Study of Textile Designs and Motifs in Courtier Men’s Outerwear in Zand Era in Iran

In most cases, the study of the designs and motifs of historical Iranian textiles is made possible with the examination of visual arts as the dominant mode of textiles fade away over time. The Zand era in Iran has not been sufficiently studied in terms of arts perhaps because the Zand Dynasty’s rule was short-lived and less heritage remains from the time compared with the preceding (the Safavid) and the succeeding (the Qajar) eras. The purpose of this study was to analyze the designs and motifs of textiles used in the courtier men’s outerwear during the Zand era in Iran. The study question was posed as follows: how could we recover the designs and motifs of textiles used in Zand courtier men’s outerwear with the help of figurative paintings of the Zand era and their comparison with textiles remaining from the 18th and 19th centuries? It was anticipated that following the art of the Safavid era or as an introduction to the Qajar art, the designs and motifs of the textiles could be defined in a wide range. With the help of library research, this descriptive-historical study included random sampling of seven Zand royal figurative paintings and comparison with nine pieces of textiles. In contrast with the study hypothesis, the results indicated that the courtier men in the Zand era used a combination of “Moharamat” and simple textiles in their turbans and cummerbunds. Moreover, they used simple or copying patterned textiles with vegetal motifs in their qabās, Katebis (waistcoats), and abās (cloaks). Therefore, it seems that unlike the variety of designs and motifs found in the men’s garments in the preceding and succeeding eras, they adopted a more limited mode to which they adhered.