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Shahsavaranii V, Mortezaie M. Archaeological Survey of the Qajar Period slavery System Through Analyzing the Content of Documents, Written Sources and Archived Photographs. Cult Herit Rec Stud. 2020; 3 (1) :26-43
URL: http://chrs.richt.ir/article-3-314-en.html

For archaeologists, historical texts are important in several ways; first, the written texts and second its examination in an archaeological context, along with other material of its context. In fact, the importance of the context is that the cultural material (here the text) is evaluated based on its social and historical context. Historical texts along with other facts, are important evidence to archaeologists. In the slave system of Qajar-era, servants were primarily a form of consumption and not an element of production.  A group of servants who served in the houses of the wealthy, included maids, gholams, and Khawjas. The black slaves were African, and they were traded through the Persian Gulf, and the white ones were of various ethnicities who were provided through trade or captivity in wars. The way this class was treated was often accepted by the community. The maids either entered the harem as a monk or a permanent wife, or to do housework for the elders' wives. The gholams were also employed in various fields of the military, domestic services, security, agriculture and irrigation, fishing and scuba diving (in the south), and achieved high administrative and military positions if they had the ability and expertise. Therefore, in this article, the Qajar slavery system, in two areas of south and southwest of Iran, were investigated by studying documents, written sources, and photographs of the Qajar period as text and cultural material through archeological approach and content analysis.