Motifs and decorative themes of Borkhar tombstones in the Safavid to Qajar periods

Tombstones of the Islamic period are among the valuable monuments that contain significant information not only from the perspective of artistic research and knowledge of the evolution of Islamic lines and inscriptions and the art of stone carving; Moreover, it has provided researchers with valuable information in various cultural, historical, religious, social, economic and literary fields. Therefore, in the present research, the tombstones of the Islamic period in the Borkhor region of Isfahan have been studied in a descriptive-analytical way in order to answer the following questions; 1- What were the decorative motifs of Borkhor tombstones in the Safavid to Qajar periods? 2- Which symbols, cultural, social and religious themes and artistic principles and standards did these motifs contain? Based on the results, plant motifs (bergamot, arabesque, cypress, date, lotus, multi-petaled flower), animal motifs (lion, deer, duck, pigeon, nightingale, peacock, hawk), objects (seal, rosary, comb, Ring, mirror, scissors, lock, water sprayer, cane), geometric (circle, square, rectangular, circular, oval, gabled, trapezoidal), sun and water pan are among the motifs used in Borkhor tombstones. Some motifs have an informative aspect and inform about the spiritual states, religious beliefs, moral characteristics, gender and social status of the deceased. Some had a symbolic aspect and were signs of the Garden of Paradise, death and nothingness and rebirth, endless and eternal time, the oneness of the creator and the created, Permanence of the soul and asking for good and blessings on the deceased, and some had a purely decorative aspect. The artistic elegance and composition system of motifs according to such things as the type of motif, morphological type, material, dimensions, stone surfaces, time period, the way of combining with other motifs, the presence or absence and the number of frames, shows different methods.