somayyeh asadi

Throughout history, the subject of woman, as one of the important visual elements in all arts, has been influenced by the social and political issues of the society and has been manifested in different ways. Artists have used this component in different ways to recount the lost identity of women and its disappearance behind the patriarchal discourse prevalent in the society. Many painters such as Afifa Aleiby -one of the contemporary Iraqi artists- has used the female component to show the position of women in the society and has depicted this component from different perspectives, and in fact, many of these works evokes feminist theories in the form of paintings. By looking at Afifa's works, you can see that she is influenced by the culture and thought of her place of life and the current pains and sufferings in her homeland. This impressionability is gradually combined with her thoughts and learnings from western artists and new elements enter her works. In this regard, many intellectuals in every period of history have tried to recover the social position of women and have presented their own theories. Lucy Irigaray, one of the French philosophers and psychoanalysts, examines the exclusion of women from the patriarchal language in order to find alternative forms of feminine writing that allow women to introduce themselves to themselves, because women in the patriarchal discourse are always defined as a passive and dependent identity and are excluded from the realm of culture. From her point of view, the sexual identity of women is independent, unique and reliant on the embodied experiences of women, and in her studies, she tries to find a worthy description of the close relationship between gender and language, as well as a positive definition of identity for women in which women are no longer defined based on lack. Even in simple matters such as the use of male pronouns in cases where no specific gender is intended, the language crystallizes the male tendency. The avoidance of women from having an active role is the result of a philosophy that determines the characteristics of femininity and their acceptance of these methods. Therefore, women are deprived of access to language and as a result, they are in danger of suffering from psychosis and being trapped in a private language. She has focused her main goal not on the definition of the feminine essence but on the definition of the radical ethics of gender difference. According to Irigaray, in the western tradition, "woman" is defined as another man, and the position of femininity is determined based on male standards. Dealing with the problem of how identity is formed and its definition in the discourse of science and philosophy is one of the themes of post-structuralist feminism, which tries to overcome the limitations of reductionist theories. Irigaray points to two distinct identity stages in the process of human social-individual life in order to explain how female identity is overshadowed by male identity. The pre-linguistic stage that during this period, the child is in close contact with the mother, and because he has not yet entered the community, he identifies with his mother. The next stage, or the linguistic stage, is when the child gets to know his father and moves away from the maternal sphere or the pre-linguistic stage, and therefore establishes a new identity for himself. On the other hand, in Irigaray's philosophical view, the body and its morphology are the central point, her emphasis is on the fact that the release of one's gender by the autonomous being when she is writing or speaking in a familiar style, causes the disappearance of femininity in the discourse becomes masculine. The current research, which was carried out in a descriptive-analytical way, first defines Irigaray's theories in the field of deconstructing the definitions related to female identity, and then reads the works of the Iraqi artist, Afifa Aleiby, whose female figure is one of the main components in her paintings are presented based on Lucy Irigaray's point of view in order to answer the question, what are the similarities between Lucy Irigaray's theories and Afifa Aleiby's works, and how can her works be analyzed from this point of view? The results of the research indicate that with the definitions given by Lucy Irigaray about women's identification, many cases in Afifa Aleiby's paintings can be compared with these theories. According to Irigaray's belief, throughout history, a woman has never received a position that is appropriate to her dignity from the society and has always been a symbol of representing something other than herself, or has been seen as an object to fulfill the desire of men. This issue and cliché concept can be seen in Afifa's works. In many of her paintings, this artist has depicted women while they are busy doing everyday tasks, which is in accordance with the image that society has made of women in their minds. A large part of Afifa's works is devoted to the responsibility of taking care of the child and fulfilling the needs of the man. Female gender and then being a mother becomes important in the bed of sexual difference and female metaphysics. Mother is the first interlocutor of women and a person of their own gender, but this has been influenced by the patriarchal thought and needs a new language to shape the relationship between mother and child as an independent subject. In western thinking, the father-son relationship is preferred over the mother-daughter relationship, which causes women to be alienated from their sexual identity and the mother-child relationship is forgotten. According to Irigaray, as a result of looking at women as a tool, women are trapped in stereotypical roles such as virgin, prostitute, mother, or a combination thereof. A noteworthy point in Afifa's works is the way of showing pictures of mothers who are breastfeeding or hugging a child, which is drawn in a sacred way, like the figures of Virgin Mary and Jesus. Other elements that Afifa used along with the main figures are generally reminiscent of the content of the Bible and related to the expulsion of women from heaven and the purity and virginity of women, which can evoke Irigaray's last view. Representations of the female body and their portrayal as an attractive creature is a perfect example of objectification, either as a symbol and illustration of classical beauty or as a representation of the sensuality and desires of the male audience. It comes According to Irigaray's belief, when the female body is the focus of storytelling, taking into account its relationship with matter, body and mortality, the inner and disturbing parts of the body deserve attention for artistic expression. Rejecting and removing the female imagination definitely puts the woman in a position to experience herself only in a piecemeal way, in the less structured margins of the prevailing ideology, as wastes or mirror additions that the male subject reflecting and doubling the self-expressed and purely sexual to fulfill male desires, perhaps it can be concluded that the naked bodies in Afifa's works are not sexualized as a concept, but it has been used in its paradoxical sense and to show this common sexual view of women. On the other hand, breaking the norms about the known standards about the external beauty of women has always been done by feminist artists. Society has set demarcated norms for women's appearance, which are based on beauty and neatness, modesty and cleanliness. Women also follow these ideal bodies chosen for them. But in front of all these, there are feminist artists who, by breaking these rules, reverse the traditional aesthetics expected by everyone in the naked body. In addition, this violation of norms is not only limited to the naked body, but also includes other details of women's appearance. Just as Afifa has shown this contrast in her paintings. She has depicted women in the simplest possible way, contrary to the aesthetic definitions of women in everyone's mind, she has depicted them with short hair and without makeup and jewelry. Afifa, unlike many of the works of painting that depict slim and thin women, most of the women depicted by Afifa have full and relatively large bodies, which is also contrary to the common aesthetics of society in relation to women.

Iran, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire, early leaders in art and knowledge within the Islamic world, engaged in significant artistic and cultural exchanges, deeply influencing one another’s art. Despite the many ups and downs visible in the political, artistic, and cultural fields of Iran, Egypt, and Ottoman lands, these lands continuously strive for the progress and prosperity of their science, culture, and art. They have made a lot of effort. The art of glassmaking has remained prominent in these regions after the advent of Islam, with artists creating innovative and creative glass containers that have yet to be thoroughly studied. Therefore, the current research aims to study and compare animal and plant motifs in the remaining glass works from the 13th-15th centuries AD from Iran, Egypt, and Ottoman lands to answer these questions: 1. What were the influences of Iranian, Egyptian, and Ottoman glassmaking in the mentioned centuries? And 2. What are the commonalities and differences between the animal and plant motifs of the glass works? The research method is descriptive-analytical with a comparative approach, where information is collected through library sources and reliable sites, and 103 works are selected as a statistical population, based on the works available in books and museums, and analyzed qualitatively. This research, with the comparative study of the art of glassmaking in the three mentioned lands, will contribute significantly to the history of this art, and in this sense, it is important and necessary. The art of glass-making, which received limited attention in the 13th to 15th centuries AD in the mentioned regions, was notable for its pioneering contributions to the craft. This understanding is essential for uncovering the history of this remarkable art, highlighting the necessity of the present research. The research results indicate that several factors such as migration and the exchange of artistic and cultural works and knowledge, have caused the lands of Iran, the Egyptian Mamluks, and the Ottoman Empire to be influenced and benefited from each other’s culture and art. The presence of some commonalities in the animal and plant decorations on the glassworks also shows the mutual effects of the art of glassmaking in the mentioned lands from each other.

According to historical and archeological documents, glass-making has enjoyed a rich historical and artistic background. The purpose of this research is to know the history of Iranian glass art from the Achaemenid period to the Timurid era as well as to study the techniques of glass-making. Therefore, the present study seeks to answer this main question: What were the techniques of glass-making from the Achaemenid period to the Timurid era and what changes did they undergo? The method of this research is descriptive-analytical, and its data has been collected through library study. The results have indicated that by the time of invention of the blow rod, the methods of glass-making were often inspired by the methods used in pottery and metalwork. However, the invention of glass-blowing in the Parthian period brought about a fundamental change in glass-making in Iran. That situation resulted in separation of this art from common traditions of the past. The techniques of pressing in a mold, glass mosaic, sand and rod mold, casting and lost wax are among the methods of glass-making works before blowing. Due to many capabilities of this technique, including the possibility of creating works with various forms, diverse dimensions, and a large number as well as the possibility of innovation in manufacturing and decorating of glass, glass-blowing has received attention in following periods, despite the fact that glass-making methods had suddenly become popular. They were not changed, but the emergence of new methods over centuries resulted in the growth and prosperity of glass-making in Iran during the Islamic era until the Mongol invasion.

Glassmaking as one of the most prominent arts in Iran, has continued to shine throughout history despite the vicissitudes. Behind several millennia of Iranian art history, valuable glassworks have been left with glass bowls as an integral part of them. The study of glass bowls focusing on its constituent elements, forms and decorations under the title of morphology can lead to understanding the background and historical evolution of Iranian glassmaking. It is to claim that morphological studies of any period can be of a great step in examining the development and historical evolution of form and decoration in the field of works of art. Considering that the basis of criticism in art with any approach is focused on the form of the work of art, a general picture of the shape of the works can be achieved and thus they can be examined and refined from this perspective. The attempt is made in this study to present the evolution of the art of glassmaking over time by examining glass bowls. Samples of pre-Islamic glass bowls have been collected and studied in order to find an answer to the fundamental question of “what changes have been made morphologically in Iranian glass bowls throughout history?”. The method of this research is descriptive-analytic and the data have been collected through library sources. The results show that the method of making glass bowls of the Islamic period of Iran is in fact a continuation of the method of pre-Islamic glassmaking while mixed with the initiative and innovation of glassmakers of the Islamic period. Pre-Islamic glass bowls during the Achaemenid period were made by pressing the mold and in the Sassanid era by blowing into the mold additionally. Glass bowls of this period have similar shapes to hemispherical molds and are often colorless and decorated with cuts. The cutting methods of these bowls are surface, double surface and embossed surface, and the most widely used is the role of honeycomb. The glass bowls of the first century of Islam had a shape similar to the bowls of the previous era, and their decorations is taken from the decorations of the glass bowls of the pre-Islamic era.These decorations are created by surface, double surface and linear cutting on the given works which the latter one was marked in the glass bowls of Islamic period. In the following centuries, glass bowls were often made and decorated by blowing into the molds. Pre-Islamic glass bowl decorations are mostly pure geometric abstract decorations including circular and honeycomb motifs, two specimens of which are decorated with plant motifs. Over the centuries, these ornaments have continued and iconic-abstract ornaments containing animal, plant and human motifs and purely abstract ornaments including written and non-geometric motifs have been used by the glassmakers.

Understanding the style and language of any work will help to realize the content and its matter;especially when it is a mystical and literary text. In these texts, the language somehow goes out of its standard shape and original structure.Ma’aref, the only work of Bahá'ullad, expresses the results of the writer's spiritual and mystical conditions.The author depicts his mysticism and worldview with a special language and a specific statement.That’s why it is the text which is undoubtedly among the category of literary texts and it can be examined on the basis of layer stylistic pattern (phonetic, lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and ideological layers). This article studies the syntax and syntactic features of Ma’aref with a stylistic view and analyzes and explains its syntactic and grammatical features by analyzing the syntax layer of this work. This study reveals how much the linguistic and syntactic structure of Ma’aref has been influenced by the way of oral speech and the language of face-to-face interaction. It is also showed that the mystical content of the text and the preacher's narration has affected the syntactic structure of the word.

Qur''anic stories and verses have always been of interest to poets and writers. Poets informed of Qur''anic narrations and proportionate to their works'' themes and content، take avail of these stories and verses to make them more understandable and to find approval for their statements. Therefore، allusion as a literary device، reflects the poet''s awareness of a variety of religious and historical themes and events. At first glance، since this literary device provides old information and events، hardly can one accept in it innovation and motivation. However، according to the theory of motivation in formalism، ability، talent and power of imagery and expression of the poet can create innovative images from the most archaic themes and motifs so that the reader encounters a new ambiance. This article aims at studying motivation in Qur''anic motifs and famous stories in sonnets of poets in the last two decades. Through examples، it tries to support the hypotheses that although Qur''anic allusions have roots in unfalsifiable stories and verses، they always allow new images if innovative methods of language and expression are used.

Mowlavi’s sonnets have been repeatedly and from different points of views analyzed by several famed literary characters. Considering the structure and features of sonnet، as a poetic form، and its evolution course، it seems that Mowlavi is offering a new version of narrative sonnet – the issue had been paying attention by Attar and Sanaie before him. ‘What measures and techniques had Mowlavi used to enrich his sonnets as the base of storytelling? ’ and، ‘what kind of literary genres and features are there in his sonnets? ’ are the main questions to be answered in present essay.