ABSTRACT
In a portrait of Anis al-Dowleh (1842-97), one of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar’s favorite wives and head of the harem, he photographs her standing behind a chair and wearing European dress (Figure 7.1). She gazes back at her photographer husband, an act she does repeatedly in his photographs of her, while holding a small vase of flowers. This photograph is interesting in several aspects because, as noted earlier in chapter two, the shah usually photographed his wives sitting down in their formal portraits. Also, his wives wear the court dress of the charqad and shaliteh, not so much European dresses, although they too were prominent at court and elsewhere in Iran.1 One of the most fascinating aspects of this photograph, however, is the Black female slave, known as a kaniz siyah, peering from behind the backdrop, accompanied by a girl. What was the Black woman doing-was she curious about the photographic process, watching the head of the harem have her photograph taken, or did she desire to have her own photograph taken too? Although her face is blurred, as the focus of the lens was on Anis al-Dowleh, she stares directly into the camera too, desiring to be seen from behind the opaque backdrop.
