Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran

Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran

Illustrated pilgrimage scroll

Illustrated pilgrimage scroll

This scroll illustrates the Shi‘i pilgrimage from Mecca to Mashhad. The images are accompanied by verses describing different stages of the journey and the related rites. It was lithographed in six sections and glued to a fabric (probably cotton) backing. The scroll, which was commissioned by Muhammad Ja‘far Kasa’i, a cloth merchant from Karbalaʼ, was acquired in Kirman in ca. 1971 and is now in a private collection in Kailua, Hawaii.

Item Details

  • Date late 19th/early 20th century
  • Notes

    Source: Ulrich Marzolph, From Mecca to Mashhad: The narrative of an illustrated Shi‘i pilgrimage scroll from the Qajar period, in Muqarnas: An annual on the visual culture of the Islamic world, edited by Gulru Necipoglu, vol. 31, 2014, pp. 207-242, Brill: Leiden and Boston.

  • Dimensions 20 x 194 cm
  • Collections Private Collection II
  • Repository Private Collection II
  • Restrictions No restrictions
  • Accessed 4 June 2015
  • Last Edited 23 September 2015
  • Record no. 15157A1
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