In 1878, the census takers of Mashad wrote the word Jadid, “new,” after the names of 114 households. These were the families of our community who had been forced to convert, and the register lists each one by name, trade, wealth, and the number of men, women, and children inside the home.
This register seems to be absent from the research on our community. In the English and Farsi sources we searched, we found no earlier list of these households drawn from it.
Today we are putting that list in everyone’s hands. There is a searchable table you can read in Farsi or in English, and a free download for researchers. Read the story below, then look for the names you know.
https://cmh490.github.io/jadid-1878
What the register is
The source is Nofus-e Arz-e Aqdas (“The Population of the Holy Land”), also titled Mardom-e Mashhad-e Qadim, a census of Mashad taken in 1295 AH (1878). It was published in 2003 with an introduction and notes by the editor, Mehdi Seyyedi (full citation under Sources). The register counts the whole city, quarter by quarter, one household per row.
Each row gives the head of the household’s name, his trade if he has one, whether the family is classed as commoner or wealthy, and the number of men, women, elderly, young adults, boys, girls, and nursing infants. Most households carry no label. Some carry the word جدید (Jadid) right after the name.
We found 114 of them: 111 in Eidgah, 2 in Sarshur, and 1 in Bala-Khiyaban. In Eidgah that is 111 of 1,379 households, about 8%. The editor lists the Jadid rows in his own text, and our list matches his exactly.
One row, read
Row 642 in Eidgah is the largest Jadid household in the register, with 24 people. Here is how to read it.
| Column in the register | What it says |
|---|---|
| Row number (ردیف) | 642 |
| Head of household | ملا موسی جدید (Molla Musa, Jadid) |
| Class | Commoner (رعایا, literally “subjects”) and wealthy (اغنیاء), both marked |
| Men / women | 5 / 4 |
| Elderly / young adults | 3 / 6 (these split the 9 men and women by age) |
| Boys / girls | 8 / 6 |
| Nursing infants | 1 boy |
| Total (جمع جمعیت) | 24 |
Every row works this way, which is why we could check each one by arithmetic: men, women, boys, girls, and infants add up to the total, and the elderly and young adults add up to the men and women.
What the numbers show
- 1,131 people in 114 households. The average household had about 10 people and the middle one had 9. After Molla Musa’s 24, the next largest were Haji Heydar (23, row 747) and two households of 21, Agha Mohammad the merchant (row 659) and Molla Soleyman (row 943).
- Mostly classed as wealthy. 80 of the 114 households (70%) are marked wealthy. On two other Eidgah pages we checked, only 14% and 26% of households carried that mark. That is a spot check of two pages, not a full comparison.
- Trade. 26 households print a trade: 8 merchants (tajer), 6 traders (sowdagar), 6 brokers (dallal), 2 weavers (sha’rbaf), and one each for a caretaker, a bath attendant, a perfumer, and a word read as Hakimi. The other 88 print none. Of the 26 with a trade, 18 are classed wealthy.
- Titles. 56 heads of households are Molla, 9 Karbala’i, 6 Haji, 5 Agha, and one each Sheikh and Mirza.
- Names. The most common were Ebrahim (14 households), Mohammad (13, including compound names), Esma’il (12), and Aghajan (7).
- Children. Boys, girls, and nursing infants make up 492 of the 1,131 people, about 44%. 47 households had a nursing infant.
- Neighbors. In one stretch of Eidgah, 51 of 57 consecutive rows (613 to 669) are Jadid. Rows run in the order of the register, so a run like this suggests Jadid families lived side by side. That is our inference, not something the register says.
Look for your family
The searchable data page shows all 114 households. Type a name, a title, or a trade in the search box, or sort any column. Every column in Farsi has an English partner, and you can hide either set. Names are given as printed, with an English spelling beside each.
Researchers can download the full table as a spreadsheet or CSV. A permanent, citable copy is archived with a DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23680754. To cite it: Cody Hakimian, “Mashadi Jadid Households of 1878 (1295 AH),” MashadiHistory.com, version 3, 2026.
The register gives only first names and titles, because surnames came much later. That means we cannot say which family a household belongs to. If you recognize a name, a trade, or a neighborhood, write to us at contact@mashadihistory.com. Please include the row number. Families know things no register does.
How we checked it
Every row in this version was read directly from the page image. Each row then passed two arithmetic tests: the parts add up to the printed total, and the elderly and young adults add up to the men and women. The page totals at the foot of the register settled the rows that failed.
Three separate readers then re-read all 114 rows from the pages without seeing our numbers. Every name, mark, and number matched, apart from one cell that a reader misread and a close look at the page settled. A Persian reader also confirmed the cells we had flagged as unclear.
The checks found two errors in the printed edition itself. In row 456, the printed total is 13 but the parts add to 12. In row 1261, the printed total is 3 but the parts add to 2. In both cases the page totals show the single row total is the wrong figure. We kept what is printed and flagged both. We did not consult the original manuscript, so we cannot say whether these are the 1878 clerk’s slips or the 2003 typesetting.
Unanswered questions
- Why do women outnumber men? The households hold 357 women and 282 men. 59 households have more women than men, 40 are equal, and 15 have fewer. Men away on trade, men missed by the count, widows, and households with more than one wife could each play a part. The register does not say.
- What made a household “wealthy”? The register marks 80 of the 114 as wealthy but does not give its standard. We report the mark as the clerks made it.
- Which families are these? There are no surnames in the register. Descendants may be able to place a household where no document can.
Sources
- Zeyn al-Abedin Mirza Qajar, Nofus-e Arz-e Aqdas ya Mardom-e Mashhad-e Qadim, edited by Mehdi Seyyedi (Mashhad: Sazman-e Farhangi-ye Shahrdari-ye Mashhad, 1382 SH / 2003). ISBN 964-5914-19-1. The tables are the editor’s typeset edition of the 1295 AH register.
- Hakimian, Cody. Mashadi Jadid Households of 1878 (1295 AH), version 3. MashadiHistory.com, 2026. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23680754
There are more names in this register than any one of us can place. Look through them and tell us what you find.
Leave a Reply