The Safavid Food Rituals and Courtier Repast through the Visual and Written Documents

Nutrition is one of the basic human needs for living, but the rules related to the preparation and consumption of food in different societies have been accompanied by rituals and ceremonies that have transformed them from a natural need into a cultural construct. Food and rituals related to it have been represented in various ways in written and visual documents remained from protracted ages and can be studied as a special symbolic system. Based on this, the present research tries to answer the following question by collecting data from paintings and travelogues of the Safavid era that refers to food and  the ceremonies related to it. What is the meaning of the representation of  food  rituals and courtier cuisine in the paintings and travelogues of the Safavid era? Based on this, while describing the rituals related to eating in the Safavid court as a symbolic system, the implicit meanings of these representations have been pointed out. The result is that there is a significant correspondence between the visual and written documents studied about the food customs of the Safavids; However, according to their own characteristics, each media has placed more emphasis on a part of court food rituals. The formal form and decorations of the dishes and arrangement of the spaces in the pictures and cooking steps, the way of using the food and the feelings of the guests in facing the cuisines rituals are expressed in the travelogues with more precision and detailed details. Nevertheless, the implicit meanings that are inferred from both groups, emphasize the wealth, generosity, and power of the ruling class, as well as the manners, clothing, and aesthetic views of Iranians through the types of foods, the way the choirs are built. And the arrangement of the space.