Mīrzā Ḥasan Rushdīyyih and the Hardships of Book Selling in the Qajar Era

Mīrzā Ḥasan Rushdīyyih is a well-known figure in modern Iranian history. He is considered one of the pioneers in establishing modern schools in Iran and almost single-handedly initiated a revolution in modernizing education in the country. His life and memoirs have been explored to some extent by his relatives and by researchers. This article, however, focuses on a lesser-known aspect of his life. Alongside managing various schools, Rushdīyyih also earned income by selling books, using part of the proceeds to fund the schools. Yet things did not always proceed smoothly, and there were challenges. Examination of unique, previously unstudied judicial documents reveals that Rushdīyyih filed and pursued a legal complaint regarding a fraud involving the sale of his books. This article provides a documented account of this episode, which is thought-provoking in its own right, illustrating just how arduous advancing significant cultural projects could be in modern Iranian history. The primary sources for this study are copies of Rushdīyyih’s case file in the archives of the judiciary (‛adlīyyah), published here for the first time. In addition to presenting a brief narrative of this case, the article also offers transcriptions and selected images of these documents for scholarly use.