A Historical Survey on Recognition of Sanawbar Tree and Sanawbari Motif in Iranian-Islamic Artworks

The description of the Sanawbar tree in historical Persian texts is not the same as the Sanawbar tree in modern Persian terminology. This article studies the image of the Sanawbar tree and the Sanawbari motif in Iranian-Islamic artworks and explores its properties accordingly. Research questions are: What were the distinguishing features of the Sanawbar tree according to historical dictionaries, lexicons, and texts? accordingly, what could be the Sanawbari motif in Iranian-Islamic artworks? The method is the comparison between textual descriptions and visual motifs. The result shows that the historical concept of the Sanawbar tree and the related motifs referred to a tree belonging to an evergreen tree from the coniferous family like cedar, and not to a tree from the Populus family, in contrast with the modern Persian terminology.