Ottoman-Qajar relations through photography: Mozaffar al-Din Shah’s İstanbul visit

Abstract

This study discusses the use of photography as part of a strategy of representation in Qajar Iran and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century within the framework of Ottoman-Qajar rivalry and cooperation. The main purpose of this thesis is to compensate for a lack of analysis of Ottoman-Qajar relations and the history of photography in these polities from a comparative perspective and to explore the uses of photographs as a historical source. Elaborating on photograph albums in the İstanbul University Library Rare Collection, the Golestan Palace Library Photography Division, the Taksim Atatürk Library Rare Collection, and the Gigord Collection in the Getty Museum, my study first discusses the different uses of photography, such as its ability to provide information and its role in the practice of gift exchange, in Qajar Iran and the Ottoman Empire comparatively. It then examines Mozaffar al-Din Shah’s visit to İstanbul in 1900 and its literary and photographic representations. After examining Ottoman-Qajar relations in the second half of the nineteenth century, which constitutes the political context of the shah’s visit, this thesis details the visit and the shah’s days in İstanbul through literary and visual sources. Finally, it discusses how this visit was represented through the Ottoman and Qajar sources, based on the power relationship between the two states.