Identification of Qajar Steel fruits in the National Museum of Iran (based on Persian literature)

Some of the objects of the Islamic era of Iran are described simply by the appearance, so that many of the unique features of these objects are ignored without their background, name and application. One of the most important resources that can help us better introduce the Iran’s Islamic era objects, especially their name, application, background, and even aesthetic status, is the treasure of Persian literature. Because the Persian literary texts mirrored the lives of the people of their time; hence based on literary texts, we can elicit plenty of information about a large number of everyday objects of every age. One of the many obscure things about it is the Qajar Steel Fruits, six of which are in the National Museum of Iran, which have not been introduced yet, and even a few other examples in other museums have only been introduced to their appearance. It is based on the fact that many treasures were made in ancient Iran in the form of fruit or many kings and pilgrims in the texts of Persian literature with metal fruits such as "quince" and "bergamot" are described in hands. Therefore, in this research, the Persian literary treasure was used to identify the Qajar steel fruits. In order to achieve this, firstly, the introduction of steel fruits in samples of museums, especially the samples in the National Museum of Iran, and then the history of metal fruits were introduced on the basis of Persian literature. Since the remaining Qajar fruits are "quince" and "bergamot", in the next section, more attention was paid to these two fruits. Finally, the reasons for making steel fruits in the Qajar era were studied. Regarding the results of this identification, the production of metal fruits, especially "quince" and "bergamot" in ancient Iran, has a long history, so that many ancient kings and elders with quince or bergamot (fragrant and Or non- fragrant) are described in their hand. Of course, since the inscriptions of two examples of Qajar steel fruits in the National Museum of Iran indicate their belonging to Nasiral-Din Shah; it can be deduced that, given the Archaism of the Qajar kings, these fruits were probably used in the Qajar kings court. However, many obscure points remain in the study of these fruits, such as non- fragrant and fragrant (in this case, were covered with flavor material like amber). But since a number of these fruits are simple plain, the likelihood of these fruits covering with the amber is used to freshen up the court's environment; and the existence of such ambiguities in this article can be the basis for future research. Finally, it should be noted that the results of this research, in addition to identifying the Qajar steel fruits, It even provides for the completion of literary and historical documents from an ancient Persian tradition (making metal fruits); Because despite the many references to metal fruits in the texts, the Qajar steel quinces and bergamots are the only available examples of an ancient tradition.