Reflections of Georgian-Iranian Cultural Interrelations in Seventeenth-Century Georgian Fine Art

Abstract

The study of new aspects of sixteenthand seventeenth-century Georgian-Iranian cultural interrelations is closely linked with the history of both countries. During the reign of the Safavid dynasty, the interest of Persia grew towards the rich, beautiful and strategically important country of Georgia, where Persia's policy of conquest reached its highest point in the seventeenth century, the period of the rule of Shah Abbas the Great (1587-1629). From this century onwards, Georgia, mostly its eastern part, under the political influence of Persia, became much more closely linked with Iranian culture, which influenced not only Georgian secular literature, architecture and book illumination,' but the Georgian way of life as well.2 On the other hand, nearly the same process is traceable in Persia: Georgian themes were introduced into Persian culture apparently at the same time, a clear example of which can be seen in the poetry of the Shirazian poet Abdi Beg Shirazi (1515-1585), where, inter alia, one may find reference to Georgian personages as well. The poet refers to a painting, no longer surviving today, from the Ja'far Abad palace of Shah Tahmasp in Qazvin, one scene of which evidently represented a battle against Georgians, which has been identified with the episode of the destruction of the Vardzia fortress and church at the time of Shah Tahmasp's third invasion of Georgia (1552).3 The Russian scholar Yuri Marr remarks that Georgians were depicted on the frescoes from the palaces of Hasht Behesht and Chehel Sotun in Isfahan as well. Particularly worthy of comment is the fragment from an 'Ali Qapu palace painting, portraying a man whose open book in-