An Iconological Reading of “Majnun” in Safavid Illustrations

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Art, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Iconology is one of the approaches that is mainly applied for reading the content of Western visual texts. The approach has been developed with reference to European art history; therefore, has their limits in application on Persian paintings. However, by considering some caveats in selecting images, this approach can be also fruitfully applied to interpret some Persian paintings. In iconological approach, presented objects become units of meaning when they refer to a narrative or a theme or when it is possible to attribute meanings to them based on their visual appearance. In engaging content, the iconological method proposes a three-phase approach, i.e. description, recognition and interpretation: the pre-iconographical meaning is the initial descriptive perception of icons; the description is modified by the visual/literary knowledge of the beholder at the iconographical level of perception and leads to the recognition of specific persons, themes, concepts, etc.; at the iconological level, the “symbolic value” of the recognized icon in the context of production of is investigated.
In this article, I examine “Majnun” in Illustrations of Safavid era from iconological point of view. The concentration of this paper is only on the illustrations which depicted Majnun in the desert. Since these illustrations have a narrative basis, it is a good example for the application of the Iconological method. In reading the image, I explain that the descriptive pre-iconographical interaction with the visual text leads to the perception of a young thin man, and is processed and recognized at the iconographical level. With the help of other written and visual texts, the young thin man is recognized as Majnun, the main male character of the love story of Leily and Majnun by Nezami Ganjavi (1141 to 1209), a famous Persian poet. At the iconological phase of interpretation, I use the icons and values they communicate to explore and explain the presentational regime and the social value that sustain it. I argue that presentation of Majnun without any headgear, bare-chested and in a blue knee-length trousers, which are also frequently presented in other Safavid’s illustrations of this story, are visual reflections of clothing’s social value and position during this era. The Safavid social and cultural system was strict about clothes as a signifier of social distinction and a symbol of one’s location in the social hierarchy. Since Majnun abandons his society and isolates himself, he doesn’t have any specific social status that could be reflected in his clothes. Therefore, in a context that people’s clothing was considered a serious marker of their social status, it seems reasonable that Majnun should be depicted bare-chested, without a headgear and with knee-length trousers. The blue color of his knee-length trousers is also another signifier that points to the fact that he doesn’t have any specific social status to be presented via his clothing. Therefore, as an art work do not exist in a vacuum, the cultural values of the context the illustrations are produced in, consciously or unconsciously, formed the visual characteristic of the icon under study