Content Analysis of Merchants’ Endowment Deeds of Barforoush City in Qajar Period (1210-1343 AH/1795-1925)

Barforoush city was a significant place for the settlement and activities of merchants in Qajar period due to the growth of domestic and foreign trade. The merchants usually were active both in trading and doing public-benefiting affairs. Among the merchants’ public-benefiting affairs was endowing properties and assets. It is assumed that examining the contents of their endowment deeds help understand about the types, uses, and features of the endowments of this group of society. It also helps understand more about the jobs, markets, caravanserais, houses, tekyehs, mosques, and neighborhoods of Barforoush in Qajar era. Using content analysis and focusing on the content of merchants’ endowment deeds of Barforoush, this study tried to see such issues as the amount, the use, the diversity, and the function of their endowments. The results showed that from among the merchants’ endowed properties, lands, shops, houses, and caravanserais were the most endowed ones. Regarding the use of the endowments, mourning ceremonies for the martyrdom of Imam Hussain were the most frequent usages followed by charitable and public-benefiting affairs, the daily affairs of students of religion schools. Endowing was more frequent in Naser al-Din Shah Kingdom and the following years.