• Vintage Persian contract of soul document with decorative elements and text on a red background
  • Old Persian document with text and illustrations on a red and white patterned fabric background
  • Old, worn-out paper inside a decorative red and white border

    Original Qajar Shi’a Islamic Contract of the Soul, c. 1911, Persia

    Regular price $38,000.00
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    Country: Iran
    Date: 1329 AH (1911–1912 CE)
    Object type: Original illuminated religious endowment deed
    Count: 1 manuscript
    Dimensions: Incoming
    Language: Persian
    Production place: Qajar Persia
    Printer / Publisher: Hand-scribed, privately commissioned
    Associated figure: Hazrat Abbas, Alamdar-e Saqqa-ye Karbala
    Subjects: Shi'a mourning rituals, Majlis, Karbala iconography, religious trusts, Waqf
    Function: Established a perpetual endowment for community mourning hospitality
    Authentication: Validated by local Mujtahids and witnesses through ink seals under Sharia law

     

    Acquired via a private auction in Istanbul this illuminated Qajar Waqf-nama is a Shi’a Islamic contract of the soul: a legal and devotional instrument through which property, memory, and obligation were transferred beyond ordinary inheritance. Dated 1329 AH, corresponding to 1911–1912 CE, the deed places an endowment under the protection of Hazrat Abbas, Alamdar-e Saqqa-ye Karbala, to sustain a perpetual Majlis, Quranic recitations, and religious hospitality during Muharram.

    Written in Nastaliq script, the manuscript reflects a distinctly Qajar Shi’a devotional visual language: hand-applied pigments, gold-flecked borders, Boteh motifs, and a stepped minbar surrounded by clerical seals. These seals authenticate the vow through local religious authority and witnesses, making the endowment legally binding and spiritually irrevocable. 

    This is a record of public feeling. It functions as a relic of divine insurance, a moment in 1911 when a citizen anchored their legacy in the iconography of the Standard-bearer rather than a collapsing government. The folds, stains, and wear are the material evidence of its survival through a century of revolution.

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