A Study of Dust Mohammad's Preface to Bahram Mirza's Album Based on Analytical Historical Sociology

Making Album has a long tradition in the history of Islamic Art in Iran specially at the end of Timorid Dinasty and Safavid Period. Albums contains scattered pages of caligraphy and paintings which bind together and form a book that used in order to review the masterpeace of the artists in cultural meetings. These albums have some advantages for the art of Iran. First preserve the works of art, second there is a place for workmanship and third sometimes the patron or the owner wanted an author to write a preface for it. In fact Prefaces of the Albums must be known as the first Art histories of Iran which include precious information about artists, patrons and sometimes the history of forming the arts of caligraphy and painting. Most of the Reserchers almost payed attention to literary aspects and extracting historical information about artists and master-student relationships of them and less paying to socialogical contexts and regarding references of texts to their historical setting. Preface to Bahram Mirza’s Album wrote by Dust Mohammad Heravi in 951 AH. A lot of contemporary scholars point to it and it has an important place in the studies of Persian painting since the time it has been known, but a few scholars study it criticaly. This is the first times that a Preface pay to paining and painters. While based on historical documents and texts the author was not painter but a caligrapher who worked in Royal library. Now there is a question that why in the mid-century there was an attention to painting and painters? In fact this research sought to the point that what the causes of the rise of Dust Muhammad Heravi's Preface about the painting in the tenth/sixteenth century? To answer this question, the analytical historical sociology approach is taken. This method by means of first and second sources almost proceeds “why?” in matters and answers based on authentic causal relations; Causes which have similar results. Research findings show that different chains of linear and transversal causes like political-religious context of that period, written tradition and intellectual-educational-professional background of author during the time which form along time ago in the ground of history, at last tend to converge and results in writing the preface. One can regard these causes into two tied existential causes and formative causes. The presence of Clercs in politics and pressur to painters, change in King's mood and his reluctance of painting, miserliness and at last firing the painters from the court, are existential causes of writing Preface in defence of painting and painters, and written tradition of writing preface in Safavid period, skill of author in literature and his familiarity with riddle, rhyme and courtly culture of Herat as an exemplar of art patronage are regard as formative causes.