Analysis of the Shamseh motif by the Ibn Arabi's Thoughts and Mysticism theories

Throughout history, human beings have used signs and images to express an idea, an object, or a sacred place, which have given them sacred values in individual and group use. So they were associated with religious rituals and worshiped by people and gained symbolic values. Islamic art as a visual language also has its roots in Islamic traditions and thoughts. Its roots are most evident in the visual embodiment of important Islamic religious guidelines and Islamic artifacts. Artists in the Islamic realms present the concepts of Islamic education in an intuitive and symbolic way in works of art, especially in imprinted paintings, many of which appear in abstract forms such as Islimi, Khatya, etc. One of these abstract motifs is Shamseh. As one of the motifs used in Islamic Arts, Shamseh has a special place in different branches such as architecture, handicrafts and calligraphy. Even though Shamseh abstract motif and its geometry came from Pre-Islamic art and culture, it was redefined in combination with theosophical concepts and Islamic mysticism beliefs. In addition to their visual aesthetic values, such motifs in Islamic Arts carry great cultural and religious mysteries and meanings within them. Muslim artists have used these motifs to express their monotheistic and theosophical beliefs. It is the Islamic mystical and theosophical beliefs behind these motifs that make them pure, original and eternal. One of the great Islamic philosophers is Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 AD) who lived in the era that Islamic Art formed an independent identity and achieved significant and noticeable accomplishments. Since the thoughts of Ibn Arabi in the 13th century was welcomed in all aspects of Islamic society, especially in Iran and Iraq, the abstract pattern of Shamseh motif could also be linked to these concepts. Also, since the 13th century is the beginning of acceptance of the arts Islamic artistic activity, the influence of concepts and ideas in art and their recognition is important, because for centuries Islamic art has retained these original principles and concepts as a valuable tradition and them passed on to later periods. Therefore, the present study aims at exploring Ibn Arabi's thoughts and his theoretical mysticism in order to extract from these texts the foundations that influence Islamic arts and make a model for analyzing Shamseh motif and by reviewing his ideas provides a framework as a theoretical model to guide the study of concepts and foundations in Shamseh motif. Since the relationship between concepts in Islamic mysticism and Islamic art and abstract forms of motifs has received little attention by scholars and most of the researches have focused on the historical dimensions and technical evolution of works of art, this article attempts to express the relationship between Ibn Arabi's theoretical mysticism and Shamseh motif. To achieve this, in the course of the paper, the main question of "How can Ibn Arabi's theoretical mysticism be used to extract the foundations to analyze the Shamseh motif?" is answered and by analyzing and interpreting his thoughts, the research hypothesis is explained that " Ibn Arabi's principles of thought and mysticism appear to have influenced Islamic art as the first written structures in theoretical mysticism". In this research by studying Ibn Arabi's theories, key concepts such as Interpretation and explication, hidden treasure, fixed entities, delimited and non-delimited imagination and wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Being or the Unity of Existence) are explained. Based on studies and analyzes, it is concluded that the meaningful explanation of Shamseh motif in Islamic arts is related to Ibn Arabi's theoretical mysticism and the principles of Ibn Arabi's thoughts and mysticism as the first written structure in theoretical mysticism have influenced Islamic art and its resulting motifs. The research method of this article is descriptive qualitative analysis with emphasis on library documents.