ناهید عبدی

Numerous documents emphasize on the importance of clothing to cover defects in body organs and to enhance beauty. In order to understand the social and cultural functions of clothes and its role in giving identity to the members of society, clothes in different societies can be analyzed as a set of linguistic signs embodied in the type, shape and cover, reflecting values hidden in the Iranian thought system. Iranian clothing reflects the identity that originates in Iranian culture. At the same time, paying attention to semantic indicators is important. Examining the link between clothing and meaning in the studied time period--the ancient period and Zoroastrianism--is one of the cases that represent the association of clothing with humans as a guide or a warning in the path of life.

Although the current research relies on historical investigations, a historical study cannot fully express the nature of phenomena in the context of time and, thus, it is not very useful. Transhistorical approaches are formed from examining elements and signs, which add or integrate various elements related to different historical periods and styles to a specific context. Art works, visual sources, and written sources are studied under the analysis of historical clothes, and along that all religious, moral, cultural connections are evaluated and analyzed. As a rule, the examination of the written and visual sources represents those patterns that shape the structure of Iranian clothing in the ancient period while showing the relationship between the appearance of clothing and meanings. Finally, as a witness and example, one can refer to the followers of Zoroastrianism, who construct a trans-historical connections with their culture and daily life that led to the formation of symbols, signs, and of course certain clothes—including Sedra and Koshti--which represented their values, beliefs, and cultural principles. The method of collecting information in this research was library study. The review and analysis of written and visual sources proved the patterns that formed the structure of Iranian clothing in the ancient period as well as the relationship between the appearance of clothing and concepts and meanings.

The historical heritage of Iranian clothing refers to the cultural and identity roots and represents the lifestyle, thinking, customs, and rituals that are symbolic and represent special aesthetic effects, norms, beliefs, and convictions. It shows dignity and beauty, cleanliness, thoughtfulness, flexibility, and excellence; at the same time, it narrates the beliefs that are alive in the depth of Iranian clothing. Examining the cover of ancient Iran shows strength, culture, tact, attention to ethnic and regional culture, purity and chastity, and attention to beauty with a mixture with religion, history, and identity. Iranian clothing carries many symbols that express the relationship between human being and his living environment. Clothing in Iranian culture is a display of superiority. The examples presented in this article indicate adherence to humane and sublime values of Iran. In Avesta and the related texts of ancient Iran, clothing is mentioned for various reasons. Historical texts related to ancient and later periods have described Iranians as a well-dressed, graceful nation. Iranians adhere to their cultural characteristics and beliefs through their clothing; stone carvings and dressed figures left over from the past are the narrator of this story. Thus, to know the implications of clothing in Iran, one must go through history.

Iranian clothing with all its features alone is a rich cultural carrier. Since clothing can be designed as an artistic text, its evaluation and exploration can be realized through the study of historical development, artistic viewpoints, and the use of artistic concepts. In this way, visual and written sources were illuminating the connections between clothing and people’s identities. They have introduced clothing as an identity-building phenomenon. The heritage of Iran's clothing history is indebted to the thoughts, religious and spiritual values, values as well as dignity, social status, decency, and chastity. The cultural essence of clothing includes both the material and the spiritual aspects of clothing, where the movement towards excellence, connection with nature, modesty, shame, and social status can be seen in it.

Although Abul Hasan Mostofi Qafari as the first painter in the succession of Qafari family painters is of significance importance, what makes him stand out even from other Iranian artists in the field of illustration is his dual life as both a historian and court secretary and an expert painter. This issue opens a new approach in relation to the explanation of his personality, thoughts and art. Therefore, it is intended to conduct an iconological study on his works in the range of modern qualitative-historical studies and by adopting an iconographic approach through the comparative study of the valuable historical text left by him (Golshan Murad) and other documentary texts. It is also intended to review and revise the existing comments and analyses related to his works while explaining the angles of his art and thoughts and analyzing the works left. In this way, it is specified that to what extent can the generalization of direct sensory perceptions based on personal undifferentiated experience be misleading and incorrect in the deviation of the hidden meaning in works of art.

The pictorial rug of "Layla’s camel" belongs to the Qajar era, in which the central image is occupied by the large body of an "intra-hybrid" camel; the outer shape is realistic and the inside is composed of a large number of small human and animal motifs. Creating patterns of some creatures in this way became popular in Iranian painting from the Timurid period, which reached its peak and popularity in the Safavid era. This method also was considered in the Mughal art in India at the same time as Safavid. In this article, the "Layla’s camel" rug is described and analyzed with iconographic approach and using library resources and some scientific websites. The purpose of this study is to introduce a specific example of pictorial carpet and analyze it in a scientific way. In this regard, an attempt has been made to answer these questions: How can the relation of rug inscriptions with its central image be read? What is the main theme of the story from the perspective of iconographic analysis? What is the irony of the collection of animal species that make up the body of "Layla’s camel"? What do the presence of the angel-harpy and the red-winged dragon symbolically mean in the rug? Poetic inscriptions in the margin of the rug, in harmony with the pictorial elements of the text, refer to the story of Layla’s wedding with Ibn-Salam and her farewell to Majnun, quoting "Maktabi_e Shirazi". But the main meaning of the story at this stage is the victory of good (Majnun) over evil (Ibn-Salam) by the animals. The "intra-hybrid" camel also consists of animals that Majnun was accompanied in the mountains and in the desert, but at the same time has a caravan of wedding joy. Also, the image of the angel-harpy in its ancient meaning is a symbol of victory, which refers to the battle of the animals that support Majnun with the dragon – Ibn-Salam– and kill him.

Studies in Iconology, Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance by Erwin Panofsky clarifies the function of the Iconology method in interpreting artworks. The goal of this critic is to express the significance of interdisciplinary studies and also is a survey in how methodically organized studies is used in analyzing artworks. Thus this study criticizes and studies the form and contents in the book and also author’s opinions about analyzing and referring to the sources according to Iconology method. In its form, the book looks into the basic relations between the form and subject in analyzing art forms and shows analyzing and interpreting artworks according to their historical context in which they originated and the multiplicity of visual and textual sources which refers to the artworks. By the way, in some cases missing references are seen and the order in using them in the text is not also correct and reliable references are needed, especially sources of Islamic philosophy which have caused some limitations in using the book in some related conditions. Despite these problems, researchers can go further than a mere Formal study by using interdisciplinary and in order to make an understanding about Symbolic Meaning and Contents of artworks, they can have fruitful research.

The study of the image of Merrīkh- Bahram in Islamic era implies both formal and thematic similarities with constellation of Barsavosh and Perseus. The three images illustrate one Man with a bare sword and severed head in his hand. This similarity raises this question that what is the relationship of these images? In other word, which image is the precedent to the later representations? This study utilized iconographic transformation approach to find this relationship. Thus, toward Medievalera cultural contingence occurred between Islamic and occidental paintings through the astrological texts. There was a continuous current of iconographic transformation which is traceable in this way: First, general transformation of mythical framework to an astrological one. Second specific transformation of motifs and themes of constellation of Barsavosh to the representation of Merrīkh- Bahram in Islamic era. Thus, emerges an interrelated network of transformations and identifications through texts and astrological motifs in paintings of Islamic era.

Perceiving the principles of Christian arts as one of the monotheistic religions has a special significance in the studies of thought and art. In spite of the explicit prohibition of the Abrahamic religions on Image, It is important that how icons and iconography has become an essential elements of Christianity. It was expected that this book could respond part of this expectation. This article discussed some of the positive points and shortcomings of the two texts. in the framework of "Criterial Studies in Texts & Programs of human sciences Journal", from point of critical studies method has described and analyzed two book.Thus, it was noted that the translation with manipulating of the framework of the source has affected the goals of the book, meanwhile because of the lack of proper approach; questions on "the meaning of Icons" remain unresolved yet. The lack of bibliography is a fundamental shortcoming of the Persian version, and the failure to follow the standards of research has subjected the validity and effectiveness of the book. Because of the deficiencies and the mixing the content, the present translation does not seem to answer the needs of readers who have interested in this field and cannot be considered as reliable text.

This research was performed to evaluate morphological diversity of 40 thornless blackberry genotypes to find their relation with thornless resources. The samples evaluated based on blackberry descriptor in SANRU blackberry collection. Results showed high diversity in empty seed, taste, weight and titrable acidity of fruit with 100, 59, 43 and 42%, respectively. Empty seeds showed positive correlation with number of shoot (0.325) and cross section of stem (0.365) and negative correlation with fruit TSS (-0.393) significantly. Morphological cluster separated two different class of thornless genotypes. The first class included Thornless Evergreen and Everthornless as first (chimera cultivar) and second (tissue cultured cultivar) resources of thornlessness in blackberry and separated based on flower lengths, TSS/TA, seed number and weight traits. The first class included most of evaluated thornless genotypes and it indicated genetic and recessive type of thornlessness (tissue cultured cultivar) which is the most popular cultivar in Mazandaran, Iran. Homonym genotypes identified, too. In second class, the vigorous thornless cultivars which could be related to poly ploiid cultivars belonged to Merton source of thornlessness, separated from others. Therefore, two early sources of thornlessness identified between Iranian genotypes inside of 'Merton thornless'. It seems that other distinct thornless genotypes related to evolution of thornlessness in diverse climate of north of Iran and will be valuable for future studies.

The illustration of potteries with narrative themes in Iran became common from the late Seljuk era onenamel and luster glaze works. These works contain different themes from court scenes and everyday life to those inspired from historical and literary narratives. The lack of direct representation of the narrative and the ambiguities of the illustrated subjects are among those factors which have made the understanding of their exact connotations difficult. One of the examples in this regard is the luster-glazed bowl in Freer Gallery of Art, Washington. This paper, besides criticizing Guest and Ettinghausen’s views, aims at examining and interpreting the hidden meaning of the image in a bowl from this period (one of the most prominent works in luster glaze) now preserved at Freer Galley on the basis of iconographical approach and library research. Here, we have first described the elements of the image and identified the motifs and the present connections among them. Then, the subject of the image has been studied and the theory of its narrative is tested by referring to literary resources and historical investigation of Khosrow and Shirin story and some other legendry tales of that period through studying and comparing common themes of the time. We inferred that the image goes back tothe tradition of illustration of that period taken from an oral historical narrative with romantic themes and Shams al-Din al-Hassani, its narrator, has made a quick reference to one of its parts by emphasizing on oral narratives. We also reviewed the mystical theory of the image and after studying related texts, the examinations identified that mysticism has been much influential in choosing the subject of thenarrative as well as the content of poems written on the bowl. Having rejected the theories of the mentioned thinkers about the mere mystical aspects of illustrated sections, it is concluded that the representation of abstract mystical concepts was not the only point to be mentioned. Itis said that Shams al-Din the poet has been familiar with mysticism. This recognition has firmly rooted into the picture by the influences on the subject and content of the inscriptions’ poems. We could finally make the conclusion that this romantic narrative conforms to mystical concepts due to the same theme, i.e.“love and beauty”. Furthermore it is possible to regard this bowl, as one the numerous decorative objects in the late Seljuk period displaying a romantic narrative. The mystical themes of love in it have been manifested by the poems on the rim while intensifying the hidden sense of mysticism of the picture.

This article first discusses one of the key concepts in Iconographical Studies, namely “knowledge of motifs”, and then applies this concept to some paintings in Baisonghori and Tahmasbi Shahnamehs. The article further suggests that the usage of literary motifs in the paintings of Tabriz’s Safavid School, comparing to that of Herat Teimouri School, is done in such a delicate and wonderful manner that the motifs have been improved and turned into symbols. The article, therefore, concludes that the artists of the era were completely aware of the motifs they were selecting.