Analysis of the Mystical Aspect of Islamic Painting from the perspective of Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oleg Grabar

Religion can play a role in a religious civilization in its various parts. Art as one of the cultural expressions of culture is essential. One of the critical issues in sacred arts is the possibility of interpreting and accepting the mystical aspect of it. From one perspective, if a culture is tied to mysticism, art must also have a mystical element, and on the other hand, the two can be assumed separately. There are different views on this. The two currents of traditionalism and historicism are significant due to differences of opinion in some fields. In this research, the mystical aspect of Islamic painting is examined in the view of Seyyed Hossein Nasr as one of the essential traditionalists and Oleg Grabar as one of the most influential historicists who have studied Islamic painting. The necessity of this research is because the study of these two views, along with clarifying the dimensions of the views of traditionalists and historicists in Islamic art, leads to a more accurate analysis of the possibility of mystical interpretation of Islamic painting. In this research, the library method and filing tools have been used for data collection, and the qualitative approach has been used for analysis. This study shows that Nasr and Grabar’s views on the manifestation of wisdom and mysticism in paintings are opposite. Nasr believes in spirituality and Islamic concepts in paintings, and Grabar considers this art to be more materialistic and far from Islamic thought. In traditionalist thought, traditional arts are inspired by the artist’s imagination and his journey in the imaginary world. But historicists believe that a work of art or even the artist’s tastes and thinking is shaped by the era’s events and in the context of history.