مجله هنر و تمدن شرق
پیاپی 42 (زمستان 1402)

The academic Journal of Oriental Art and Civilization (JACO) is now in its 11th year of publication. As it is obvious from the title and content of the research articles published by the JACO over the past eleven years, the scholarly, critical, and analytical studies of cultural, social, historical, and artistic relations of the culture and civilization of the oriental people with an Iranian approach - not a western one - has been the aim of its editorial board. Of course, this Iranian approach does not mean the denial of the efforts of the Western orientalists, particularly Europeans, in the past centuries, for which Iran and the Oriental world have always been a subject of knowledge based on an interpretation derived from Western cultural values and various philosophical schools of Europe (e.g., Said, 1978; Macfie,2002). It also does not imply that they have understood and evaluated the art of the Orient only through the lens of Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics (e.g.,Gombrich, 1950). Rather, the international editorialcomposition of JACO shows that the senior head of the NRC attempts to establish a scholarly cultural dialogue between Iranian thinkers and researchers with their Oriental and Occidental counterpartsto analyze and understand the sociocultural aspects of Iran and the Orient based on the perspective of their own Oriental cultural and historical values. Noteworthy to mention that Iran and Iranian history,culture, and civilization with more than five millennia of its formation and expansion from the riverside of the Tigris to the Indus and the Oxus and from the Darbent of the Caucasia to the shores of thePersian Gulf (Qazwini, 1919), which has a colorful amount of cultures and peoples of a joint descent and linguistically familiar languages, includes the origin of various cults and religions throughouthistory, as a bridge that stands between the Orient and the Occident, plays a colorful unique role:The long life and joint lineage of Iranian and Indian languages and ancient religious beliefs, the spread of Dari Persian language and literature from Kashgar to Delhi and Konya, the connection of theKurdish language in Western Asia with the Pashtun language in Central Asia through the ancient Pahlavi language, the variety of Turkish dialects spread throughout the Iranian plateau, from Khorasanto Qashqai, the praise of Shams Tabrizi and Mevlana of Balkh in Persian poets and the Urdu writings of Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal of Lahore, the art and architecture and rites of Urartu, Elamite,Mannai and Achaemenid inspired from the ancient Mesopotamia, the impact of Iranian art and architecture on the Early and Middle Ottoman (Sarre, 1910), the Sprachbund ties among Turkic andPersian languages and literatures with Arabic and Quranic doctrines, and of course, for the first time in history, a comprehensive reflection and collectivity of the old histories of the people of the East andWest from ancient times to the high medieval period, in the masterpiece of ‘Jāme al-Tawārikh-i Rashidi, composed by “the Grand Premier of Iran” Khwāja Rashid al-Din Fazll-Allah Hamadāni (Rab’-eRashidi, Tabriz, 1306) and hundreds of other examples that are not included in this brief note, all of them are based on the firm and indisputable position of Iran and the Iranian World on the history, cultureof the Orient and orientalist activities. This is the reason why, now in its 11th year of publication, the JACO takes a new approach to the great question of the Orient and the status of Iran in Orientalism,and brings an Iranian approach to Orientalism to split heaven’s ceiling with our powers to try a wholly new design, as versified by Hafez of Shiraz accordingly.Finally, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous thinker, author, Iranologist, and Persian poet from Lahore, Sir Allama Muhammad IQBAL (1873-1938), remember him, byone of his Persian poets on Iran:

In the shadow of the attention of the Safavid kings, various art schools were formed in Iranian painting; The first painting school of this era in Tabriz, with its background from Herat, led to the creation of many illustrated manuscripts, including the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasab. In the light of the security and attention of the government of Shah Abbas, the city of Estrabad became prosperous and prosperous, and although it could never achieve the prominent position of the art schools of the important cities of that time, it was noticed by the masters of art and became the owner of its style and school of painting. In the Estrabad school, significant works of painting have been identified, most of which are in the British Museum, Topqaposara Museum of Turkey, and Indian Museum, and of course 15 paintings from a copy of the Shahnameh were also found in the Malek Museum of Tehran, which have not been identified and researched so far. The current research aims to identify and investigate the above paintings, in addition to identifying and introducing environmental elements in the paintings of the Estrabad school, some examples of them are evaluated and compared symbolically with the paintings of the Safavid Tabriz school. The present research employed a qualitative method. Selective sampling was employed to choose the samples and data were analyzed descriptively and analytically. The question that current research seeks to identify environmental factors that contributed to the formation of Estrabad school. The selected samples, including five of the 15 paintings in the Malek Museum of Tehran, were examined and compared with the paintings of the same subject as Tahmasbi’s Shahnameh. The results indicate that the Estrabad school has grown though it has been faithful to the experiences and traditions of its predecessors, and besides its unique differences with other art schools of the era, it shows the Safavid intellectual trends in showing glory, power, greatness, and natural gifts. Major environmental elements in the Estrabad school distinguish it from the Safavid Tabriz school and have its distinct environmental characteristics.

History shows that from ancient times to the present, the political system of Iran has remained authoritarian. The people have not been given a role in the administration of the country’s affairs in this style of government. According to investigations, the tobacco movement disrupted the political connection between the people and the government for the first time in Iran’s history. In this movement, the Iranian people began a major protest against a political problem to stand against the authoritarian government, and the relationship between the people and the government changed as a result. In this regard, the current study aims to provide a solution to this topic. What is the formation process of the tobacco movement through the lens of Margaret Archer’s integrated theory? The research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative. The data were collected using the library method from first-hand books and other valid scientific articles. The findings of this study revealed that before the tobacco concession was given, a dialectical interaction between political intellectuals and the government had begun. The interaction was launched after Iranians were defeated in the Russian war, and it peaked in the final decade of Naseruddin Shah’s reign. Intellectuals made strong criticisms of Naser al-Din Shah’s dictatorial government in a dialectical connection. Now, amid these criticisms and following the handover of tobacco concessions, the formation of this movement was first based on the self-awareness of domestic political forces such as intellectuals, and the publication of this self-awareness made other internal forces such as powerful economic and religious activists united. Upon such an alliance, ordinary activists influenced by these three powerful groups formed a formidable alliance in front of the court under the leadership of the intellectuals. The coalition of internal forces, along with the opposition of the Russian government to its interests, created pressure against the authoritarian government, and Nasir al-Din Shah was eventually compelled to announce that the tobacco monopoly contract was canceled.

Along with the archaeological survey program of Karadagh, which started in 2008, the expedition team of authors succeeded in recognizing, reporting, and documenting three archaeological sites including 1571 human and animal abstract petroglyphs from the three villages of “Gutānlu”, “Lighlān”, and “Noghādā” in the east of “Hurānd” County, East Azerbaijan province. In addition to naked humans, some dogs and camels, and a number of quasi-geometric motifs were identified. It should be noted that most of their animal motifs are similar to the genus of Capra and Gazella. They are comparable to the Nakhichevan, “Gegham-Jingirdagh”, and “Gobustan” collections of rock art in “South Caucasia” and they even have similar examples in the Italian rock art collection of “Valcamonica”. This research is based on field surveys, documentation, and the ethnological interpretation of these petroglyphs. The data were categorized into three groups: “Gutānlu”, 700 motifs, “Zardarasi”, 171 motifs, “Dāshlisārāy” of “Noghādā”, 300 motifs, and “Qishlāghdarasi” of “Noghādā”, 400 motifs. The authors attempted to examine relative chronology and the function of the Eastern “Hurānd” petroglyphs based on two hypotheses: a) the relative dating of this rock art is late prehistory, circa 6th-5th millennium BCE; and b) the function of them should be interpreted based on the theory of hunting magic associated with forager bands. Ethnographically, the belief in hunting magic is recorded from forager people of Australian “Aborigines” and African “Bushmen” (Sans). Additionally, the evidence of Shamanic rites, which have been recorded/hypothesized during the 1997-2002 surveys, are re-recorded from the rock art in Eastern “Hurānd” of Karadagh.

Murals in holy shrines in Guilan Province are an illustrated compendium of Shiite history and religious customs. These paintings, which are often associated with Ashura and are painted by both local and unknown artists, include visual and symbolic values in Iranian-Islamic art. This study attempts to scrutinize the thematic and structural elements of Mashhadi Aghajan Lahijani’s murals in Agha Seyed Ali’s shrine in Mote’aleq Mahalle. Moreover, this study analyzes and explores the link between stories and paintings at this sacred site. What are the thematic and structural characteristics of the murals in the aforementioned shrine? The data of the current study which are qualitative were analyzed using the descriptive-analytical method. The results demonstrate that one of the distinctive features of the murals in this shrine is the direct and explicit expression used by the artist in representing religious and folk themes. In fact, he depicted the narratives as were conceived by the lay people. By creating a harmony between the themes and the structures of the murals, he made a kind of religious and emotional connection between the audience and the work of art. Some of the structural features of his works include adherence to the two-dimensional surface, such as miniature, conventional characteristics of faces and image elements, and color harmony via multiple colors. Likewise, the thematic features of his works include the narrative of the religious story, along with the artist’s individual feelings, faith, and imagination, as well as the depiction of the position of power and victory of religious heroes, such as the pre-victorious kings, even though they will be martyred.

Historical contexts are considered among the most valuable urban contexts, which over time, with the development of cities and the wear and tear of historical cores, have declined in terms of quality of life. This is while urban restoration has now reached urban regeneration in its evolutionary periods. On the other hand, among the existing approaches in urban planning, considering urban livability for regeneration has led to more interaction between the historical context and the city and its citizens. With this description, the main question and problem of this research is how to increase livability by regenerating historical contexts in a way that citizens experience a suitable quality of life in the contexts and do not intend to leave it. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this research is to identify factors that increase livability in regenerating historical contexts. To achieve the research objectives, this research has explored the subject based on the qualitative research method and specifically the descriptive-analytical method. Accordingly, the results of the research admit that livability has environmental and cultural factors that each group can save historical contexts from wear and tear and return them to urban life. Multiple factors such as improving security, improving urban services and facilities, proper access to public transportation, strengthening a sense of belonging to a place, and improving health conditions are among the reasons for increasing livability in historical contexts. These factors will not only increase the quality of life in these contexts but also protect them as a historical heritage.

Tappeh Mill is one of the most enigmatic historical structures in Iran, situated within the ancient boundaries of Rey. Despite various efforts to enhance awareness about it, the results have been less fruitful for various reasons. Therefore, the present mapping considers "observation" as a tool for assessing the scenic tensions in a "constructed space" and addresses the question of how "the view of the Tappeh Mill complex, in relation to its environment, function, and previous representations, can be described." In this regard, the presented observations delve into previous representations, abstracting any form from the primary nature of the hill, and estimating the access routes on it. It also speaks of the temporal features of the hill, emphasizing that the main axis of the hill and its solid structures align with the position concerning the sunrise on the first day of Dey and its sunset on the 31st of Khordad. These moments hold special significance both geographically and culturally.