A Comparative Study of the Design and Decorative Structure of Kufic Inscriptions in the Buyid Period: A Wooden Door in the National Museum of Iran and Wooden Tablets in the Imam Ali (AS) Shrine in the Cairo Arabic Museum

The Buyid period is culturally and artistically a turning point in the history of Iranian art. During this period, a variety of arts, including wood art, flourished considerably. Among the valuable wooden artifacts of this period, there are the wooden tablets of Imam Ali (AS) in the Cairo Arabic Museum and the Rabino Collection as well as the wooden door preserved in the National Museum of Iran No. 3292. According to the inscription in it, Abu Mansour Foulad Sotoun in Fars region was built between the years 440 and 448 AH by order of the last ruler of the Buyid. The various Kufic inscriptions in these works are comparable in terms of design and structure. The purpose of this study is to identify the features and decorative structure of the inscriptions of these works and compare them with each other. The present study aimed at discovering the characteristics of the decorative structure of Kufic inscriptions as well as the characteristics of the contents of the Kufic inscriptions of these works. The research also deals with the commonalities and differences among Kufic inscriptions of these works. The research method is descriptive-analytical and data collection included documentary and field libraries using comparative study. The results show that the general structure of the design of the inscriptions follows the same pattern. One of the common features of these works is the use of Shia themes, which is one of the characteristics of the art of the Buyid period. Also, the equal embossed pattern of the plant motifs with the inscriptions can be observed, so that the inscriptions look like flowery Kufic type at the first sight while the letters are not connected with the surrounding plant motifs. Another commonalities of these works is the simple Kufic script of the inscriptions which are remarkably similar in structure. By extracting the contents of the inscriptions, it seems that most of the letters are designed in a similar way. Except for some letters such as "ح", "ک", "ط", "ع" and "ی" which are designed differently but have the same basic structure. Another difference among these works is the greater variety in the design of the letters on the wooden door preserved in the National Museum of Iran than the tablets of Imam Ali (AS). In the inscriptions of this wooden door, two types of simple and flowery kufi have been used leading to wider variety in the design of the letters.