A Study of the Position of Imam Ali (as) in the Drawings of the Version of Āthār al-Muẓaffar in the Chester Beatty Museum

Among the effective factors in the spread of Shiism in pre-Safavid Iran, we can mention the composition of religious poetry from the seventh century AH onwards, especially the ninth century, which is the period of the flourishing of religious poetry. During this period, Persian poetry flourished in terms of quantity and to some extent quality, and the Timurid princes became the promoters of poetry and the enthusiasm of poets. Shiites also took full advantage of this opportunity and independent poetry books emerged from the collection of poems on the virtues and mourning of the Ahl al-Bayt (as). One of the poets of this period is Niẓāmuddin Astarābādi. Niẓāmuddin composed many poems in various formats, most of which are in praise of Amīr al-Mu’minīn Ali (as) and his family. During the reign of “Shāh Ismail Safavid”, he composed the Masnavi of the religious epic Āthār al-Muẓaffar (Muẓaffar’s works) which deals with the life of the Prophet (pbuh) and his struggles. The purpose of this study is to investigate the position of Imam Ali (as) in the drawings of the visual copy of Āthār al-Muẓaffar in the Chester Beatty Museum in Dublin. The research method is descriptive-analytical with a comparative approach and information is collected from library sources. The findings show that this version depicts the important events of Islam, which in a way expresses the legitimacy of Imam Ali (as) and his heroism, based on Shiite beliefs and narrations, and in each of them, according to the intended theme, there are visual components to be considered.