A Historical investigation of the design and color of the Timurid garments based on masterpieces by Kamal al-Din Behzad

Clothing is one of the most important indicators of the culture of societies, which plays a key role in the history of their civilization.  Since Timurid dynasty was one of the most important periods in the promotion of Iranian culture and art and the information obtained from the clothing of that period is specific to a few fabric samples found in the graves related to that period, it is important to identify the components of the clothing of Timurid period.  On the other hand, the variety of clothing of that period is considered essential in order to understand the hidden aspects of the history of clothing and its relationship with social classes in Iranian civilization, a topic that is clearly lacking based on previous studies.  Therefore, with the aim of identifying the relationship between social classes and the design and color of clothing in the Timurid period, Kamal al-Din Behzad’s paintings were used. Artworks that have a special attitude towards human beings and a realistic approach in the presentation of their subjects are quite evident. For this purpose, the design and color of clothing were included as the main coding index in this qualitative research and its separate categorization has been studied based on the division of headgear, bodysuit, and footgear.  Furthermore, the number of 11 images were purposefully selected as the sample size and the diversity of subjects and the multitude of human figures were the determining factors in the selection of the samples. The method of collecting information was also based on the method of library research, document analysis, and internet sources. A descriptive-analytical method was adopted, which was conducted based on two types of study sources, i.e. written sources and visual sources.  Finally, the results revealed that clothing in the Timurid era had a variety of designs and colors in men’s and women’s clothing and was directly related to their social classes.