A Research on the Effect of Religious Thoughts on the Form and Function of the Locks in Qajar Period

The things that are based on instrumental rationality in daily life of the ordinary people sometimes go beyond their normal function and find a cultural function and status related with the supernatural world. Locks are among the things that - influenced by Islamic beliefs, especially the Shiite denomination - have found doctrinal functions in the Iranian culture. The present study was done through a descriptive-analytical method, aiming at identifying the effect of ideology and religion on the material function of the locks in Qajar period. Here, we have attempted to study the status and the function of the locks in people’s life in Qajar period to deal with the way religion affects the formal structure and the doctrinal function of the locks. The result of the study shows the direct effect of Shiism and Islamic beliefs on the material culture of Qajar period as well as the direct effect of popular beliefs on the way the locks were designed and used in that period.