The Role of the Silk Road in the Connection between Persian Historiography and Painting in the Ilkhanate Era

Iran and China have had strong cultural and artistic interactions for thousands of years. These relations expanded after the Seljuks period and increasingly continued during the Mongol-Ilkhanate era. Roads came under a unified rule, and steppe nomads were influenced by cultures and civilizations in China, Central Asia, Iran, and the Caucasus. This process had a great impact on various arts, painting, and book decoration in the territory of Islamic lands, especially in “Iranzamin (Persia).” From the 14th century in the late Ilkhanate era, painting and book decoration with various scientific fields were used, especially in Persian historiography and literature also reached their peak in the Timurid and Safavid ages. The decline of the Abbasid Caliphate and dismantling the cultural and political barriers had a great impact on artistic creations and the interactions between art, Persian historiography, and literature in the establishment of the Tabriz School of Miniature Painting. Some Iranian components were influential in the creation of this style: Iranshahr's political thought, The Myth of Farrah-i Izadi, Persian mythology, history and narrative heritage of ancient Iran, etc. Those components were used in miniatures of books on historiography, literature, and the natural sciences. This research examines the adequate reasons for the usage of painting in the historiography and literature of the Ilkhanate era by the method of explanation in history and interdisciplinary research in cultural history, art history, and historiography.