Merchants in the Qajar period are a social group that it is hard to pin down. They emerge together with the Shiite clergy as the victors of the fundamental transformations in nineteenth-century Iranian society, and their close connection and interaction with the ulamå is represented in the regularly adduced alliance between the bazaar and the clergy. But in fact, the anonymity of the bazaar constitutes a black box that hides, rather than elucidates, the identification of single personalities, whereas leading members of the ulamå in comparison turn out to be easily distinguishable individuals carrying concrete names and faces.