Urban Violence and Space: Lutis, Seminarians, and Sayyids in Late Qajar Iran

A State of ‘Tribal Lawlessness’? Rural and Urban Crime in Fars Province (c. 1910–15)

“…91 As Vejdani argues, taking bast often accompanied crimes because it offered a legal 'space of exception' to delay or avoid punishment. 92 In this sense, it directly appealed to public opinion and popular understandings of justice as an informal means of exoneration. 93 Thus bast had to have at least some element of protest to justify one's actions, especially as it had been such an important form of contestation during the Constitutional Revolution.…”

“…Moreover, as Vejdani highlights, in late Qajar Iran what was considered a crime depended more on particular socio-spatial relations: for example, what neighbourhood someone came from or whether they had vertical relations to higher-status individuals. 96 Thus, as the state's imposition of justice was becoming increasingly formalized from the beginning of the Constitutional Revolution, it faced active opposition on a large scale. In Shiraz artefacts of state justice, such as gallows, were targets of attacks and robbery, building on a tradition of opposition to secular punishment.…”