نشریه نگارینه هنر اسلامی
پیاپی 1 (بهار 1393)

The Holy Quran plays an important role in the formation of Islamic Art, and its beauty can be discussed from different angles. What is scrutinized in this research is the beauty of the Holy Quran with regard to the art of book-decoration. The aim of this research is the study of illumination, calligraphy and bookbinding of Quran’s manuscripts with an aesthetic perspective and expressing the idea that the Quran plays an important role in the promotion of the art of book-decoration in the three above-mentioned spheres. The research question concerns the investigation of the grounds on which the reasons for proliferation, formation, and evolution of book decoration rest upon in Islamic civilization of Iran. The research hypothesis is based on the premise that the origin of Iranian designs and pictures and their application within the Islam religion’s bounds, and the use of Holy Quran’s infinite and ample sources has an important role in the promotion of book-decoration in Islamic Iran. The descriptive-analytical research method is used accompanied by visiting the Islamic Repository of the National Museum of Iran. The result is indicative of the growth of this art, which is the use of Iranian Muslim artists of the stable elements of Iranian arts within the orders and bounds of the Holy Quran, with a focus on immaculate Imams’ lives, in a way that their Artworks have affected the Islamic civilization of the world. Meanwhile, book-decoration and page layout of Quran’s manuscripts are given a supreme position and has a close connection with the three afore-mentioned spheres.

Artistic genius and aesthetical qualities of Iran’s nomads, especially Bakhtiari Nomads can be sought in their artifacts. In this respect, Gelim is a considerable and outstanding pattern. This art is the colorful industry of people who have not used the art in an instrumental sense, neither for dissemination of their beliefs, nor for earning money and interests of their customers. The design and color of Bakhtiari nomads’ Gelim are among the most animate and richest skillfulness found among Iranian Nomads and villagers. With respect to visual rhythm and value, interaction between positive and negative atmosphere and visual intricacies and the unique association of its colors which are affected by their surrounding life are in accord with modern categories such as, defamilirization, emphasis on form, and visual and pure values and abstraction on one hand and permanent criteria of racial art on the other hand. In visual-racial arts, formal analyses are prioritized over lingual analyses. Accordingly, among the nomadic and rural artists, internal and external symmetry has a greater importance, compared to lingual and semantic analyses. This study is among the field research studies and aims at using descriptive-analytical method and deductive reasoning to scrutinize the aesthetical distinctions of designs and color of Bakhtiari Nomads, what is known as the main question in developing this research study. The quality of the evolution of aesthetical awareness and the manner of correspondence of predominant motive on their production process is based on the aesthetical elements, save, any presupposition or social analysis related to these works, is to be read and adapted.

The Quran, as the most prestigious source of Islamic thought with its unique illustrations embraces key elements of Islamic Art, including, light, form and color. Sohravardi, The Founder of Foundations of Illuminating Wisdom, considers light to be a pure element like that of a realm of imagination, explaining some of the Quranic verses in which there are references to the light to incorporate the it as a pure symbol within the aesthetic manifestations of art. The Islamic art, especially illumination is indicative of the inward presence of light. So, explaining light from the perspective of Shahaboddin Sohravardi as the founder of ontology of the luminous realm of imagination along Quranic teachings, Islam an Islamic art can be regarded as new beginning to arbitrary issues and requirements that have been effective in the Mind, Language and Unconscious part of Muslim artists. On the other hand, Quranic illuminations with regard to their being abstract and use of unique forms and colors based on such concepts require decoding. So, the main issue of this research is that after decoding the light by Sohravardi, its requirements are needed to be followed and the effects of such a view to the world in Islamic art and especially in Quranic illuminations of Safavid period is shown. In order to study the manifestations of light in designs and colors, particularly Golden color. To analyze the data, the aesthetic and semiotic approaches are chosen with comparative method and consideration of the origin of all beauties, being, and cognitive capability, which is the light. The sources/samples are collected through going to the library, and visual sources are collected through the photography of Quranic samples of safavid period which are available at the National Museum of Holy Quran and The Decorative Arts Museum of Isfahan.

Man, based on a common sense, has considered the contribution of symmetry to beauty. However, beauty and symmetry have acquired different forms and increasing intricacies throughout the time, as there are numerous examples of them in paintings, sculptures, the architecture of temples and many more. The present article studies the symmetries of Aghkand’s pottery design. The authors’ assumption rest upon the aesthetical perception of man which is reflected in Aghkand’s pottery designs. In order to test this assumption, the researcher presented a rudimentary classification of sciences provided by Pires, historical evolution of geometry, presenting an ideal definition of the what of geometry to arrive at an understanding of the existence of a golden symmetry in the positive and negative atmosphere of pattern’s designs by statistical analysis and geometrical calculations which is the main aim of this article. In order to fulfill such an aim, the authors chose 20 samples of Aghkand’s pottery with the identification of animal design in the center and herbaceous designs on the periphery. The origin of this group of potteries is the Aghkand village which is located between Zanjan and Tabriz and is formed in the cultural area of the West and North Western part of Iran from 4th hegira to the start of Mogul’s invasion. The present article studies the symmetries and hidden geometry in Aghkand’s pottery as the main issue. The method used in gathering the available sample to be used in the presentation of the results is statistical method. The authors maintains that the existence of the geometrical approach, based on the golden symmetry is a confirmation to the results taken from Gusta and Theodore Fakhner’s studies in 19 th century and Piress approach in Normative and Non-normativel sciences. If we come near to a numerical pattern concerning golden symmetries, after examining the 20 samples’ design surface to the whole circle area, then it can be assumed that beauty varieties manifest in the world, when the created elements can be differentiated by weight and number. So, the article answers two questions in this regard: 1-What is the necessity of calculation approach in aesthetical approach to the study of Aghkan’s potteries? 2-Does the aesthetics of such works can be evaluated and confirmed by numbers?

The Holy Quran makes abstract meanings concrete via mental imagery to increase their clarity in the addressee’s mind and improve his interaction with text to have ultimately a better perception of the message of the Quran. At this purpose, the Quran does not put emphasis on one kind of imagery, but it employs miscellaneous kinds of images interacting in the context. These imageries are not limited only to rhetorical expressions like simile, metaphor, and allusion, but it includes various elements such as melody of verses which induce human’s imagination. These mental imageries harmonize with the overall framework of context of verses. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the verbal mechanism of imagery in the Quran to respond to this question: What is the function of the mental imagery in the induction of meanings of Quran? The necessity of having a profound understanding of the Holy Quran shows the importance of doing such a research.

In this article, a semiotic analysis of the manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights, by Abol Hassan Ghaffari (Sani-ol-Molk), of Qajar School is presented. First, the cultural semiology method and next the structural approaches to artistic texts are described. After that, the modern semiology of Yuri Lotman, founder of Moscow-Tartu school, is introduced. Then, using the Nature-Culture contrast pattern, an analytical study of a picture of “ A Goblin accosts Hassan and says: I am a Muslim and your guide”, is presented. This study aims at discovering the factors considered by Sani-ol-Molkin rendering textual signs to pictorial signs, and it seems that the painter has benefited from cultural signs in the production of his work, knowingly. By comparing the pictorial signs with textual signs in this picture, it will become clear that the painter has adopted a symbolic method in going from narrative text to pictorial text in order to help the better recognition of the work by decoding it.

The northern part of Iran, particularly Mazandaran and Golestan are replete with Arts. Among the various Arts, this area’s metal works have received less attention due to lack of provincial Museums and the improper upkeep of objects in repositories, especially in Qajar era, no independent written source is found about these works yet. The existence of Qajari’s metal works in a museum is indicative of the existence of this art in this area and the use of geometrical, herbaceous, animal motifs and use of writing on these works gave an especial manifestation to them. Despite the existence of numerous metal works of Qajar’s era in this area, due to lack of documentation of all the objects, only four authentic objects are chosen from Iran’s National Museum and Babol’s Museum as the representative and by using linear analysis of designs, the researcher has aimed at studying these metal works to unveil these neglected works. The main aim of this study includes the study of motifs, the symbolic meaning which is hidden in them and introduction of the predominant designs of this area of Qajar’s era. The initial data are gathered through library and field research and in their compilation, the descriptive-analytical method is used.