Representation of the story of Leyli and Majnoon Nizami in Iranian pictorial carpets from the Qajar dynasty until now

One of the currents in the art of carpet weaving in Iran is pictorial carpets, which have established a close connection with Persian literature since the Qajar dynasty. One of the most important stories of Persian literature that has had a significant impact on the formation of images of these carpets is the story of Leyli and Majnoon Nizami Ganjavi. Iranian artists to create images of Leyli and Majnoon story in these carpets have combined the inspiration of this story with their creativity. Therefore, carpets have been created that are the same but have different reflections. the aim of this paper is to compare the changes and developments of these carpets with each other as well as with the Nizami`s narrative to study their variations in five components 1. staging; 2. the symbolic motifs; 3. calligraphy and writing; 4. the way of representation of faces; 5. the way of representation of clothes; in the time interval of Qajar until examples of contemporary period. The questions of this research are: 1. Which scenes from the story of Leyli and Majnoon are represented in the pictorial carpets during these periods? 2. In which period, did each of these scenes repeat the most? 3. What are the differences and similarities of the images in face painting, clothes, symbols and lines and writings? The research method in this paper is descriptive-analytical and historical with a longitudinal comparative approach. information gathering has been done through libraries and internet. from the Qajar period, pictorial carpets are a widespread movement and are widely produced, Therefore, due to the small number of these rugs before the Qajar period, the study of this research has been placed from the beginning of the Qajar period until today To analysis the changes. The selection of Qajar and Pahlavi period carpets is based on available samples. However, in the selection of contemporary carpets, due to their abundance, a number have been randomly selected. And a total of 23 carpets were selected. Findings show, Among the scenes of Leili and Majnoon's story, four scenes are woven in carpets: 1. meet Leyli and Majnoon, 2. Leyli camel, 3. Complain majnoon with the thought of Leyli, 4. Meet different people with the majnoon. The scene of "meet Leyli and Majnoon" has the largest number of carpets and has been woven in all three periods. Matching the images of these scenes showed significant differences in the above five components over time. the difference in the representation of a single storyline in the pictorial carpets is influenced by the social, cultural and religious conditions of the weaver, the customer, the designer or in a broader view is a society in which these pictorial carpets have been created.