A Comparative Study of Iranian Carpets in the Travelogues of Foreign Tourists of the Safavid and Qajar Periods with an OrientalistApproach

Travelogue, the narrative of tourists, is one of the various features of the host lands. The description of destination communities is generally done from the point of view of the tourist and based on backgrounds, history records and some mental stereotypes. Attention to Iranian carpets in the travelogues of Western tourists has always been accompanied by a kind of judgment about its uses and quality. So far, no definite study has been made as to what the origins of such judgments are and how such descriptions should be understood. The main issue of the present study is to recognize these views in the face of Iranian carpets during the Safavid and Qajar periods. The purpose of this article, in addition to understanding the views of travelogues in the Safavid and Qajar periods about Iranian carpets, is to explain the logic and attitude of them. The present study was conducted by descriptive-comparative method and Orientalist approach of Edward Saeed and Colaizzi method was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the description of Iranian carpets in Safavid travelogues was associated with “ For The Benefit Of The Receiver”, “ Oriental Inferiority”, “Setting The West Off Against The Orient” and “ Domestications Of The Exotic”. The description of Iranian carpets in the travelogues of the Qajar period, in addition to the mentioned components, is mixed with “Western superiority”, “The East Identified By The West”, and “Theoretical Truth”. According to the results of this study, the low interaction of tourists with the general public is the reason for the lack of “ Western superiority” component in Safavid travelogues. It has led to the formation of the components of “Theoretical Truth” and “ The East Identified By The West”, respectively.