Studying the Structure of Endowment Letters Of the Women in Qajar Period

The endowment letters are among the valuable documents and religiously legal vouchers. The endowment documents of the women in Qajar period are among the most important sources for delineating the social, cultural and religious conditions of the time. In that period, most sections of society with various intellectual leanings would pay attention to endowment. Considering the commonality of endowment, women would also participate in it, and this was one of the contexts for the social participation of the women in Qajar period (Werner, 1378). In that period, endowment letters of men and women were not so much different, but the women's endowment letters were sometimes different for those of men in their use and raqaba, which are minute difference. The present study makes use of a historical approach and the related documents to be composed. Despite the necessity of this issue in Iran's contemporary history, there has been no independent study on the Shiite women's endowment letters in Qajar period. This article seeks to investigate the form and content of the women's endowment letters in Qajar period. The data were gathered from 36 endowment letters extracted from the National Archive of Iran, Astan Quds's Center of Documents and Library, the website of World of Qajar Women, and other library sources and organized with a descriptive-analytical approach.