Types and Uses of Clerics and Merchants’ Endowments in Sari Region (Mazandaran) in the Qajar Period

The purpose of this research is to define the effect of class affiliation (clerics and merchants) on the type of Sari endowment expenditures in the Qajar period.

Method and Research Design: 

 352 Endowment Records of merchants and clerics were described, analyzed and compared.

The endowments of merchants and clerics were mainly land, houses, shops and caravanserai. Clerics mostly endowed land whereas merchants endowed shops. These endowments were used for Imam Hussein’s ceremonies - the third Shiite Imam - like feeding the mourners, feeding fasting people in Ramazan, repairing and maintaining mosques and schools, alms and donations to the poor and Ibn al-Sabeel. The political and social developments of the period did not change the type of endowment expenditures. Most of the endowments belong to the time of Nasser al-Din Shah (1848 –1896). Also, most of the endowments were recorded in the lunar months of Rajab and Muharram. The endowments were entrusted to the person who endowed, his children or the clerics of the region. This indicates a kind of family system and the scholarly system in the management of endowments.