Archives in Iranian Itineraries of Qajar Era (From the Beginning of the Qājār Era up to the Constitutional Revolution)

Safari, Soheila

Archives in Iranian Itineraries of Qajar Era (From the Beginning of the Qājār Era up to the Constitutional Revolution)

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Soheila Safari

Abstract

The word “archive” became widespread in Iran after communication of Iranians with European

countries. Therefore, ﬁnding out about different usages of this word is of high importance

in archival studies. Iranian itineraries are among resources which reﬂect the early perception

of Iranians about new phenomena. Therefore, these resources are also signiﬁcant in studying

archives. In this article, by studying the itineraries of Iranians who traveled to Europe from the

beginning of the Qajar era up to the Constitutional Revolution (and are themselves divided to a

number of groups), the author tries to indicate how much consideration was given to archives

by itinerary writers. The notable ﬁnding of this study is that Iranian itinerary writers did not

pay much attention to archives. The present article also brings up the question of why archives

have not been noticed by Iranian itinerary writers, who traveled to European countries in the

mentioned historical period and described lots of phenomena in those countries? In the author’s

point of view, neglecting archives was due to the historical conditions of Iranians and their

viewpoint on manifestations of civilization in European countries.

(From the Beginning of the Qājār Era up to the Constitutional Revolution)

Keywords