Analysis of Threshold Texts in Illustrated Shahnamehs of the Shah Abbas (I) Period with the Social Production of Art Approach (Case Study of Shahnameh No. 490)

Threshold texts resemble the pages that the audience encounters to enter the main text. Among the illustrated texts, the Shahnameh occupies a special place. The paratext pages of the illustrated Shahnamehs before Shah 'Abbas I are limited to two themes: “razm va bazm,” Ferdowsi, and the poets of Ghazni; the paratexts of the most illustrated Shahnamehs of this period, such as Shahnameh 490, feature images of the ascension of the Prophet Suleiman and Belqis. This study attempts to explain the differences and substitution of these paratexts for others in the extant Shahnamehs. Since the aim is to read the paratexts in the Shahnamehs of Shah 'Abbas period by relying on the Shahnameh 490 and explaining the role of social and cultural conditions, the existing texts can be analyzed based on the theory of social production of art. The library information was collected using a descriptive-analytical method. Analyzing the images from Wolff’s point of view,it was found that most of the threshold texts before the time of Shah 'Abbas were openly dedicated to the one who commissioned them. The change in these paratexts from the king of the time to the prophet Suleiman indicates that the goal was to implicitly introduce Shah 'Abbas as Suleiman. The miniaturists showed that the king was identical to the prophet, giving legitimacy by replacing the kings on the throne with his images as the royal prophet.
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