Naturalist Realism in the works of Kamal al-Din Behzad (Case Study Herat in the Timurid Era)

Paying attention to the geography of the regions, is one of the desired courses by historians from the 3rd century on. In the meantime, Khorasan and especially Herat were considered due to having unique natural conditions in compared with other cities of Iran, as well as the choice of Dar al-Saltane by Shahrokh and his successors in the Timurid era. Simultaneously with historians, the topic that was began in the Iranian painting tradition since the 5th century AD, and peaked at the Timurid era, was the emphasis on elements of nature (naturalism), but largely beyond realism. In the meantime, only a few painters were able to create works with a realistic look, which Kamal al-Din Behzad was a prominent example. The study aims to answer the question by descriptive-analytical method that climatic conditions such as weather, vegetation and other factors that overall created a unique natural environment for Herat, how was effective on Behzad's works? Although few researches has been done so far in response to this question, the findings suggest that by examining the historical propositions of the expressed descriptions of Herat in the Timurid era, can not only refer to Behzad's portraits as a result of the spiritual discovery and intuition, and mystical concepts, and also cannot say the natural features of Herat in these two sources are merely Exaggerative (narratives) and Symbolistic (paints).