Lion Motif of Iranian Carpet in Comparison with Literary and Mystical Works

The Safavid Era is considered as the golden age of Iranian carpet history، which in addition to beauty of pattern، motif and color، has yielded worthwhile concepts on its carpets. The lion motif is one of those motifs on carpets of Safavid Era which have been depicted as both a prey and a hunter. Repetition of، and emphasis on this motif، which contains diverse concepts and senses in Iranian and Islamic cultures as well as gnostic viewpoints، raise this question that what concepts are manifested by the motif of lion. Mowlana regards the lion as the symbol of God، God''s names and traits، the symbol of fate، people of virtue and saints as well as symbol of Mohammad Prophet، Hazrat Ali، wisdom، thinking and even sensuality. However، in his view، the concept of the lion is further interpreted to be human and perfect human rather than other symbols. A meaningful relationship، in the visual and conceptual studies، can be seen among lion motif in the view of Mowlana and on Safavid carpets. In more than 10 samples of the carpets، where the lion motifs studied in different situation and diverse positions، it was observed and implied that the lion، after unwieldy and difficult struggle، reaches to the center of the universe، i. e. the medallion of the carpet، and finally attain human-like lion degree. This concept also is reflected in the ideas of Mowlana. This study has been performed using library method، as well as the case study of carpets of Safavid using content analysis method and by comparison of samples.