Investigating the Interaction between Custodians and Servants of the Baqī Cemetery with Iranian Pilgrims during the Qajar Period

Due to their religious aspects, the cities of Mecca and Medina have always been a destination of pilgrimage for Iranians. The way of dealing with Iranian pilgrims in the holy places of Hejaz has been one of the issues considered by the Iranian society in recent years, and in some cases, the way of interacting with Iranian pilgrims has caused dissatisfaction among pilgrims. This article tries to examine the interaction of the custodians and servants of the Baqī Cemetery with the Iranian pilgrims during the Qajar period. The aim of this study is to answer these basic questions that how the custodians and servants of the Baqī Cemetery dealt with the Iranian pilgrims during the Qajar period and what factors were involved in the way the custodians’ interaction with Iranians. This research is based on the Persian Hajj travelogues in the Qajar period mainly written by the educated people of that period. The results of this study show that the two factors of being Shiite and being Ajam have always been sources of hardship and persecution for the pilgrims of the shrine of the Imams buried in the Baqī Cemetery and these conditions have been much more difficult for Iranians than other pilgrims.