Guilds, Merchants, and Ulama in Nineteenth-Century Iran (English, Willem M. Floor)

About the Book

Merchants and bankers managed much of nineteenth-century Iran's economy and finances. The ulama-clerical leaders-who considered themselves responsible for the spiritual welfare of their flock also played an important economic role, in particular, through management of religious endowments. Numerically, however, the most important group was that of the traders and craftsmen, who were organized into guilds and who formed thirty to fifty percent of…

ISBN: 9781933823317