The surviving muraqqaat (albums) of trades from the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar can be regarded as visual documents of nineteenth century Tehran. Their production was encouraged both by the shah’s personal interest in visual representation and by the presence of numerous foreigners in Iran - physicians, diplomats, and travelers - who sought to record local conditions and report them to their audience in their home countries. As a result, a considerable number of pictorial albums were created. Within this context, itinerant vendors can be divided into several major groups. The first consisted primarily of those who sold foodstuffs and other everyday necessities. In this mode of trade, the vendor moved through the alleys, establishing direct contact with customers. In colloquial usage, such peddlers were known as tavāf - literally, one who sells goods by circulating through streets and bazaars. Since most of them dealt in food, the term tavāf gradually became associated in popular usage specifically with the street sale of comestibles. Ṭabaqī-ye dowreh-gard (tray-carrying itinerants) also fell within this category. These ṭabaqī-hā-ye dowreh-gard carried their goods on their heads, typically offering small quantities of fresh fruit or dried nuts. Alongside them were the basāṭī-hā, who spread out a variety of goods on the ground along streets and in public thoroughfares for sale.
The second major group of itinerant vendors consisted of those who traveled in order to purchase goods rather than sell them. Unlike the first group, they moved from place to place as buyers and were commonly known as moshtarī or shāl moshtarī. They ranked among the more affluent strata of itinerant vendors and typically owned a pack animal. Their trade centered on the buying and selling of brocaded textiles and jewelry. Many wealthy women, for example, did not shop in public; instead, such merchants brought desired goods directly to their homes. Notably, representations of this type of itinerant trader are rare - if not altogether absent - in the muraqqaat of trades from the period.
The aim of this study is to re-examine the muraqqaat of trades as social documents that can illuminate the culture of tavāfī (itinerant food vending) in nineteenth century Tehran during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah. The central question asks how, on the basis of these muraqqaat, the culture of tavāfī - that is, the itinerant sale of food - can be classified and analyzed for this period. This qualitative study adopts a historical approach and employs a descriptive-analytical method to reconstruct the culture of tavāfī in old Tehran through the evidence provided by the muraqqaat of trades. The selected examples include various forms of tavāfī that were widespread during the so-called Nāserī period, since the pictorial muraqqaat under discussion were produced largely within this time frame, or shortly thereafter but in the same stylistic tradition. The study is based on purposive sampling from ten Qajar-era muraqqaat of occupational types. Considering the key research variable - the verified depiction of tavāfī - a total of thirty images were selected for analysis. Accordingly, this research follows a developmental approach, relying on library-based data collection and employing note-taking and visual analysis to achieve its objectives.
The findings indicate that among the muraqqaat depicting street vending, the strongest emphasis falls on the culture of tavāfī in food. Food tavāfs, can broadly be divided into three main categories: āb-bandhā, sellers of fruit and vegetables, and vendors of animal products such as poultry and eggs. Āb-bandī referred to the sale of water, ice cream (bastanī), fālūdeh, and various types of sharbat. The term āb-bandī designated an occupation whose primary material was water; in the context of ice cream and fālūdeh making, it also carried the meaning of “setting” or “solidifying” water. The most central and historically established group within the āb-bandī trade were the saqqās. A saqqā, meaning water carrier or water seller, was a person who transported water in a mashk (leather waterskin) and delivered it to households as well as to food-preparing shops. Alongside them were itinerant vendors who circulated through the streets selling fruits and vegetables, as well as items such as fresh walnuts, potatoes, beetroot (labu), lentil stew (adasī), and boiled broad beans (bāqālī). At the time, the sale of fruit through formally established shops separate from other trades was not common in most parts of Tehran, except in a few northern districts where such shops existed only in limited numbers. Most fruit was therefore sold by tavāfs and basāṭ-chīs. Other tavāfs specialized in animal products such as eggs. There were also itinerant vendors of fish and live poultry. However, chicken and fish were not everyday foods widely consumed by the general public; meat in general was considered a relatively luxurious item and was often served to honor guests. By contrast, sirābī - an inexpensive dish prepared from animal offal - was sold by itinerant vendors who typically set up their stalls near sangak bakeries. An important feature of tavāfs was the flexibility of their goods in response to seasonal and climatic conditions. During the summer months, the sale of beverages such as various kinds of sharbat increased, whereas in winter warmer foods, such as hot milk, tended to take their place.
Overall, the findings of this study demonstrate that Qajar muraqqaat, particularly in their depiction of street vending, possess considerable documentary value. They may be employed as reliable visual sources for analyzing the subsistence structures of the tavāfī culture, the consumption patterns of the urban middle strata, and the socio economic relations of Tehran in the Qajar period. From a visual perspective, these muraqqaat - through their emphasis on isolated figures, work tools, and modes of presenting goods - construct a form of “social typification.” Within this framework, tavāfs are stabilized as representative figures of the lower urban classes, embodying a distinct and recognizable social type within the visual economy of the period.