My name is Niambi Walker Cacchioli and I am a PhD student at Birkbeck College, iversity of London. I am currently working on a social history of black African slaves who served in Qajar Persias 18481925 multifunctional and multiethnic slavery stitution.The ethnic category black does not necessarily have a direct parallel within the context 19th century Iranian demography. Here, I use the term in reference to individuals riginating from Somalia, Ethiopia and interior East Africas Lake Nyassa region. Men, women and children from these populations were regularly sold at the Zanzibar slave markets.This research locates black African slaves as a small, yet vital component of royal and elite Persian households and, in certain instances, as labourers in pre pitalist commerical activities. In this way, their conditions, their labour, and their social relations are viewed within the broader context of the periods social, economic, and political organisation.Although the research centres on the social history of a relatively small phenomenon, it contributes to the growing international project of reenvisioning Irans premodern era, particularly with regard to the countrys constructs of ethnic identities, its formal and informal labour organisation, and its maintenance of ideals for male and female behaviour,

Website: http://www.geocities.com/bbkresearch/