Introduction
This article investigates waqf (Islamic endowment) in Qajar Tehran as a socio-political institution that actively shaped the relationship between religion and state within the urban structure of the capital city. Moving beyond conventional interpretations that reduce waqf to a purely devotional or charitable practice, the study conceptualizes it as a strategic mechanism embedded in the dynamics of power, legitimacy, and capital circulation. The central research question asks: How did waqf evolve from a religious act of piety into a socio-political instrument that reorganized the religion–state relationship in Qajar Tehran?
The article focuses on key historical districts—Arg (the governmental core), Oudlajan, and Dowlat—as spatial manifestations of religious-political interaction. Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of fields and capital, the study frames Tehran as an urban field in which religious, political, and economic actors competed to accumulate and convert different forms of capital—economic, symbolic, and religious. Within this framework, waqf functioned as a mediating instrument that enabled actors to reposition themselves, reinforce legitimacy, and influence the configuration of urban space. The article hypothesizes that waqf was not merely an auxiliary religious institution but a central mechanism in stabilizing, reproducing, and eventually transforming the religious-political order of Qajar Tehran.
Materials & Methods
The research adopts an interdisciplinary qualitative methodology combining historical sociology and urban studies. The primary empirical materials consist of Qajar-era waqf deeds, mainly drawn from Fahrest-e Asnad-e Moghoofat-e Iran, Volume IV, which includes a substantial corpus of documented endowments. These deeds are supplemented by historical maps of Tehran, administrative documents, travel accounts, and other archival sources that provide contextual and spatial data.
The analysis proceeds on three interconnected levels:

Document and content analysis of waqf deeds to identify the founders, beneficiaries, objectives, and institutional patterns of endowments.
Spatial-historical analysis to reconstruct the geographic distribution of waqfs across Tehran’s districts and to map their relationship to centers of political and religious authority.
Relational field analysis grounded in Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to interpret waqf as a form of capital conversion and strategic action within overlapping social fields.

Although primarily qualitative, the study incorporates descriptive quantitative observations regarding the density, frequency, and types of endowments in different urban areas. This multi-layered methodology allows for a systematic reconstruction of waqf’s role in shaping the urban field of power over time.
Discussion & Results
The findings demonstrate that waqf played a foundational role in the early formation of Tehran’s religious-political field. One of the earliest significant examples, the 1104 AH endowment by Mohammad Hashem Tabiib associated with the Masjid-Madrasa Hakim Hashem in the Arg district, contributed to the consolidation of the classical Islamic urban configuration linking mosque, market, and governmental center. In this formative stage, waqf helped institutionalize the spatial proximity of political authority and religious institutions.
Following Tehran’s designation as the Qajar capital, the district of Oudlajan emerged as a major node of religious-political interaction. Waqf activity became particularly concentrated in its western and northwestern sectors. Endowments primarily supported religious rituals, mourning ceremonies, illumination of sacred spaces, and assistance to students, sayyids, pilgrims, and the urban poor. In this phase, members of the political elite and economic notables utilized waqf to convert economic capital into symbolic and religious capital, thereby strengthening their social legitimacy within Shi‘i society. Notably, the relative absence of endowments initiated by prominent religious scholars during the early period highlights the dominant role of political actors in shaping the waqf field.
In the late Qajar era, significant transformations occurred. The construction of the Hosseini/Naṣeri wall and the development of Mahalleh Dowlat shifted the spatial distribution of power. Waqf expanded into new domains including education, medicine, and broader public welfare. New actors—religious minorities, intellectuals, and parliamentary figures—entered the waqf field. Endowments began to support modern institutions such as hospitals and the Pasteur Institute, as well as politically significant institutions like the Majles. These developments illustrate a diversification of beneficiaries and objectives, signaling the adaptation of waqf to emerging forms of modern authority and national governance.
The study interprets such transformations as evidence of waqf’s flexibility as a strategic instrument. By enabling the conversion of economic resources into religious and symbolic legitimacy, waqf functioned as a bridge between traditional religious structures and modern institutional forms. It became a medium through which actors negotiated their positions within both the religious and political fields.
Conclusion
The article concludes that waqf in Qajar Tehran was a dynamic and strategic institution central to the negotiation and reconfiguration of the religion–state relationship. Rather than operating solely within a charitable or devotional sphere, waqf structured the distribution of capital, shaped urban spatial organization, and mediated competition among social actors. In its early phases, it reinforced a relatively integrated religious-political order centered in Tehran’s historic core. In its later stages, however, waqf adapted to new socio-political realities, supporting modern institutions and expanding beyond traditional religious functions.
The transition to the Pahlavi period marked a significant shift in the geography of religious authority and political power, contributing to the weakening of the earlier Tehran-centered religious-political nexus. Overall, the study demonstrates that waqf should be understood as a key mechanism of urban power formation and transformation—an institution through which legitimacy, capital, and spatial order were continuously renegotiated in Qajar Tehran.