Review of ManuscriptsWritten by Women Duing the Qajar

One of the subjects that ever thoroughly studied in researches regarding Iran’s temporary art in Qajarera, is women’s role in different aspects of social and artistic life. A woman’s role in original sources written by Qajarhistorians, was not noted as an independent subject or in a detailed way. This is a result of historians focusing their effort on narrating the political events of the time and the lifestyles of kings and people of authority rather than elucidating the social life of women. Thus they have made various implicit indications of women’s social and artistic life here and there through their compilations. This article studies the Qurans written in fine Naskh font by four anonymous female artists and calligraphers of Qajar royal court who used to write in fine Naskh. Two of these ladies were Fat’halishah’s daughters, named Banoo-Omolsalameh and Zia-alsaltaneh and the other two were from Naser al-Din Shah’s era named Khorshid-Kolah-Khanom and Maryam banooNaeeni.The first two have dedicated their Qurans to Fat’halishah and the other two to Naser al Din Shah. This article makes an effeor, however small, to study the works of these women and their Qurans which are currently kept at the museums of Golestan Palace, National Library, Hazrat-e Masoomeh’s holy shrine library and Imam Reza’s holy shrine library.