Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

Since long ago the motif of “fish” has been one of the motifs employed in Persian artworks. As well as having extraordinary beauty of form, fish has deep symbolic meanings and has motivated Persian artists of different ages to employ it in their works. Rugs of Safavid era are among such artworks. Both in ancient Iranian mythology and also in Islamic culture, fish has enjoyed a significant meaning and role. Since Movlana in his Mathnavi has offered special interpretation of symbolic meanings for fish, it has been tried in this paper to examine the symbolic meanings of fish motif in Safavid rugs in the light of Movlana’s interpretation. In this article, these questions have been answered: (1) What is the place of fish in ancient Iranian mythology and also in Quran?; (2) What are the symbolic meanings of fish motif in Mathnavi?; and finally (3) What are the symbolic meanings of fish motif in Safavid rugs in the light of Movlana’s Mathnavi? This motif carries with itself several symbolic meanings like: mystic, path of truth, perfect human and the man from heaven, as well as different meanings such as: earth, body, and earthly man.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Iran’s cultural, artistic and even national identity is to some extent related and tied with carpet. The history of carpet weaving is an honorable and glorious one. And today’s artists in this field would not be successful without relying on this rich and fruitful past and using their own creativity. Therefore, the scholars of this field have to closely examine and investigate patterns and motifs of carpets and introduce their findings to the carpet society. This way, they can recall us of a great identity which sometimes is being concealed in the shadow of innovations. Here the authors have tried to investigate an important part of the history of this art in the Qajar era and to introduce the especial characteristics of patterns and motifs in Carpet Museum of Iran. The method of this research is descriptive and analytical one and the data is collected by library-based and field study methods. Appearance and extension of pictorial patterns, extension of “Bandie Golfarang”, “Bandie Boteh” patterns, extension of "rose" ," Boteh" and "Mahi dar Ham" motifs, naturalism and simple and unassuming style are among the characteristics of Qajar carpets.