ماه منیر شیرازی

The story of Amir Arslan Namdar is one of the famous folk stories of Persian literature from the Qajar era and one of the most famous romance stories that marks the transition from the short story to the novel. Amir Arslan was written in the middle of the Qajar era and includes some features of traditional and ancient Persian stories, as well as some features of novels. This feature is also evident in the illustrations of many lithographed manuscripts of the book. This article aims to explore the cultural identity and features of this story using a cultural studies approach. It analyzes the hidden and obvious cultural and identity structures of the story by comparing the text and image, while also exploring the hidden cultural roots in this story. The article introduces and studies these cultural aspects, specifically focusing on the illustrations of the lithographed manuscript from 1317 AH.

Visual art of the Qajar era was inspired by both the new technical developments such as photography and printing as well as the tradition of Persian painting of the previous schools that had developed new visual features. Along with this visual quality, the exposure of the artists to western traditions and the popularity of modernity caused the Iranian society to experience changes in its artistic identity and thus, new types of visual features emerged. These features depict a series of particular changes which distinguish them from the dominant worldview of the Persian painting in terms of appearance. This type of visual art creates different visual forms in comparison to previous instances of Persian painting by using different designs, new techniques and tools. Illustrated manuscripts of the Qajar era are a collection of unique documents that incorporate the art and culture of this period of time and are the readings of an authentic artistic statement of aesthetic aspects and identity layers. This paper mainly aims at classifying aesthetic features prevailing in the illustrations of the lithographed manuscripts as well as recognition and retrieving of the identity layers and presenting the priority of the identities in these illustrations. Considering the features of Iranian-Islamic art as well as the Western artistic characteristics prevalent through the Qajar era painting, it could be hypothesized that due to exposure to modernism, the visual art styles of the Qajar era are different in lots of visual and technical aspects as compared to the Persian painting tradition; however, due to the presence of some aesthetic features of Iranian-Islamic art, they might be considered the continuation of the same visual tradition. Study of the visual qualities and aesthetic aspects of a selection of Qajar-era individual documents and manuscripts which are considered as original artistic statements in this essay leads to the reading of the identity layers of this era which could be found both in art and culture of this period. In all cultures and countries, the definition of the concept of identity is associated with religion, ideology, political and social relations and history. In artworks, the identity has different layers and each layer has different aspects. Such identity might be examined in a different manner for each work of art which, in its own turn, might have several layers: one of them being stronger and more obvious than the others. Nonetheless, all the hidden layers of identity leave their trace on the outward manifestation of the identity layer in the artworks. Due to the specific social and political ambience of the country, popularity of Archaism (approaches to ancient Iran periods) as well as widespread relations with the west (through business, education, politics and etc.), Qajar reign is considered as one of the important eras of Iranian art; therefore, we can find several identity layers in the artworks of this Era. This paper chiefly intends to categorize the main aesthetic features in the illustrations of the lithographed manuscripts of Qajar era and also recognize and retrieve the identity layers therein. Subsequently, the priority of the identity layers of these illustrations shall be studied.  The study makes effort to answer these questions: What are identity layers in the visual art of Qajar Era and which identity layers appeared more frequently than others in Qajar Lithographed Folklore Manuscripts? The research has been conducted using descriptive-analytical method through the desk study of library sources as well as other valid ones such as the manuscripts. The statistical population includes 7 Lithographed Folklore Manuscripts created during the Qajar Era using a selective procedure (11 pictures were selected). The analyzed results indicate that the identity layers of the artworks of this era might be categorized into four: archaic, Persian-Islamic,westernization and Islamic-Shiite. Moreover, in each type of artworks created during the Qajar Era, some layers play a more important or a special role. In this case study (Folklore Manuscripts), the first and the most important layer is westernization to be followed by Persian-Islamic. The other layers (Islamic-Shiite and archaic) are less important and thus, imperceptible.

The Concept of Identity in all cultures and countries depends on religion, ideology, political and social relations and history. The identity in Artwork has different layers and each layer depends on different aspects.so in artworks we can study this identity in different manner and each artwork might have several layers that one of them is stronger and obvious and the others are hidden. But all these identity hidden layers will influence on the artworks obvious identity layer. Art in Qajar Era is one of the effective art periods in Iran according to social and political matters and Archaism and also widespread relations with the west has different aspects so we can find several identity layers in this Era and its artworks. The questions are:- What are identity layers in Qajar Era art?
- Which identity layers appeared more than other layers in Qajar ceramics?
The results show that there are four identity layers: ancient Iran, Persian Islamic, Imitation of the West and Islamic manner in Qajar Era and in each type of artworks,some layers have more importance.
The research method is descriptive-analytical, based on library sources. Statistical population includes 10 examples of ceramics in Qajar Era using selective procedure.

The concept of identity in all cultures and countries depends on religion, ideology, political and social relations and history. The identity in Artwork has different layers and each layer depends on different aspects. So in artworks, it is possible to study the identity in a different manner and each artwork might have several layers that one of them is stronger and obvious and the others are hidden. But, all the identity hidden layers will influence the artworks of obvious identity layer. Art in Qajar Era is one of the effective art periods in Iran according to social and political matters and Archaism and also widespread relations with the west has different aspects so we find several identity layers in this Era and its artworks. The questions:- What are identity layers in the visual art of Qajar Era?
- Which identity layers appeared more than other layers in Qajar Lithographed Folklore Manuscripts with Epic and Literal subjects?
The research method is descriptive-analytical, based on library sources. Statistical population includes 13 Lithographed manuscripts with Epic and Literal subjects in Qajar Era using the selection procedure.
The results show there are four identity layers: ancient Iran, Persian Islamic, Imitation of the West and Islamic manner in Qajar Era and in each type of artworks, some layers have importance.so in this case, study (Epic and Literal Manuscripts) the first layer is Imitation of the West and the second layer is ancient Iran. The 3rd layer is Persian-Islamic and Islamic manner are less important and invisible between the layers.

Simultaneous with the translation movement in the Muslim world during the Abbasid era, many philosophical and even theological literatures were translated into Arabic and used by the commentators and scholars. Plotinus, a third century A.D. philosopher with the Neo- Platonic philosophy, profoundly influenced the ideas of many Muslim philosophers by bringing together the ideas of Plato and Aristotle; so much that the influence of many of his ideas may be traced in the philosophical ideas of Muslim mystics, aesthetics and art in the Islamic culture and in the body of religious understanding of the Muslims. The purpose of this paper is to study Plotinus’ views on art and their reflection on the aesthetics of the Islamic art, with emphasis on illustration and architecture.
This article will answer the following questions:-what are the Plotinus’ ideas about art and aesthetics?
- What are the aesthetic features of Islamic art?
- Which of the ideas of Plotinus can be found in aesthetics of Islamic art?
The findings show that the opinions expressed by Plotinus on art, influenced the principles and tradition of illustration and the Islamic-Persian architecture, and Plotinus’ ideas were introduced into the Islamic-Persian art, after reexamination and revision by Muslim scholars. These principles are extensive and scattered light, flat and pure metal based colors, spiral and circular movements influenced by Plotinus’ idea of the Unity of Being. The research method is descriptive-analytical, and data were collected from library research. Statistical population includes examples of Islamic-Persian architecture and illustration using selective procedure.

Nameh-ye_Khosravan is a work of Jalal al-Din Mirza, Son of Fath Ali Shah Qajar, Which was written during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. In accordance to this era’s way of thinking, the illustrated manuscript of the Nameh-ye Khosravan is characteristically written in Persian script, the Arabic words and vocabularies are removed from it and the kings of the pre-Islamic era of Iran are illustrated with regard to the Shahnameh stories. This manuscript, several decades after its writing, is considered as one of the examples which indicates the archaistic policies in the Qajar era. Therefore this paper studies the manuscript and its illustrations along with the reflection of these illustrations in the visual arts of the Qajar period. This paper aims at answering the following questions: What are the characteristics of the illustrated manuscript of the Nameh-ye Khosravan? In which type of the visual arts of the Qajar period are the mentioned illustrations reflected? The research method is descriptive- analytical, along with the explanation of the data (the illustrations) and their comparison. The data were collected from library sources and field research by means of documentary sources, note taking and selected illustrations. The results indicate that the visual instances in the mentioned manuscript were influential as models for much of the artworks of this period including architectural ornamentations, paintings, carvings, etc.

As a result of expansion of relationships between Gurkanian (Indian Muquls) and Safavid Kings، we can see some impacts of Iran on Indian carpets، illustrations، architecture and related arts. Some of the motifs in carpets were spread to India during Gurkanian Era. This paper tries to find out the direct or indirect influences of depicted carpets’ motifs in Persian paintings on Indian arts. So the questions are: What is the reason for the representation of Persian carpets in Indian miniatures during Muqul era? What are the represented motifs from Persian carpets in Indian miniatures? The applied research method is descriptive- analytical via library data collection. The results show that، Indian kings’ interest in arts، the relationship with Safavid Kingdom، and immigrations of Iranian artists to India in Shah-Tahmasb’s Era، are the reasons for representation of Persian carpets’ motifs in Indian miniatures. The represented carpets’ motifs in Indian miniatures besides the influence Iranian artists'' exercise represent the nativity of vegetative motifs in either abstract or natural forms depicted by Indian artists.