Visual Expresiion of Metaphor of ‘Reed’ (Ney) in Leili and Majnoon's Miniatures

Iranian mystics have used the metaphor of ‘Reed’ (Ney) to express the story of human distance and humiliation from his/her origin. The story of Leili and Majnoon seems to have highlighted this meaning more than any other stories. Persian miniaturists have also tried to realize these themes  by recognizing mystical principles. One of these innovations has been the realization of metaphor of the reed in form of a shepherd as piper in the story of Leili and Majnoon. The use of this metaphor, as a reminder to man of the day of genesis, is for moving beyond the surface of a love story. The purpose of this article is to identify the connection between mystical concepts and Persian miniatures as well as to show a new visual identity in miniatures to express mystical themes visually. The method of collecting information was library-documentary. In this article, the miniatures of schools of Herat and Second Tabriz are considered, among which four miniatures with similar themes to the story of Leili and Majnoon have been selected as statistical samples. Deploying an analytical-descriptive method, this research has sought to answer the following questions: What are the mystical meanings of reed (Ney) in Rumi's Ney-Namey? How is the visual expression of metaphor of reed(Ney) in Leili and Majnoon's miniatures? Findings have shown that miniaturists by means of a visual expression of various scenes of Leili and Majnoon and through use of metaphor of ‘a shepherd as piper’ has given expressions to themes such as the status of love, lover, beloved, survival, destruction, and so on through frameworks of shapes, colors and composition.