A Comparative Study of Caps in Lithographic Images of Shāhnāmeh 1846 (Bombay) Shāhnāmeh 1849-1851 (Tehran)

The use of the printing industry in Iran and India caused the cultural and artistic exchanges of these two lands to expand more than before, along with the spread of the Persian language and literature. In this way, the images of lithographed books provided a new visual medium for artists to be able to reflect social developments and changes in addition to illustrating the glorious texts of Persian literature. The first lithographed edition of Shāhnāmeh was published in Bombay in 1262 (1846 AD) and only five years later, the images and text of this Shāhnāmeh were a model for the publication of the first Shāhnāmeh in Tehran in 1267 (1850 AD). This work, illustrated by ‘Ali-Qoli Khoiee, an excellent illustrator of the Qajar period, is in many ways similar to India's first edition. However, in many cases, the Iranian artist has tried to reflect the characteristics of his work and the Qajar society in the pictures and to cover the Iranian dress in the Indian pictures. The goal of this research, which is to look at the cap in two lithographed editions of the Shāhnāmeh in India and Iran, is to figure out what changes ‘Ali-Qoli Khoiee made in the details and form of the caps in his images for the Shāhnāmeh compared to the images of the first printed Shāhnāmeh in India, and what design innovations he made. The result of this research shows the recognition and enlightenment of the use of caps and the use of their types to distinguish people in different social classes. While the high variety of caps in ‘Ali-Qoli's Shāhnāmeh assemblies and careful drawing of details distinguish ‘Ali-Qoli's work artistically from that the Bombay artist, these images provide a better introduction to the characters in the images.