The Selected Collection of
Qajar Era
The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic peoples, Turkic origin,Cyrus G ...
Maps of Iran is a historical archive housed at the Center for Documents and Diplomatic History of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran. This collection comprises approximately 500 hand-drawn or
lithographic
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...
maps from the Qajar period (1789–1925), offering valuable insights into the cartographic and geopolitical landscape of Iran during that time.
[
]
[
]
Content and Significance
The maps in this collection utilize measurement units common in that era, such as zar (a traditional Persian
cubit
The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah ...
) and
farsang (a Persian league, roughly equal to 6.24 kilometers). They cover a diverse range of subjects, including:
* Maps of cities, villages, and settlements across Iran.
*Water resources and traditional methods of water transportation.
*Borderlines and territorial divisions.
*Various regions of Iran, some of which were later renamed or separated due to political changes.
Due to their historical significance, these maps serve as an essential resource for researchers studying Iran's social, political, legal, and geographical transformations. They also provide crucial insights into Iran's regional influence and territorial changes over time.
UNESCO Recognition
In 2013, the collection was inscribed in
UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, recognizing its historical and documentary value for global heritage.
Preservation and Research
The maps are preserved under the supervision of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
, with ongoing efforts to digitize and catalog them for academic and research purposes. Scholars from various fields, including history, geography, and political science, frequently utilize the collection to analyze historical shifts in Iran's borders and urban development.
Related Collections
Similar historical cartographic archives exist in institutions such as the
National Library and Archives of Iran
The National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI; ) or National Library of the Islamic Republic of Iran is located in Tehran, Iran, with twelve branches across the country. The NLAI is an educational, research, scientific, and service institute a ...
and international museums holding Persian manuscripts and maps from the
Qajar period.
The Selected Collection of Qajar Era Maps of Iran remains an invaluable reference for understanding the historical geography of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and its regional dynamics.
See also
*
List of Memory of the World Register in Iran
References
Maps
A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...
{{Iran-stub