Study of the Infulence of Changing Sect of Religion on the Paintings of Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasb

Abstract

In the beginning of the 10th century A.H., Safavids came to power so Shiism became the official sect of religion. Throughout history, religion has served as an important factor in the thoughts and ideas of nations, so in each period religion had a profound influence on culture and art in societies. In Safavid period, art benefited in Religious movement and Artists were able to reflect the influence of the sect of Shiism, their thoughts and ideas in their art and industrial works. One of these arts were illustration and painting. Since the Shahnameh always considered as one of the most important sources of inspiration for artists of illustration and painters, it provided an appropriate background to reveal the cultural influences in every period. Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp is the first great work which produced in the Royal Library of Tabriz, which its illustrations started in king Ismail I reign and continued till king Tahmasp period.This study aims to investigate how is the impact of Shiism on the paintings of Shahnamah of Tahmasb as the first significant work in Safavid Period, and study of theirs Shiite themes, and also there is attempting to answer some questions as: paintings of Shahname of Tahmasb how much is affected by changing and formalization of the sect? In what forms and elements had Shiite symbols and in which scenes and events they brought into the picture? So among all the paintings of the Shahnameh (258 images), fifteen paintings were selected as Statistical Society because they had Shiite symbols. Studying of the illustrations and paintings of this work, can be seen the impact of the new religion (Shia) which clearly was shown in many paintings of this version in the form of elements such as the name of Imam Ali (AS) in the war flags and upper part of war flags and also decoration of monuments and twelve caps of Ghezelbash hat.This article is written based on findings way through library studies, along with Analytical descriptive method researcher.