In the Seeking of the Imagination from the Wisdom Perspective and Its Role in Iranian Art and Architecture

Problem statement: 

Imagination is one of the themes that have always been the focus of Iranian sages and philosophers, to the extent that without knowing the role of imagination, it is not possible to achieve a correct analysis of the manifestations of wisdom in Iranian architecture. The problem is that in many studies, researchers seek to understand works without considering Iranian wisdom and insight which are the basis of Iranian art and architecture.  The understanding of Iranian architecture focused on Western philosophy, not only does not lead us to a correct understanding but also misrepresents it.

Therefore, we seek to understand the concept of imagination from the Iranian wisdom perspective and its role in Iranian art and architecture, to achieve a correct understanding of the place and role of imagination and its impact in different parts of Iranian architecture. For this purpose, we attempt to investigate the place of imagination (theology, anthropology, and cosmology) based on wisdom, then discuss the conjunctive and disjunctive imagination and their characteristics, and finally, the role of imagination will be described around the two main pillars in the formation and reading of artwork or architecture, that is, the artist (the architect) and the audience of the work. 

Therefore, this article is theoretically based on Iranian wisdom. The research design is qualitative and the research method is descriptive-analytical with a logical strategy.

In the conclusion based on the opinions of sages, the four principles of “regeneration of truth”, “sum of opposites”, “reflection of the truth” and “architecture, always endless” are based on imagination in Iranian art and architecture, and then the artistic and architectural models of these four principles are proposed and their examples will be presented.