفة. نقوم الآن بتوسيع الجزء الخاص بالكتابة حول الفن على الموقع ويمكنك إلقاء نظرة على هذا المقال عن تصميم الخطوط الطباعية وهذا المقال عن الأرشفة لأنهم يُظهروا السمة التي نبحث عنها في الكتابة: وجهة نظر قوية. إذا تم قبول مقالك، يجب أن يكون 2000 كلمة أو أقل، وهناك مرونة في موعد تسليمه. سيتم دفع الكاتب 100 دولار أمريكي عند النشر.
Located on the grounds of the National Garden in the Topkhane district of Tehran, The Malek National Library and Museum (Ketābkhāna va mūza-ye melli-ye Malek) is a must-see not only for researchers but also anybody visiting Iran’s capital. While the museum holds an extensive collection of various artifacts, coins, artworks and carpets, the tens of thousands of Islamic manuscripts, many of which are rare and some unique, make the library one of the largest depositories of its kind in Iran.
The entrance to the Malek Library
History
The institution was established over seventy years ago on the initiative of Hosayn Malek, who died in 1972 at the age of 101. The center was initially located in his father’s house in Tehran, until 1966 when it was moved to a new building in what was then the central part of the city. In his twenties, Hosayn Malek, the grandson of a high ranking Qajar officer, traveled to Khorasan with his father, where he had a chance to get acquainted with some of the most beautiful art works of Islamic world. It was during this trip that he made a decision to acquire his own collection of manuscripts and establish a library. Hosayn Malek’s passion for other kinds of artifacts and artworks came in later years. In 1937 he decided to donate and endow his collection of precious objects and manuscripts to Astan-e Qods-e Razavi (a charitable foundation managing the shrine of Imam Ali Reza) for public use. It is a little difficult to determine when or how the different pieces from this extensive collection were acquired. What we do know is that at the time of Hosayn Malek’s death the value of his endowments was estimated to be over several million dollars. In recent years Hosayn Malek’s daughter, Ezzat Malek Soudavar, has made another significant donation to the center of arts works and Quranic manuscripts that further enriched the already extensive collection.
Collections
The center is divided into two sections: On the ground floor there is a museum and on the first floor there is a reference library and computer room.
The museum has well-presented collections of visual arts, paintings (European and Iranian), lacquered pen cases from the Qajar era, coins, an impressive collection of Qurans (including a part of Quran in Kufic script on a parchment leaf, ascribed to Imam Hassan Mojtaba), and other calligraphic masterpieces. The library has two reading rooms. One room has a number of volumes on subjects ranging from medicine and biology to geography, politics, history, and religious sciences. As of 2007, the library had approximately 70,000 printed books but this figure maybe slightly outdated. The library has been rapidly expanding and new books are constantly being added to the collections. At the time of visit stuff members regularly came in with trolleys stuffed with books. It is worth browsing through the shelves. The second reading room, also a computer room, holds all of the catalogs, periodicals, magazines, and a few shelves at the very back on subjects like mathematics, computer science, accounting or general English.
The center holds over 19,000 manuscripts dating from the tenth to the twentieth century. The manuscript collection is divided in two groups. The first includes philosophical, literary, historical and scientific works, most of which are either rare or unique. In particular, the staff members take great pride in the extensive collection of scientific works of Avicenna (Ibn Sina). The second group of manuscripts includes books from all over the Islamic world, many fine examples of Persian calligraphy and miniature (e.g. Shahnamas produced for the Safavid or Timurid kings) are kept here. The majority of works is in Persian, but one can also find works in Arabic and some in Ottoman Turkish.
The manuscripts in the collection are of great variety, but the overwhelming majority originate from Iran and its neighbors (i.e. do not expect to find many works related to North Africa, whereas there is quite a lot on Central Asia and India). At the same time one can easily find works by late Qajar intellectuals, medieval Islamic histories, as well as dynastic chronicles from the Ilkhanids to the Qajars, hermeneutics and other religious subjects as well as a lot of poetry. The oldest manuscript in the collection dates back to the fourth century of the Islamic era. Of particular interest are local histories of different provinces or cities of Iran (e.g. Kerman, Lorestan, Kordestan, Tabriz, Orumie…) and the travelogues (safarnama) of Hajj pilgrims and Persian and European travelers (inside and outside of Iran).
A coin from the Malek museum’s collections
Research Experience
The Malek Library is one of the easiest institutions to access and use in Iran. The library’s convenient and easy-to-reach location, friendly and helpful staff (some of who speak English), well-functioning software (albeit only in Persian), free WiFi, and very comfortable reading rooms make the Malek Library one of the best research institutions in Iran. The building has elevators and is relatively maneuverable in a wheelchair. The reading rooms are very spacious and never seem to be too crowded. The rooms, however, can get quite chilly as a consequence of the powerful air conditioning systems.
There is a fourteen-volume catalog of the library’s manuscript collection–thirteen volumes of which have been prepared by Iraj Afshar and Muhmmad Daneshpazhuh while the most recent volume is a work of Seyyid Muhammad Hussein Hakim–available for reference in the main reading room. Catalogs for other Iranian libraries and archives, as well as for research institutions in Turkey and Europe are also available. The catalog provides some details on the manuscripts in the collection, including the date of acquisition and place and date of copy. The catalog is well organized and easy to use. The entries appear accurate, but the librarian has informed me that there are occasional mistakes, which will be corrected in an updated version of the catalog to be at the end of this year (Since my visit to the library a new edition, plus a new volume (14th) have been published). There is no electronic catalog available on the library’s computer workstations yet. Ottoman and Arabic manuscripts are covered in the first volume of the catalog and are organized alphabetically, for the small number of works in these two languages. Volumes two to four contain descriptions of Persian manuscripts which are grouped according to subject, e.g. history, literature, science and medicine as well as law and fiqh, and within those groups are also arranged alphabetically. Volumes five to nine contain anthologies and collections while the rest, ten to fourteen are volumes of indices organized by authors, copyists, dates, manuscript names, etc.
Generally speaking, the whole collection has been cataloged and digitized. Researchers request to view manuscripts by submitting the appropriate catalog numbers to the librarian, who then uploads the manuscript to one of the library’s workstation computers. The whole process takes no more than an hour. The quality of the digitized documents varies, but is generally quite decent and the computer interface is user-friendly. Although the quality of the digitized documents is fair (with some variations), all of the manuscript images are slightly obscured in the lower-right (or lower-left) corner, where the library has placed a digital watermark. Viewing original documents is more complicated and one needs to negotiate with the different members of staff and make good use of personal charisma.
Depending on the number of manuscripts that a researcher requests, the process of obtaining a CD with the reproductions usually takes between two to five working days (the center is open 6 days a weeks). Personally, I’ve not experienced any inconvenience while working at this library except perhaps for the rather arbitrary opening-closing hours (it is better to call the library before leaving home). Generally speaking the best tip is to wake up early, go to the library and stay there until it closes as opposed to trying to combine a visit to the library with something else. Tehran simply is the city where it is often difficult to plan things.
The interior of the Malek museum
Access and Reproductions
The center is officially open Saturday to Thursday from 8.30 to 16.30 during summer, and 9.00 to 17.00 during winter. We recommend calling before every visit to confirm that it is open. The museum and library (including computer room and reading rooms) are open to the public and registration is required. However, those who plan to request reproductions on CD or a viewing of the manuscripts need to bring a passport and an introduction letter (ma‘rifatnama). Letters of introduction may be written by academic supervisors or departmental chairpersons (no specific format). They may also be obtained from the International Center for Persian Studies (ICPS), known as the Dehkhoda Institute. The Dekhoda letter of introduction is also accepted by all other major libraries, archives and research centers in Iran. As for the difficulty of the process, other than having to run around the premises getting signatures of different members of staff (takes no more than an hour) everything is pretty smooth and easily accessible. I have been told by a member of staff that taking pictures of manuscripts is not allowed. Reproductions of manuscripts cost 2,000 Rials per pdf page (approximately 7 U.S. cents) and generally take up to five days to be prepared.
Transportation and Food
The Malek Library and Museum is located in downtown Tehran, only five minutes away from Imam Khomeini metro station (Red metro line). Metro is by far the most convenient transportation option in Tehran (the traffic is pretty congested during most hours) and the center is best reached by metro. Tehran is certainly not known for its delicious street food but there a few places to have lunch or dinner around the center, including a couple of fast food places on Ferdowsi avenue and some decent cafes and lokma kebab on Mirza Kuchek Khan street, both are relatively cheap and within walking distance. Packing your own lunch might also be an option, as there are some really nice gardens and parks in the area. The archive itself is located inside a massive garden complex although there doesn’t seem to be too many places to sit in the garden.
فهرست نسخههای خطی كتابخانه و موزه ملی ملك (14 ج)، نگارش سیدمحمّدحسین حكیم، قم، كتابخانه تخصّصی تاریخ اسلام و ایران، 1393 خ
فهرست کتابهای خطی کتابخانه ملی ملک وابسته به آستان قدس رضوی (1-13 ج)، زیر نظر ایرج افشار، محمد تقی دانش پژوه؛ با همکاری محمد باقر حجتی و احمد منزوی، تهران:کتابخانه ملی ملک، 1380 – 1352 خ
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Gennady Kurin is currently a doctoral student at Cambridge University researching Ottoman-Safavid relations and borderlands
Citation: Gennady Kurin, “Malek National Library and Museum”, HAZINE, 3 Nov 2014, https://hazine.info/maleklibrary/
Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran (WWQI) is a digital archive of materials related to the social and cultural history of Iran during the Qajar period. The archive seeks to aid scholarship on women’s history and gender history by making freely available online a vast array of writings, photographs, financial and legal documents, artwork, and everyday objects contained in private and public collections around the world. In this way, the project seeks to assemble a digital archive of Iranian culture during the long nineteenth century (1796-1925) with a focus on women and issues of gender.
Two women in European dress from the Olga Davidson Collection.
Background and History
The idea for a digital archive of Iranian material on women’s history originated in the early 2000s. In 2009, Afsaneh Najmabadi, along with four scholars of Iranian history (Nahid Mozaffari, Dominic Brookshaw, Naghmeh Sohrabi, and Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar) were awarded a grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities to assemble a digital archive of documents from a number of private collections and public institutions. The original idea for the project arose from an awareness of the state of Iranian archival resources and of the possibilities afforded by emerging digital technologies. Firstly, the project members recognized the need for assembling an archive for Iranian history in the absence of extensive institutional archival collections. In contrast to the large state archives for the Ottoman Empire, which are preserved by various state institutions in Turkey and the Middle East, no analogous institutional archives exist for Iranian history prior to the twentieth century. Despite this lack of formal institutional archiving, the project members knew of the existence of significant numbers of documents from the nineteenth century that have been preserved in the private collections of families throughout Iran. Secondly, the development of high quality digital technologies made possible the establishment of a virtual archive composed of disparate collections held in various locations. Rather than construct a physical archive on the basis of a state’s backing, the project has endeavored to collect (or “fabricate” in the words of Najmabadi) within a single website a digital archive of material from around the world.
The project has focused on women in nineteenth-century Iran for several reasons. First of all, the archive seeks to address a lacuna in Iranian social history with regard to women and gender issues. The absence of more scholarly work on women’s history for Iran is surprising considering the relatively rich material produced by women or related to women from the period which sheds light on the daily lives, social relationships, and cultural activities of Iranians during the Qajar era. Moreover, much of the material preserved in private family collections—including marriage contracts, diaries, and photographs—provides a detailed and unique view of women’s worlds. In this way, the nature of the archival material preserved in disparate private collections demands scholarly attention to aspects of women’s history.
WWQI website homepage.
Collection
Initially the project envisioned an archive of 3,000 images. By April 2013, the collection had grown to more than 33,000 images. The majority of the archive’s images are owned and held by forty-three private collections. In addition to these collections, WWQI has partnered with ten public institutions to make available a number of other documents and objects on the project’s website.
In general, the private collections consist of individual families’ records and therefore reflect the eclectic documents and material objects preserved by a single family over the course of several generations. In some instances, the private collections consist of the personal archives of a local notable, such as a mujtahid or kadkhuda, and consequently contain an array of financial and legal material that had been entrusted by a number of families to the local leader for safekeeping. The images found within the private collections usually range from documents of legal significance, such as marriage contracts and sales of property to documents of a more intimate world, such as photographs, diaries and letters, as well as antiquated objects of daily use. Assembling this digital collection from a disparate array of smaller collections enables scholars to develop a more thorough understanding of various social phenomena. For instance, WWQI has managed to gather and make available more than 300 marriage contracts from Muslim, Jewish, Armenian, and Zoroastrian communities. This sort of collecting allows for more systematic approaches to issues such as kinship and family. Similarly, the inclusion of large numbers of photographs invites researchers to examine relatively underused historical sources. Unfortunately, given the nature of these private collections, which are largely the holdings of relatively prominent families, the archive mostly reflects the interests and priorities of the urban upper class. WWQI is aware of this shortcoming and is working to alleviate the imbalance by actively soliciting archival contributions from families with significant rural ties.
The other major source for WWQI’s image archive is provided by a number of public institutions in Iran and abroad. These institutions range from important libraries, such as the Majlis Library in Tehran and Tehran University Library, to academic institutions, such as the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History and the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. The documents provided by these institutions tend to include state-produced material, published documents, and art objects. In this respect, the collection contains a number of journals and educational pamphlets, as well as legal documents.
The project has at least two great virtues. Firstly, by including objects of material culture (photographs, art, and instruments), the archive invites historians to practice their craft in new ways. For instance, the inclusion of large numbers of photographs from different families living in the same period enables researchers to read images not only as solitary documents from which evidence is extracted but as a comprehensive storehouse of social information which evoke an image of the age. Similarly, objects may yield equally surprising insights. Professor Najmabadi recounted one such experience while interviewing a family in Yazd. Despite initially doubting the usefulness of the family’s possessions, one family member returned to the conversation with kitchen ladles in hand, upon which had been engraved generations of family birthdays.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the archive’s digital nature allows for the relative ease of its expansion. As contributors to the collection maintain all of their rights of ownership, the archive need not engage in complicated arrangements to transfer and preserve material. In this way, the growth of the archive is only limited by individuals and institutions’ willingness to share images of their collection for scholarly use.
Curtain tassel from the Bahman-Bayani collection.
Research Experience
Researchers may search and access the archive’s collections through its website. The website is nicely designed with an easy to navigate interface and is fully functional in both English and Persian. Moreover, all of the documents within the collection are clearly and effectively labeled. While the site provides a platform to search and browse the archive’s collection, all of the images are digitized and hosted by Harvard University Libraries, so users are linked to Harvard’s library page once they have located a particular document that they would like to view.
There are three ways to locate material using WWQI’s site. The site has a simple search function located on the homepage which allows researchers to identify material according to names of people or places, the type of document (e.g. letter, marriage contract), or subject (e.g. politics and government, clothing and dress, kitchen ware). As it is hard to know how subjects are defined within the collection, it is probably best to browse the list of subjects provided from a link on the homepage.
Users may also locate material by browsing within particular collections. Here users will get a good idea of wide variety of disparate holdings that collectively constitute the project’s archive. This function will be of particular use to those interested in surveying the range of material preserved and donated by a single family.
Lastly, users may browse the archive’s holdings. This method is probably the most effective way to become familiar with the wide range of material available on the site. Users may narrow their browsing to a reign within the Qajar period or browse within a particular document genre (audio files, manuscripts, letters, etc.). In addition to these two subfields, users may also browse according to person, place, or subject, as well as view all of the archives materials which have been either translated or transliterated into Latin letters.
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank Professor Najmabadi who provided me with a copy of a paper she presented on the project at Brown University in October 2013. Most of the details in this article originate from this paper.
20 January 2014
Christopher Markiewicz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago where he studies fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Islamic history.
Cite this: Christopher Markiewicz, “Women’s Worlds of Qajar Iran,” HAZINE, 20 January 2014, https://hazine.info/2014/01/20/qajar-women-archive/
