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AbstractThis paper traces the emergence of folklore studies and ethnography in interwar Iran. It argues that these disciplines were part of larger nationalist projects of representing and speaking for the “masses.” The first part of the paper explores how and why a number of Iranian intellectuals engaged in folklore studies after a period of prolonged political activism in the first few decades of the 20th century. The second part of the paper examines cultural institutions established by the state, mainly in the late 1930s, in an attempt to appropriate and institutionalize folklore studies and ethnography for the purposes of nation building. These efforts were fraught with ambivalences because the “masses” were simultaneously praised as repositories of “authenticity” and looked down upon as a potential source of “backwardness.”

This article explores the connection between individuals, spaces, and daily crime in the shrine city of Mashhad during 1913-4. It challenges the prevailing emphasis on the city’s sacred status by highlighting the frequency and nature of illicit activities often involving urban non-elites. Using the Mashhad police newspaper Ettelā‘āt-e Yawmiya, it reconstructs conflicts between masters and apprentices, soldiers and civilians, tribes and settled populations, artisans, and family members. The article pays attention to the spatial distribution of crime in public and private spaces throughout the city. Finally, it considers the spectrum of crimes falling within the purview of the police including theft, raids, violence, debauchery, drunkenness, public disorder, and gambling.

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