The study of symbolic imagery of Farr (In connection with the images in Shahnameh)

Motifs used in Shahnameh’s imagery are on one hand in connection with the textual sign systems and on the other hand are of a nature belonging to the visual sign system. An example from this dual system of textual-visual kind is seen in the visual motifs of heavenly concept of farr. In textual system, Kiani Farr refers to Shah’s legitimacy. Researches made in this regard generally describe the concept of Farr, and deal with its application in Shahnameh and ancient texts. The emphasis of these works is mostly on the semantic aspect of Farr. This essay however attempts to study the concept of Farr from another approach. Looking for its meaning among the images to find out how the visual artists depicted the concept of Farr. Thus the attempt is made in this article to seek and find symbolic imagery in between the images in Shahnameh, rock reliefs, and images depicted in banners. For this reason apart from the textual sources, one made use of visual sources as well. Studying the images illustrate that Farr is manifested in form of three motifs of light, bird and crown. These three motifs each has different manifestations dealt with in detail in this study. The purpose of this research is to find the symbols of Farr by inspection of visual sources.