Royal Harem Lives: Power, Intimacy, and Liminal Family Formation In the Late-19th Century Qajar Cour

Royal Harem Lives explores the social, spatial and cultural dimensions of the women's quarter of Nasir al-Din Shah's court, variously referred to as his harem or andarun, during his reign (1848-1896). While this period is generally understood to coincide with the emergence of modernity in Iran, the maintenance of a large-scale royal harem is generally associated with a traditional and outdated Islamic convention. As such, the expansion of the Gulistan harem in the second half of the 19th century, concurrently with greater contact between the Qajar empire and Western modernity, presents us with an interesting paradox. This dissertation will focus on the demographic, physical, topographic, and representational dimensions of Nasser al-Din Shah's harem, and the various social and familial relations within it, to argue that this institution was in fact one of the central loci of negotiations with modernity in late 19th century Iran. Throughout the following chapters, I examine the complex structure of this institution and the everyday life of its residents---at various points estimated to be between 700 and 2000 wives and female relatives, as well as different classes of employees---from physicians and translators, to servants, maids, slaves, and eunuchs. For its time, the cultural and ethnic heterogeneity within the Gulistan harem was quite unique, as it housed residents from various interregional networks, and hosted elite local and international visitors. Located within the ever-expanding Gulistan Palace, and in the heart of the Qajar capital, the Gulistan harem was physically and socially structured around a set of extremely rigid hierarchies, which were often undermined by various affective bonds, developed through relations of proximity and cunning negotiations. I explore a number of these complex relationships and the ways in which they informed familial association, court life, and the distribution of political power within the late Qajar Empire.