The Interpretations of Medieval Persian Ceramics by the Traditionalists and Historians

Two main approaches in studying Islamic art are perennial philosophy and historical perspective, which sometimes are in contradiction with one another. Historical discourse examines works of art based on contextual factors such as history, culture and society. In this approach, the analysis of artistic works is based on an accurate description of the work and the presentation of hypotheses happens through a scientific methodology. On the other hand, the perennial philosophy, by criticizing the fundamentals of modernity, puts its underlying principles on mystical concepts and with an idealistic view, introduces the discussion of traditional metaphysics of art in the field of Islamic arts. This paper through a descriptive-analytical method compares distinctive readings of these two approaches from seven examples of Islamic tiles and pottery. For this purpose, the opinions of the known thinkers of both approaches regarding the discussed examples have been compared to reveal their different views in the analysis of handicrafts. The most important question of this research is to identify the differences between the readings of these two approaches in studying the Islamic pottery. The data for this study has been gathered through library research. It can be said that the historians of Islamic art, based on the factors of time, geography, culture and politics, have done countless research on the artistic works of different periods. On the other hand, the studies of the followers of the perennial philosophy are mostly based on concepts and generalities about the manifestations of religious art; a method which can hardly be applied for the analysis of handicrafts.