Gendered and Ethnic Captivity and Slavery in Safavid Persia: A Literature Review

Abstract

The Safavid society’s approach to sexuality and gender has made it a reference for the “pre-modern” discourse, in which gender and sexuality manifest—in contemporary terminology—queerness and fluidity. While it is important not to romanticize the image of the Orient as a queer heaven, it is possible to consider Safavid society as an important site of inquiry that offers valuable insights on pre-colonial gender and sexuality. A less discussed topic in Safavid literature on gender and sexuality is gendered and sexual slavery. This study conducts a review of primary and secondary literature on the Safavid period, including Western travelogues. The paper aims to outline the relations between existing forms of captivity and factors such as gender and ethnic background. The research explores the prevalence of slavery reported in Safavid literature and how slaves’ positions were defined within social hierarchies.

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“…Safavid women have, in the literature, been positioned within a strong binary: either as “slaves” to their husbands and serving purely reproductive goals or as educated and strong-willed political agents (for discussion on Safavid women's imagery see e.g. Karami et al, 2018; Rahbari, 2021). The truth is somewhere in between.…”

“…Royal women also received education (Karami et al, 2018) while there is not much evidence of widespread education of women in society. Sex workers are also documented to have enjoyed some degrees of power and freedom (Rahbari, 2021). There is, however, less known about the Safavid rural and everyday urban women's lives since most local histories and travelogues were drawn into the royal court and cultural hubs in bigger cities, such as Isfahan (Minowa and Witkowski, 2009; Rahbari, 2021).…”

“…The validity of this literature on the Safavid period is scrutinized by feminist scholars (see for e.g. Babayan, 2008;Najmabadi, 2005;Rahbari, 2009Rahbari, , 2021 as they are mostly written by nonlocal men using sources that are also largely created by men and thus reflecting a predominantly androcentric perspective (Minowa and Witkowski, 2009). The travelogues, often written by Europeans, described the Safavid society with strong colonial undertones.…”

“…There is ample evidence of “Habashi,” “Zangi,” “Indian,” and “Caucasian” enslaved people used for sex and in the military, and enslaved servants in brothels, teahouses, harems, and in the middle and upper-class Iranian families and among pastoral clans from the early 1500s to the beginning of the 20th century (see e.g. Clarence-Smith, 2006; Khosronejad, 2016; Rahbari, 2021).…”