Iconographical Criticism of the Ship Seated Bowl from the Samanid Nishabur pottery

A vast group of artworks remained from Samanid period is the Collection of bowls and plates of which decorated by illustrations and Arabic and Persian inscriptions. This works, remained from 3 and 4th Century of Hegira, are very attractive to scholar from the point of decoration and illustration apart from various techniques of production. This collection classifies to two groups from the point of decorations: inscribed potteries and illustrated potteries. Illustrated works which seem to be earlier contained motives of birds, animals and human with unclear meaning. Although some of scholars tried to discover their meanings, it seems to it is very complicated since they might relate to the ancient believes and regions such as Manichæism, Zoroastrianism, or even Zurvanism; a hypothesis which needs to be evaluated. In this paper we concentrated on the illustration of a Samanid Bowl of Nishabur contained a ship which several men are on Board. The meaning of the image is very vague and complicated. evaluated on the basis of Iconography, the image needs to be studied in a historical context. Iconography is a branch of art history which is based on interpretation of the content of the images in three steps: pre-iconographical description, iconographical analysis, and iconological interpretation. Iconography tries to achieve the fundamental meaning of the work or the symbolic spirit which was common in the culture through placing emphasis on the visual features of the image and its history. A widespread historical and cultural interpretation of the image (such as Noah Ship, crossing of Kaykhusro and Farangis from Jayhun, and ancient ceremonial services and beliefs demonstrated the manichaism roots in shaping the meaning of the image. It seems the ligh column (Sotun-i roshani or Srōšahrāy xwadāy) is the basis of the story of the image. refering to the stage after death in Manichaism, the term is related to the rout of the dead people should pass from earth to the moon and sun. A widespread historical and cultural interpretation of the image (such as Noah Ship, crossing of Kaykhusro and Farangis from Jayhun, and ancient ceremonial services and beliefs demonstrated the manichaism roots in shaping the meaning of the image. It seems the ligh column (Sotun-i roshani or Srōšahrāy xwadāy) is the basis of the story of the image. refering to the stage after death in Manichaism, the term is related to the rout of the dead people should pass from earth to the moon and sun. It seems the ligh column (Sotun-i roshani or Srōšahrāy xwadāy) is the basis of the story of the image. refering to the stage after death in Manichaism, the term is related to the rout of the dead people should pass from earth to the moon and sun.