The Social Status of the Musician in Safavid Reign Based on Sultan Mohammad's Allegory of Worldly and Otherworldly Drunkenness

Mais M. D. Nazarli (writer of Dva mira vostochnoi miniatiury: problemy pragmaticheskoi interpre tatsii sefevidskoi zhivopisi, 2006) researches based on some manuscripts in Russa have shown that Soltan Mohammd, Aqa Mirak, Sheykh zadeh, Mirza Ali, Mir seyed Ali, and the other Safavid miniature paintings allow the historical and social readings based upon anthropological details of the artists’ societies, alongside the common literary interpretations. Therefore, the visual differences which can be found among the various musicians in the Allegory of Worldly and Otherworldly Drunkness (that was painted by Sultan Mohammad; active first half 16th century; Folio from an illustrated manuscript; Iran; Tabriz; Jointly owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Staurt Cary Welch Jr 1988), would not be merely an artistic entertainment or meaningless. We can find many details about artists’s society among their paintings or maybe their ideas about many events: wars, ceremonies, coming foreing ambassadors and etc. Various vestures (special Amama, Arabic Emama: the turban. Imbued with symbolic significance, the turban was once the almost universal headgear of adult male muslims.) and faces, different instruments (ney, robab, daf, tonbak; old persian instruments) , and the uneven sizes of the bodies, implicitly begs notification of each musical group which these individuals represent. The present research aims to recognize the various groups of musicians in the time of Sultan Mohammad (early Safavid period; about first half 16th century) by comparing the miniatures painted almost at the same time. It also tries to show the social status of these musicians and artists in the time they lived. It seems, the musicians whom this painting presents contain the royal, Sama (is a Sufi ceremony performed as dhikr. Sama means listening, while dhikr means remembrance. These ritual often includes singing, playing instruments, dancing, recitation of poetry and prayers, wearing symbolic attire, and other rituals.) Ring, and the itinerant musicians. In the Allegory of Worldly and Otherworldly Drunkness the artist values the Sufids’ group over the others, while he pictures the itinerants’ in the least valuable place. The research method in the present essay is fundamental, explanatory-analytic which is based upon the analysis of the content. Gathering the historical data (travelogue: Jean Chardin Travels or Pietro Della Valle Travels, simultaneous historical records: Iskandar Beg Munshi or Iskandar Beg Turkoman’s reports. Iskandar Beg was a Persian or Turkoman historian, the court historian of the Safavid emperor Shah Abbsa I.) and the visual documentations (the remained paintings in international collections in around the world especially Iranian masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of art, Naser Khalili’s collection in London, Cartier’s collection at the Denver Art Museum, Topkapi collection in Turky) is based on documentary methods and their analysis is qualitative. This case study merely focuses on the three groups of musicians in the painting (royal musicians who worked for Safavid Court on the right painting, sufi musicians on the middle painting and the itinerant musicians on the left) not other present figures.