The Continuity of the Artistic Tradition of the Illustrated Book of Omens of first century of the Safavid Period and the Reign of Sultan Ahmad the First: A Comparison between the book of Omens of Shah Tahmasepi and Sultan Ahmad the First

Fortune-telling of the book of omens during the sixteenth/tenth centuries in Iran and also during the Ottoman reign was a common and admired method of foretelling in the Safavid and Ottoman court. At first, artistic manuscripts such as the Shah Tahmasepi book of omens emerged followed by a copy of this illustrated manuscripts that was ordered by the minister of Sultan Ahmad the first “Qalandar Pasha” to be presented it to the Ottoman Sultan. In this current paper which is written in a descriptive and analytic approach strives to compare the form, content and concepts applied in the two omen books of Sultan Ahmad the first of the Ottoman era and the Shah Tahmasepi book of the Safavid era. The results show that the artistic traditions of the book of omens related to the first century of the Safavid era both in terms of appearance and structure and also in regard to conceptual and content matters have influenced the Ottoman book of omens; in other words, Ottoman artists have been highly influenced by Persian artists in creating such unique works of art. This influence is so strong that even Shi’ah concepts applied in Persian omen books have been imitated into Ottoman art. This occurred during the strong religious conflict that that was present between the two Islamic powers of the region; hence this commonality could be due to the some degree of alliance between the two Sultans of Shi’ah and Sunni.