The Impact of Iranian and Byzantine Religions on Ilkhanid Paintings (Case Study: Mostofi's Shahnameh)

During the rule of the Ilkhanate, miniature was one of the highly valued arts to the extent that royal library-workshops were formed and precious books and texts such as Shahnameh were illustrated and illuminated a number of times. This led artists and art custodians express valuable themes and concepts through miniature. This study aimed to recognize and examine miniature and its influential elements and concepts in the Ilkhanid period in order to answer why and how different themes such as religious and ritualistic concepts have been expressed in the miniature works of the period. In this regard, texts and works remaining from the Ilkhanid period were studied and analyzed, recognizing the discourse of Iranshahri thought. The findings indicated that religious concepts in a manuscript such as the Demotte (Great Mongol) Shahnameh were traceable implicitly with regard to Iranshahri thought. This was a historical-descriptive-analytical study and the data were collected through library research.