NEGAREH
Year:2018 | Volume:13 | Issue:48 |Papers Count:10

The Islamic calligraphy, a partfrom writing religious contexts, has had a basic impact and application on a variety of Islamic and Iranian arts. In the early centuries AH, due to the vast application of writing, along with a variety of Kuficscripts, generally the sextet scripts (Thuluth, Toqee, Regha, Rayhan, Mohaghag, Naskh) have been used to write different parts of the holy Qur, an. To the extent that there are plenty of manuscripts which have been written and prepared, and among those, the «NaskhRayhani» script was also developed due to the aesthetic and versatility of calligraphy artists to beautify the holy Qur, an, but regretfully previous sources have not paid close attention to this style of calligraphy. There are plenty of artworks in «NaskhRayhani» style in different sources, but this style of calligraphy has been wrongly called Naskh, Mohaghag, Rayhan or Thuluth in most of the sources. Due to the importance of traditional manuscripts and traditional calligraphy, which is being ignored, the study of such works is essential. In this paper, researcher has tried to analyze «NaskhRayhani» calligraphy style along with an analysis of the Qur, an kept in Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, s collection. This paper has been written usingAnalytical-descriptive method and library sources along with refrence to the visual works. It aims to answer the following question: If there was ever a «NaskhRayhani» script and it has been used, why has it never been known? » Indeed, it should be said that like Toqee, Regha, Taligh, Nastaligh and other scriptswhich are each made up of a combination of two or more scripts, in the Sheikh Safi Qur, an, Rayhan script is the basiswhich combination with Naskh script with a special delicacy has led to the development of»NaskhRayhani» style. The results suggest that the creation of the «NaskhRayhani» script is caused by the factor which we can name the “ Reverence to the divine revelation; an effort to write Qur, an beautifully and to make a diversity in calligraphy of the holy Qur, an” as chief of them. “ NaskhRayhani” remained unknown partly due tolack of accuracy and time-consumingness of this script compared to the «Naskh» script as well as being similar to the common styles of that era. Also, because existing sources are generally overwritten from previous ones or have not been adequately accomplished, there is no mention of «NaskhRayhani» script in the calligraphy sources and references. «NaskhRayhani»script was created to make diversity in writing and to draw attention and importance to the beautifulness of the Qur, an’ s writing as well as to write fast and conveniently which is evident in the manuscripts and the holy Quran kept in museums and libraries. Several examples of this script or calligraphy style have been observed. Perhaps, the personal style of the calligrapher and the scribe has led to the emergence of “ NaskhRayhani” style. Or maybe the needs for compressed words and the attempts to simulate the Rayhanscriptin the Naskh led to a new calligraphy style called «NaskhRayhani». The results of the analysis ofthe Qur, an of Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, s collection suggest that the aforementioned Qur, an, like most of the written Qur, ans from the Seljuk to the Safavid eras, was written in the «NaskhRayhani» calligraphy style. In the Qur, an of Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, scollection the foundation of the writing was based on Rayhanscript, but it has blended with forms of the Naskhscript beautifully and logically.

In the Iranian traditional painting, the visual foundations and structural principles were impressed by mysticism and its perception of eastern existential philosophy, but the Qajar artist, in confronting the rapid flow of the manifestations of European culture and civilization, was inevitably drawn to the visual and substantial elements of those works. He too, like other thinkers and intellectuals of the then Iranian society, neither wanted nor was able to completely relinquish the previous traditional values. With changes in the worldly views and lack of juxtaposition of previous traditional philosophy and new thoughts, the intellectual foundations were practically disrupted. The political, social and cultural system of Iran became extremely exposed to incoherence and confusion. There were no clear paradigms in any areas and the extensive contradictions were apparent everywhere. In such conditions, the Iranian thinkers and philosophers introduced various approaches to exit the emerged crises. These approaches can be generally divided into three main categories: 1-Westernized approach, 2-Adaptive approach, 3-Critical or traditional approach. The westernized approach that saw its utopia in the European culture and civilization, diligently attempted to absorb all aspects of that culture. The adaptive approach somewhat believed in the symbiosis and reconciliation of the Iranian traditions and European culture and sought proofs of civilization in tradition and religion. The critical or traditional approach though, included the diehard opponents of modernism and some supporters who believed that westerners had acquired their knowledge and civilization from the knowledge of our bygones and our fault for the existing decadence was due to our negligence of our past. Each of these three approaches is recognized with specific representations in the realm of thought. Based on the hypothesis of the research, it seems that the Iranian painting, while departing from the previous comprehensive paradigm, also gave up its aesthetical essence and appeared in similar approaches. The current research is conducted with the objective to review and compare the various artistic approaches of this period with the new intellectual trends and recognize the similarities and differences between these approaches in both areas of art and thought. The main questions are, firstly, what differences and similarities exist between the two groups of thinkers and artists in terms of approaches and secondly, which approaches lasted and continued among the two groups of artists and thinkers and which ones remained curtailed? The method of research in the current essay is descriptive-analytic and data were collected from the library and the analysis of the information was done by method of induction. According to research findings, it becomes clear that the Qajar artist who on one hand was influenced by the fall of traditional philosophical values and on the other hand gave himself away to the new European force, manifested his experiences by various artistic methods. In response to the first question, the Qajar artists like the thinkers of that period also took three approaches against the onset of modernism, generally similar to those of the thinkers. Traditionalists who incorporated a blend of popular tendencies, tradition and religion in their works were represented by new miniature painting and later teahouse paintings. The second group had adaptive inclinations and tried while acquiring new European findings, to also preserve their ideals and national identity and for several generations they attempted to adapt to western elements and old national ideals of which the best examples are seen in royal portraiture paintings. The westernized group, however that ultimately surpassed the other two currents, completely left its historical artistic paradigms and embarked on imitating the classic western methods. This approach in later decades with the appearance of Kamal al-Molk and the establishment of his style as the official artistic trend, for decades profoundly influenced the Iranian art of painting. During the dominance of the westernized artistic approach, the two other currents were pushed aside. In response to the second question of the research on the success and continuity of the approaches, it can be briefly said that while in the intellectual realm the adaptive and critical approaches became enduring and dominant trends and pushed aside the sheer westernized approach, the westernized approach found a quantitative and qualitative dominance in the art discipline.

Tabriz city, located in the North-west of Iran, is one of the most ancient cities of Iran before and after Islam. Up to the middle of King Tahmasb’ s reign, the second King of the Safavid dynasty (962AH/1555AD), this city was the capital and after that, up to the end of the rule of the Qajar dynasty (1194AH/1780AD), it has always been the second most important and unique city of Iran considering the religious, political and economic standpoints and consequently the architecture and urbanism. Unfortunately, consecutive earthquakes and wars with the neighboring country, Ottoman, have destroyed the spatial structure of this historical city. Now, after three decades, the spatial structure of Tabriz during the Safavidera remains ambiguous. The mentioned events indicate serious damages to physical structure of Tabriz during Tahmasbreign, in a way that the contemporary architects and urban planners do not have any precise picture from Tabriz in this period. Nowadays, this issue has created many problems with regard to renewal and reconstruction of important parts of this city due to lack of existence of valid and precise historic documents. This issue becomes more important when we realize that physical structure of Tabriz had inspired builders of the later capitals of the Safavids, Qazvin and Isfahan. As an example, design of Tabriz’ s Hasht-Behesht Palace, was formed in relation to compulsory move of artists and architectures of north-west of Iran to the Central Asia according to Timur’ s order that led to experiencing nomadic life there by the above-mentioned people; in a way that Turkmen capital moved to Tabriz, Hasht-Behesht was built and then during the Safavid era, cases of Qazvin and Isfahan were influenced. It seems that geographic location of Azerbaijan and ongoing political tensions between Ottoman government and the Safavids led to spreading architectural form of Hasht-Behesht and its reflection on Chinali Palace; also, Indianrepresentatives, who were in Iran because of the good relationship of India and the Safavidgovernment, tookthe form of Hasht-Behesht to India subcontinent. The documents related to this era are limited to itineraries and some drawings that are recorded by tourists. The miniature drawn by Nasuhin 944Ah/1537AD known as Matrakç ı is the oldest and the most important recorded document from the Safavid Tabriz because of political-military reasons that is drawn during the attack of Sultan Sü leyman the Ottoman to Iran and the reign of King TahmasbI, but none of the architecture and urbanism researchers has attempted to reread this important historical document. Miniature of Matrakç i, the most original document of this research, was prepared by Nasuh as a pictorial manuscript for Sü leyman the Magnificent in 944AH/1537-38AD; the topic was “ Beyan-iMenazil” which aimed at narrating military expedition route of Ottoman government to Iraqs. The book of “ Beyan-iMenazil” has 109 framed pages that include 130 images; each page is 230 x 315 mm. The texts of the pages are written in frames of 130 x 220 mm that are in center of the page and there are uneven margins on the page. Most of the pages do not have margins and it seems that some of the paintings are cut after being executed. The manuscript has text as well as illustrated pages that describe and portray Sultan Sü leyman I, s two-year military campaign of 940-42AH (1533-36CE), launched from Istanbul and extending into the two Iraqs as far as Baghdad. The visual compilation of the Beyani-iMenazil provides multilayered information on Ottoman campaign and visited places which is one of the unique features of this book. Selection of the points of view in paintings of the cities in miniatures, using natural connective elements including rivers and mountains was based on rational connection of the miniatures to each other. As a result real imagination of the route taken by the army and finally, creative innovation of perspective refer to total visualization of images in the form of a category that as a consequent, sets the large panorama of the narrative’ s action that introduces cities, stopping points of the army, plants and animals as well as movement of the army, and tries to represent all details with a symbolic language. Therefore, this article tries to respond to these fundamental questions that: has a specific symbolic language been used in visualization of the architectural and urban elements of miniatures in this book? How can we identify and interpret Tabriz urban and architectural elements in the Safavid period after discovery of Beyan-iMenazil miniatures’ characteristics? According to specific complexity of the subject in order to fulfill the research goals and respond to the questions, in addition to the general features of the Beyan-iManazil manuscript, the characteristics including 1-inspiration from different artistic schools 2-complementary characteristics of illustration and text 3-point of view 4-drawing and compliance with reality 5-Perspective 6-vegetation 7-color, ornamentation and symbolic language form features have been investigated concurrently with details related to Tabriz city.

Human societies have always had different political, economic and cultural relations since the beginning. In the meantime, societies without any geographical boundaries were able to establish different social relations. Iran and Poland are among the countries that have had various cultural and artistic relations throughout history. Poland, which is among Eastern Bloc countries, was directly influenced by the thinking of the Soviet Union in intellectual, cultural and political areas during the Second World War. On the other hand, Polish posters belong to one of the brightest poster schools; a school that is more than 100 years old. Although the worldwide popularity of posters in Poland was achieved through cultural posters, it can be said that most of the designers of this school have had many experiences in the field of designing political and social posters. The first Polish poster designers were influenced by the Art Nouveau movement and designed with an illustrative approach. In general, Polish posters were a source of inspiration for Iranian designers at the mentioned period for two main reasons: First, the neighboring of the two countries with the Soviet Union and the influence that the socialist dominant ruling had put over the two countries. The second reason is the influence of Professor MortezaMomayez, as the leading designer of contemporary Iranian graphics, from the Polish school posters. Also, in the aftermath of the activity and influence of graphic artists, the political art of Iran after the Islamic revolution was an expression of the existence of anti-imperialist thinking with Socialist-Realist elements at that period. Throughout history, wars have always had a huge impact on social, political and cultural developments worldwide. Iran was also one of the victims of greedy governments. In this context, graphic design has played a major role in the visual environment of the public life due to its close relationship with socio-political issues of the society. This role is especially impressive in certain periods; as during the Islamic Revolution, and then during the imposed war, more attention was paid to art, especially graphic design, as an instrument used to propagate and to invite people to the fronts and to defend the country. The main area of this article is the cultural and artistic relations of these two countries and in particular the political posters. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effects of Polish posters on Iranian political posters. According to this goal, the main questions of the research include: 1. what are the similarities between the political posters of Iran and Poland? 2-Has Iranian graphic designers been influenced by the Polish posters in the design of political posters? In order to answer the questions in this article, considering that Polish graphics became to fruition many years before Iran and became a school, the impact and influence of graphic design between Poland and Iran is firstly studied. Afterwards the discussions about the political posters of these two countries and the influence of Iranian designers from Polish designers have been specifically examined. This research is a descriptive-comparative study and the information was collected by library method. The results of the research show that the political posters of Iran and Poland, have similar features in terms of thematic features including labor, women, destruction and rebuilding of cities and freedom, as well as visual features such as elements including flower, color, writing, status of men and the flag, as well as the manner of implementation including the image-based approach, desire for realism in characters and openness in implementation. But gradually, with the passing of the early Islamic Revolution years, and with the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, Iranian designers tried to address the Iranian-Islamic culture and traditions as much as possible. In this way, the use of space and elements of Iranian painting, motifs derived from Iranian-Islamic architecture, religious symbols, as well as ancient symbols such as flowers, and also elements that gradually become symbolic such as headband, plaque, blood trail, became prototypes of the work of Iranian artists. Therefore, it can be said that Iranian designers, especially during the years leading up to the Islamic Revolution and the early years after the victory of the revolution, were influenced by the characteristics and elements of Polish political posters. But gradually, given the ideals and goals of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, they tried to reduce the severity of these effects. As a result of the use of Iranian-Islamic elements, the elements of foreign culture have become altered in their works.

Bahram V or BahramGur is a well-known just Sassanid king. Bahram same as Vereoray nais the great warrior god of Zoroastrianism, but his figure also contains a wealth of archaic, pre-Zoroastrian elements which clearly point to an Indo-Iranian era. Bahram has all the characteristics of an ancient warrior God, the personification of a force that shatters and overcomes any resistance or defense, an irresistible offensive force which displays its strength in attack. Bahram was revealed with symbolic features in Iranian art and literature. In Seljuk era, different stories of BahramGur are painted on potteries. The images of Seljuk potteries which are depictedon the surface of the platesare appropriated according to the Islamic atmosphere. Bahram Gur, s hunting and Azadeh is one of the Iranian storieswhich is painted on some Seljuk potteries. Investigations on Seljuk illustrations show that some of the pictures depict Azadeh while playing harp and accompanying BahramGur in hunting. But the rare examples of Seljuk potteries displaytwo scenes about Azadeh`sharp playing and her death underneath camel, s feet with different clothes. This article attempts to answer this question: What are the hidden semantic meanings of Azadeh’ sharp playing and her death underneath camel, s feet with different cloths, illustrated on Seljuk potteries? The purpose of this research is to study the visual and conceptual patterns of human figures which were illustrated on the Seljuk potteries. In this research, the informationis collected through documentary and library sources. The historical-analytical method is based on the iconography and iconology with Panofsky’ s approach. Therefore, seven samples which belong to two historical periods (the Sassanid and the Seljuk)including three silver and golden Sassanid plates, a plaster Sassanid frame, a Sassanid seal and three Seljuk clay plates have been selected. The results show that Azadeh, ssymbolic death in BahramGour, s hunting refers to the common literature in the Seljuk period, which is derived from an ancient Persian narration. Also based of Iranian mythical perspectiveAzadeh, s symbolic death, illustrated with different cloths, centered on the romantic relationship between VereOraghna(Iranian God-Sun) and Venus (Morning Star) who promises the Sun’ s rebirth or new day.

Religious mural in the sense of Shiite art, with the centerpiece of the Imams of religion, especially Imam Hussein (AS) and his companions with a few hundred years of history, is one of the most important types of Iranian wall art, which culminated in the Qajar period and in conjunction with Ta, ziyeh. Ta, ziyeh, which is itself a Shiite art, dates back to the same time as the religious wall painting and was formed to protect the martyrs of the Ashura event of the year 61 AH and reached its peak in the Qajar period. Religious murals and Ta, ziyeh were both among theordinary and popular arts of the Qajar period. The connection between these two artistic forms, one of which is pictorial and visual, and the other is dramatic, has led to the creation of commonalities among them. Although there is no example of the Qajar Ta, ziyah, there are many examples of religious murals of this era that have been implemented with various techniques, and the common features of the Qajar religious monuments are subject to the Ta, ziyah, s formal and aesthetic structure. ZeydImamzadeh, s murals in Isfahan and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molkin Kermanshah, which were created in the first half of the 14th century, are among the most prominent examples of Qajar religious mural. In this paper, these religious wall paintings were initially examined and evaluated in interaction with Ta, ziyah and its common characteristics, and then both sets of paintings were compared in terms of the technical, formal and aesthetic structure. The purpose of this research is to compare the aesthetics of religious paintings ofTekyeh of Moaven al-Molk and Imamzadeh of Zeydin interaction with Ta, ziyah, s religious exhibitions. This research seeks to answer these questions, how may the relationship between the Qajar religious wall paintings and the Ta, ziyeh shows be explained? How have different engineering techniques influenced the structure and aesthetics of wall paintings of ZeydImamzadeh and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molk? This research uses a developmental, descriptive-analytical and comparative method. Data analysis is also qualitative. To explain the results of this research, it can be said that the interaction of religious wall painting with the display of shared features ofTa’ ziehis manifested in the characteristics of thematic, literary, temporal and spatial unity, and the symbolization of the color of the religious murals of this era; so that martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) was the basis of all Ta, ziyehs and the main topic of Religious Murals. Murals were depicted in the same places that there were displays of Ta, ziyehs. Lackof temporal and spatial unity means breaking the real time and place of various narratives and going beyond to help imagination and mixing of them with a new design. In both types of narrative expressions, the form of dramatic and the form of pictorial, symbolic expression, that is also visible most of all in colors and badges have been common in both categories of Ta, ziyeh and mural. Wall paintings ofZeydImamzadeh and Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molkalso have the common grounds of interacting with Ta, ziyehbearing the described characteristics, but despite these similar characteristics, the formal structure of their paintings is different. Since the paintings of the two sets have been implemented with two different techniques of gypsum and tiling, and each technique has certain features and constraints, it seems that the structural and aesthetic differences between these paintings are due to differences in application of executive techniques and expression tools. Tiling due to Technical and executive features, does not provide the painter with possibility of continuous painting and requires framing, therefore paintings of Tekyeh of Moaven al-Molkhave framing, background and a specific range. But gypsum does not posethis limit and the artist has been able to illustrate continuous paintings without framing. Therefore paintings of ZeydImamzadeh are linked, Interwoven and without framing. These conditions were also seen in other murals that have been executed in both techniques of gypsum and tiling. So techniques and executive tools have transformed formal structure and aesthetics of works and had a major role in the outbreak of artist’ s creativity.

The Qajar era is one of the glorious periods of Iranian architecture, in which the doors are one of the topics used mainly for the decoration of the building. The interior facade1 is one of the architectural elements that can express the constructive beliefs of the building. The Qajar era is a period of innovation and new developments in Iranian art and architecture. Among these developments, there is an increasing relationship with the West, followed by direct effects on art and architecture, in particular, the decoration of buildings. Considering the combination of Iranian and European culture, the developments that were made during that period were used as symbolic motifs for the decoration of the buildings of Shiraz. In the meantime, the tile designs used in the Qajar period have themes that are rich in visual values and have been prevalent in functional terms. The hypothesis of this research is to study the designs of the Qajar-period houses in Shiraz and their symbolic aspects. The content of the present research is qualitative and based on the historical-analytical methodology and the method of datacollectionis library studies. The purpose of this research is to study the tiling of Qajar-era prominent buildings in Shiraz and their features and characteristics. This study and analysis is based on historical approach. The main question of this research is an analytical study of the features of motifs and analysis of facade of the Shiraz houses. The results of the research show that these motifs follow the visual systems in the form and depending on the subject and position of the design, they are used to decorate the walls of the buildings and have played a different role in composition, arrangement and theme. Thematic analysis of these tiles shows that the tile designs of the faces have a symbolic aspect which has been dealt with in a thematic section. The motifs used in selected chambers include themes of historical, mythical, political, and religious monuments, in which arrays such as the snake, the lion and the sun, the winged angel, and so on are depicted. And finally, a beautifulcollection of paintings, in form ofseven-colored tile, decorates the crescent shapes in facades of these buildings. In fact, the tile art of the Qajar period has generally been the continuation of the same style and method of Safavid period, but craftsmanship of the artists of this period led to the overall evolution of the type of design in all different aspects of architectural works. Particularly for the «exterior and interior» parts of homes, and in general, a lot of new and abundant tile art has been made. Tiling is one of the artifacts used in various historical periods, with bricks, plastering and painting for interior decoration. In fact, this art was used in every era to express and display the common beliefs and customs of that era. The interior is one of the most important parts of every building, and tile works can, in addition to functional and decorative functions, also inspire cultural, social and political messages. Since distant past, at least in Iran, the interior is considered as a place to express the beliefs and beliefs of the owner and owner of the building. The tiling discourse can be a discourse consisting of a series of rules and words. In this text, the words are consideredthe same as colors, shapes, characters, and their states, and how they combine the rules of constructive discourse for the audience. Due to the close proximity to the Qajar period and the existence of the monuments constructed at this time in our place, as well as the adherence to the traditions during the Qajar period (including the facade tradition), in this research, six of the Qajar period buildings in Shiraz are selected as case study and are investigated in terms of the message that they are conveying. The significance of the Qajar period can be attributed to the beginning of the confrontation between tradition and modernity in Iran. In fact, the remnants of the Qajar period indicate that the decoration of the entrances of buildings during the Qajar period is important, and the combination of traditional culture and the richness of the arrays has been to decorate the entrances of the buildings during this period. The research shows how much of the tile painting has been used. To this end, the theme or the narrative of each part has been read at the edges of the selected buildings, and then a cursory look has been bestowed upon the composition and order of the layout, following which the common fundamental elements in the images of the six buildings are examined. The purpose of this research is to study the tiling of Shiraz, s main buildings during the Qajar period, and to analyze the characteristics of the designs used on the walls.

Objects which are based on a kind of functionality as instruments in everyday life can sometimes go beyond their ordinary position acquiring a cultural role. Mirrors are among such objects which have gained cultural and religious function through influences from the Persian – Islamic culture, especially Shiism. The present research aims at the recognition of the impression of ideology and religion on material culture in the Qajar epoch and the way motifs and designs are used on which by studying mirror cases as common material objects in folk culture. Therefore, the purpose in here is to demonstrate narratives and codes which are indirectly painted on these mirror cases. Assuming that mirror cases have gone beyond their ordinary function gaining a position as a means of conveying cultural aspects, ideology and even religion, the article tries to respond to the basic following question: how Qajar mirror cases have transformed into material objects for the transmission of culture and ideology? Here, the subject is divided into two parts: the role of mirror in Persian-Islamic culture and the formal/ cultural connotation of Qajar mirror cases, i. e. codes and narratives, according to the examination of 30 samples. The methodology of the research is analytical – descriptive based on library and field studies. The samples were selected among electronic online collections of the Hermitage Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Khalili Collection, Sotheby, s, and the works in the Astaneh Museum of Qom and Shah-Abdol-Azim Museum, Ray. Regarding the large number and variety of mirror cases, the research has just concentrated on the mentioned samples, those which are related to the subject, i. e. samples with literary, mystical and religious themes and motifs. For this purpose, the analysis of works has been based on the cultural approach of Jeffrey Alexander and Philip Smith, i. e. reading social meanings through narratives, symbols and codes. The most important feature of Alexander and Smith, s work is the amalgamation of theories that provides a comprehensive methodological framework. The advantage of this method, in comparison to other common ones in the study of material culture, is that it offers an appropriate methodology for the research. The results show that Qajar mirror cases have obtained additional functions, sometimes in producing narratives and presenting ideologies, and sometimes as a means of instruction, emphasizing the religious themes of the time, while in some other cases as amulets to preserve the possessors from misfortune and affliction. While the mirror cases with narrative themes establish a closer connection with Iranian culture and literature, those based on the codes and signs convey a stronger sense of belief. Such codes have a direct connection with people, s beliefs regarding the spiritual effects of the verses and litanies.