The Study of Material Folklore (Type of Clothing) in Characterization: The Illustrated Case of Khavaran-Nameh

The epic of Khavaran-Nameh, composed by Ibn Hessam Khosfi, is a unique work in the field of literature and painting in the Turkmen era in the 15th century. It is one of the best-known Shi'at books composed in Masnavi style and has been a novelty in Iran’s history of literature and art bearing both epic and religious genres. The first illustrated manuscript of Khavaran-Nameh belongs to the painting school of Shiraz-Turkmen. Along with its literary texts, unique paintings with epic and religious themes were also created and the painter tried to convey the good and evil in different social classes, from the highest attributed to prophets and imams, to the royals, courtiers, ordinary people, and at last, underlings and sinners. The goal of this research, firstly, is studying and identifying the characters existing in the text and illustrations of Khavaran-Nameh, and secondly, it aims to compare their pattern of clothing according to the literary text of the narratives. The research questions are: what is the relationship between the text and the illustration in describing and representing different characters in the paintings and stories of Khavaran-Nameh? What similarities and differences can be observed in diverse clothing of these characters? The results of this study show that the characterizations in the text and the illustrations of Khavaran-Nameh are largely consistent. However, there are certain differences owing to various religious beliefs and artistic tastes. The difference between the text and the illustration is more distinct when the clothing pattern of characters are compared