A Study on the Paintings of Imam Ali’s Battles in the Illustrated Manuscript of “Rawzat Al-Safa” in Washington’s Freer Gallery

One of the most imperative and symbolic features of Iranian religious and Shi’ah art is the holy presence of Imam Ali (pbuh) which has manifested in the art of various schools and eras of Iranian art. Paintings of old manuscripts behold such manifestations, however, due to the vast scope of these artworks, most have not yet been studied and analyzed. In a number of these manuscripts the holy name of Imam Ali (pbuh) is either applied directly or the names of his companions and followers are mentioned. Moreover, in another range of manuscripts, symbolic features related to Imam Ali (pbuh) are seen. In the illustrated manuscript of “Rawzat Al-Safa” by “Mirkhand” preserved at Washington’s Freer Gallery portrays Imam Ali and Malek Ashtar in the battlefield in five of its paintings. Due to the mentioning of the Safavid era in the details of the manuscript, this paper focuses on the visual aspects of the paintings and analyzes the manuscripts featuring Imam Ali (pbuh). Finally by a thorough comparative analysis of the text in the border and inscriptions of the paintings with those of Rowzat al Safa, it showed that the written matter was exactly extracted from the book and placed within the paintings to narrate the story and its events. The paper follows a historical, descriptive and analytic overview and data is collected via library and document research.