Artisans in Iran were the mainstay of the urban economy throughout the Islamic period until the 1950s and constituted a significant part of its labour force. Artisans (pishavar, ahl-i kasb, ahl-i ḥirfa) generally worked in small, mostly family-operated workshops, which usually had one master and two or three journeymen and some young, unskilled helpers. There was neither division of labour nor specialisation in process. All parts of a product were made and assembled in the workshop, and, in many cases, the product was sold there. In the