New Perspectives on Safavid Iran by Colin P. Mitchell

Author:Colin P. Mitchell [Mitchell, Colin P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415774628
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2011-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Royal women or courtesans?

Among the evidence that is often adduced to argue that women in early Safavid times suffered few restrictions is an intriguing remark from the pen of an Italian, a merchant, until recently thought anonymous, who visited the court of Shah Isma`il I (r. 1501–24) in the first decade of the sixteenth century.18 His literal words, in translation, are:

The women are short in proportion to the men, and as white as snow. Their dress is the same as always has been – the Persian costume – wearing it open at the breast, showing their bosoms and even their bodies, the whiteness of which resembles ivory.19

A similar observation, also frequently cited as evidence for high female status and freedom, appears in the travelogue of António Tenreiro, who visited Iran in 1523–24, accompanying the Portuguese ambassador Balthasar Pessoa. Tenreiro had this to say about the women surrounding Shah Isma`il I and his entourage:

When he [Shah Isma`il] breaks camp, all the wives of the servants of the Sufi join, to one side, behind his wives. They are very well dressed, and [ride] on the best horses which their husbands have, and with the best accouterments, riding on them as the men do; and in their attire they do not dress differently than the men, save they wear some garauins-head dresses on the head with trançados-beads in back, and the face veiled.20

The same author makes a similar observation about the women of Tabriz:

The women are very beautiful and bear themselves well. And on occasion the honored ladies depart from their houses, and when they depart, they ride horseback on their best horses which they have. They sit in the saddle as the men do. Their garments are very tight through the sleeves and embroidered on the arms, fitted to the body, and they reach to the foot, [and] open in front from the breasts to the waist, and thus even the blouses; and underneath draws of silk worked in gold and seed-pearls on the front side, over which they suit leggings of scarlet purple-red cloth, with very delicate little shoes of silk and of leather. Over these garments they wear some upper garments fitted with tight and long sleeves, which hang free. They are lined with ermine and marten and with other linings. On the head [they wear] some trançados-braids with rebuço-covering; and this is the dress of all the women of the Sufi, and thus of other great lords and rich merchants.21

The references to horses, to silk and to pearls, as well as the author’s explicit words indicate that this type of observation concerns not women at large, but women of rank. The suggestion is that royal women of this period appeared in public, enjoyed a large measure of freedom in their movements by riding horses, and were dressed rather provocatively, even while being (partially) veiled.22 All this is a far cry from conditions in later Safavid times, when females in the royal entourage were no longer visible to any male

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