The Lives of Qabalas: Annotation, Transcription and Registration Of Documents in Early Modern Iran

The article describes the tradition of documentation as a part of written culture in early modem Iran. Unlike book manuscript in pre-modem period, on which one can easily expect that it has the readers and copyists, a traditional qabala or private deed, such as a sale deed, a lease deed, a loan deed, a marriage deed or a waqf deed, which were drawn up at Shari'a courts, one might not expect that it would be read by the public or be copied by copyists. However, historical evidences show us that these kinds of documents also were sometimes referred to again and again. Sometimes they were annotated, transcribed, and registered later. In other words, the qabalas also had their own lives: some information added to them as annotation in the course of time, and their information was transmitted to other type of documents.