In Qajar, Persia

The practice of photography was taken up in Iran soon after its invention. Antoin Sevruguin established one of the most successful commercial photography studios in Tehran from the 1870s, portraying many prosperous and royal families of the region. His photographs captured the last decades of the Qajar dynastic period (1795-1925), during which African men, women and children were brought to Iran in unprecedented numbers. Aristocratic and wealthy families incorporated domestic slaves into their households as both investments and symbols of prosperity. Islam offered many paths towards slaves’ emancipation, and Sevruguin’s images occasionally feature their prominence in Persian society.

Gathering in Qajar Persia
Possibly Rowzeh-Khani, a private performance of reciting from the Quran
Antoin Sevruguin (active 1870-1930, d. 1933)
Albumen print
Persia, c. 1890
Myron Bement Smith Collection of Sevruguin Photographs
Courtesy Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Smithsonian Institution, FSA A2011.03 B.09

Antoin Sevruguin photographed widely in Iran and Armenia from 1870 to 1930, when the Qajar dynasty ruled Persia. The Qajar elite were devoted patrons of Shiite rituals, from public Muharram processions to private performances of the Rowzeh-Khani, which involved the recitation of Quran and religious texts in memory of Shiite Imams.

From 1850 to 1925, many Africans from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Swahili coast, coming through Zanzibar, were sold to Persians to work as servants, pearl divers, and laborers. The man at the center of this group was part of a multitude making up the African diaspora in this region. A number of Africans sent to Iran’s largest cities worked as trusted attendants and soldiers in Qajar royal palaces and
family homes.

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Nasir Al-Din Shah and His Eunuchs
Antoin Sevruguin (active 1870-1930, d. 1933)
Glass plate negative
Persia, c. 1880-1900
Myron Bement Smith Collection of Sevruguin Photographs
Courtesy Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Smithsonian Institution, FSA A.4 2.12.GN.51.02

This group portrait shows Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (ruled 1848 to 1896) with several personal attendants who wear the eunuch’s uniform of a tall fur hat and loose robe over trousers. Under Nasir al-Din Shah, the royal eunuchs were powerful and wealthy landowners.
Chief of the royal harem, Haji Sarvar Khan I'timad al-Harem, seen standing to the right of Nasir al-Din Shah, ruled the eunuchs from 1887 until the Shah’s assassination in 1896. Haji Sarvar Khan held the keys to the royal quarters and the harem doors, managed the dozens of eunuchs of the royal harem, and served as intermediary between the Shah, the royal women, court officers, and high-ranking dignitaries.

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