An introduction to the types and purposes of Raqam on the handicrafts in Islamic era

Raqam or signature on handicrafts, motivated by various purposes, was a common practice among artists in Islamic world. The purposes, determining a kind of link between the artist, society and statesmen, would likely tend to follow a dominant cultural system too. The question then would be the possibility of categorization in this matter by which some future researches will hopefully be based on. By doing so, this research, scrutinizing in library sources and studying on the various art crafts in museums, provides a collection of purposes for this custom in Islamic era. The findings represent some motives such as: the artist’s desire to survive his fame, to express the great antiquity of the work, to attract the clients, to illustrate the honor of art, for the virtues of humility and piety of the artist, to show the presence of artist in the royal court, to show the authenticity and finally to attract a society by which the art crafts were used to belittled.