Iconological study of inscriptions of Safavid monuments in Sarayan

Sarayan is one of the cities of South Khorasan which due to being located on the communication route of the Great Khorasan Road and due to its development in various historical periods, it has included many religious and non-religious architectural works.In the present research, the inscriptions of the Safavid monuments were studied from an iconological perspective. For this purpose, firstly, introducing and categorizing the Safavid inscriptions in Sarayan city, and then analyzing the contents of each of these inscriptions will be done. The main purpose of this research is to analyze and explore the unknown aspects of beliefs and worldviews that have shaped these inscriptions. Therefore, the main question of this research is as follows: What are the reasons for the creation of the inscriptions and social and intellectual contexts of the creators in their formation as artifacts left over from the Safavid era? In order to answer this question, six stone inscriptions identified from the Safavid period constitute the statistical population of the present study. Data were collected by field and library method. The process of analysis and interpretation of the works has been done by the iconology approach of Erwin Panofsky. The results show that the inscriptions, along with the historical aspects, also had a propaganda function and sometimes acted as religious propagandists, while encouraging observers to have hidden references to Shiite thought and beliefs. In other words, one of the most important underlying contexts of these inscriptions has been the conscious effort to present and promote Shiite beliefs to confront the aggressive Eastern neighbors.