The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
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The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
CSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834 epic poem the Shãhnãmah, in the story of “Kasră NOslìĩnravãn” that is found in the second half of the epic, the so-called “historical” portion, Firdawst describes a scene in which a group of nobles from various cities and regions in Transoxiana (az ãmũĩ tã shahr-i chãch u khutan) assemble and toget The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834her they recall the periods of good and ill fortune in their homeland’s history.1 Afrasiyab’s reign, they say, resulted in “dark and bitter days” whilThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
e Kai Khusraw ruled over a peaceful world free from strife.3 Their reminiscences finally reach their own time and they give thanks that their ruler, tCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834irdawsl goes on to say, in a noteworthy passage, that representatives from the different regions of the Sãsãnian kingdom gathered before the shah and with “one heart and one tongue" pledged allegiance to the ruler and presented him with gifts (hadiyah).3As this story in the Shãhnãmah suggests, the g The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834iving of gifts, tributes, and honors has a long history as a vital component of administration in Iran and the Persianate world' beyond, and was seenThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
as a direct reflection of a sovereign’s just, and by extension legitimate rule.5 After long being a neglected topic, gift giving in the Iranian contexCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834erature that takes a macro-historical approach to describe the role of gifts in Persian culture over the course of hundreds, if not thousands of years. These studies have been useful in presenting the “big picture" and often emphasize the underlying continuities in gift-giving practices through diff The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834erent eras.6 The other category is those works that focus primarily on the objects that were exchanged, either from a material cultural and art historThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
ical perspective or from a broader sensitivity to the “value of things.” These studies build upon the seminal work of anthropologists and sociologistsCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834 and reciprocated obligatorily”—and that the given objects were not neutral, as in the case of commodity exchange, but bore the identity of the giver and recipient.8 In spite of this growing literature, however, many areas remain underexplored. Chief among them is the role of gifts in the political The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834culture, administration, and state-building projects of Iranian history. Part of the explanation for the dearth of scholarship on the political economThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
y of gifts may lie in their ubiquity: gifts are mentioned so often that it is easy to gloss over them.9 Like food, animals, disease, and other aspectsCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834ifts, tributes, and honors were the backbone of the Qajar state and society. Their abundance in the Qajar period has led some observers to share the view of George Curzon, the British statesman of the imperial era, that gift exchange constituted “the cardinal and differentiating feature of Iranian a The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834dministration" and that there was something exceptional about Iranian and Qajar gift-giving practices.11 In fact, evidence suggests that gift-giving pThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
ractices were shared across premodern Eurasia and that tribute systems, of which those practices were a part, were a “uniformity” and a "widely sharedCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834ks, but also drew on pre-existing practices like gift giving that they inherited from the Safavid and post-Safavid eras and which served as a means of reconstituting a government that could rule over a vast territory' two and a half times the size of modern France and 100.000 square miles larger tha The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834n contemporary lran.:j In that sense, gill exchange was a vital component OÍ Qajar administration and political life, but one dial it shared with otheThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
r tributary empires and which should not be reified to the level of cultural difference.14Nevertheless, this essay takes a different tack than the schCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834ne the practices associated with gift giving in early nineteenth-century' Iran as a window' onto the political culture of the early Qajar state and as a lens through which to analyze statecraft and means of governance during the early Qajar period. I will, in other words, focus on the political stra The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834tegies behind (he exchange ot gifts. There are countless references to gifts in the diplomatic correspondence, letters, royal decrees (farman), chroniThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
cles, and other sources from the early Qajar period that provide ample evidence that gift exchange constituted a significant pan in administering the CSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834rt.15 In Other instances, the actual objects given arc specified, like in the case of a gold-sheathcd sword sent to a tribal khan as part of an effort Io win his loyally. 5Gifts fulfilled various objectives in Qajar Iran: they were a form of tribute (pĩshkỉsh),1' a means of displaying generosity and The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834 redistributing wealth in society, a method of political patronage, and a way to case social, political, and diplomatic relations.10 They were, in shoThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
rt, part of the effort to legitimize Qajar authority. But they also highlight the real limitations Qajar rulersCSSH 58-2. Ashraf 4faced in exerting poCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834grounded in notions of sacred kingship, the Qajars drew on a diverse set of traditions to present themselves as legitimate rulers and establish their political authority.19 Gift giving was central to this effort. Moreover, although there was much continuity in gift-giving practices and customs betwe The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834en the Qajar state and earlier polities—the ptshkish ceremonies being the most conspicuous—Qajar gift giving was shaped by the historical circumstanceThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
s of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Gifts comprised by some estimates nearly half of the economic revenue of the early Qajar statCSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834nstability.20 Gifts were not only cntcial to the self-image of Qajar rulers, indeed they were essential to the state’s survival. At the same lime, with die ascendancy of European imperial powers at (he turn of the nineteenth century, gifts of precious objects and animals to European dignitaries and The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834visitors came to surpass in importance the megafauna and illustrated manuscripts exchanged between the Safavids, Ottomans, and Mughals in earlier timeThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
s.21Al the same time, however, the story' of Qajar gifts is not simply a story of political elites. The exchange of gifts to and from the Qajar state CSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834ns that helped sustain their rule.22 The depictions of Qajar rulers as “autocratic” and “arbitrary-," which often features in the historiography of Iran, obscures the fact that political practices like gift-giving were an extension of the cultural norms of giving that existed in broader society.23 W The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834hat distinguished die political gifts were die rituals associated with them, and the potential for violence if obligations were not met.24 Gift exchanThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
ge in Qajar Iran reminds US that,CSSH 53-2, Ashraf 5as Karl Polanyi and others have pointed out, premodern political and economic systems, were “as a CSSH 58-2, Ashraf 1The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785-1834ASSEF ASHRAFYale UniversityIntroductionIn the eleventh-century Persian The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834ntury Iran can be gleaned from the Persian language’s rich terminology related to gifts. Some words in Persian, like armaghãn and sawghat, are used only in the context of “souvenir” or “memento,” usually brought over from a journey, while others, like in‘ãm, 'inãyat, and pĩshkish imply a difference The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834in the status and rank between the giver and the recipient of the gift. Europeans who traveled to Iran remarked upon the variety of words available inThe Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834
Persian to describe gifts. After traveling in Iran between 1887 and 1888, Edward G. Browne wrote in his well-known A Year Amongst the Persians that hGọi ngay
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