To study the objective and figurative representation of the heavenly contexts in Iranian Islamic art

Iranian religious art has avoided any figurative representation following the expression of the exalted order. The religious topics and otherworldly affairs were restricted due to the necessity of the figurative representations and narrative atmosphere. Despite the frequent emphasis of Quran and Hadith in this field, the art of Iran is devoid of any visualization of otherworldly affairs - except rare cases relating to the prophet's visit to heaven and hell in the manuscripts of “Books of Ascension” (Mirajnama) - the culmination of this field is related to the folk art in the Qajar era. The studies show that the Islamic art has avoided the representation of otherworldly themes due to its viewpoint; yet, since the Qajar era, the large scale representation of these themes is observed independently and for the first time. This was made possible when the class of the artist and customer changed; in reality, the folk artist drew the figurative representation of otherworldly affairs according to the worldview of his class. The aim of this research is the figurative representations of otherworldly themes in the art of Iran to study one of the most crucial absent religious themes in the art of Iran. Two questions have been addressed in this article: 1. How did the works in regard to the otherworldly themes advanced in the Islamic art of Iran? 2. What characteristics does the representation of the otherworldly themes have in the Qajar era and what are its differences with the previous period? The research method is descriptive-analytical, based on library sources. In the Qajar folk art three categories of the Coffee House painting, holy shrines painting and Under Glass Painting have been studied, in which we encounter a new world in regard to the representation of otherworldly themes in various scales and extent; this art reflected the ideology exclusive to the common class in Iran for the first time, which is ardent religious beliefs and pious faiths.