Qajar Art

Among the most precious Iranian lithographic books from the Qajar period is Kulliyat-e Joodi, whose illustrations stand out in their depiction of the women present at the Battle of Karbala. With a focus on Zaynab bint Ali (peace of God be upon her), this study analyses those of the book’s illustrations that are centered on the women of the Battle of Karbala. It also explores the themes surrounding the event, as well as the thematic and visual qualities of the illustrations. The study asks: “How are the accounts and themes of the Battle of Karbala rendered in the illustrations? And how are the religious significance and outfit of Zaynab (p) and the other women of the Battle of Karbala shown in the different Manuscripts of the book?”
The findings of this descriptive-analytical desk research helped identify the illustrators of some of the Kulliat-e Joodi Manuscripts whose illustrators were originally unspecified. Many of the studied artworks were not completely faithful to the accepted Islamic historical accounts, with the artist having taken creative liberties with the source text.
To show the religious significance of Zaynab (p), the illustrations make her the focus of the scenes and distinguish her with visual elements of holiness. She also notably appears in three different outfits across the artworks. Notions such as the strength of character, support, patience, and grief are highlighted using different artistic tactics.

Keywordsː
Qajar, lithographic illustrations, Kulliyat-e Joodi, Zaynab bint Ali (p), Ashura, Islamic historical accounts.

Main Subjectsː
History of developments in the Islamic world Research Methods

Persian title of the article:
جُستاری در بررسی بازتاب و اثرگذاری داستانهای رستم پهلوان در آثار هنری عصر قاجار(مطالعه موردی: کاشی کاری های سلطنتی و نقاشی های حسین قوللر آغاسی) که در هشتمین همایش ملی متن پژوهی ادبی ارائه گشته است.

Abstract:
Shahnameh, as one of the most important literary works in the Persian language, has been very influential in contemporary history, culture and thought and has shaped our society. Extensive attention to the Shahnameh can be found in various arts and literary works emerging in later periods. In the Qajar era, Shahnameh was widely reflected in works of art due to Fath Ali Shah's and politicians' attention to ancient literature and ancient history of Iran. Among the most important of these are royal tiles as symbols of royal thought and cafe paintings as reflections of people's views. This style of painting was also founded by Hossein Qollar-Aqasi. In the present study, I try to examine the quality of reflection of the stories of Rostam Pahlavan, one of the prominent figures in the Shahnameh, relying on library and conceptual and artistic studies. This research has been done on Rustam Pahlavan images in royal tiles and paintings by Hossein Qollar-Aqasi as one of the founders of cafe painting.

Hosseniye is a Local religious site for funerals and gatherings and ceremonies of Muharram’s Rvzhkhvany. The cultural and spiritual place separate from any other place. This temporary space during Muharram decorated with a rag or fabric. The decorations include a temporary roof to cover the community of people that refer to the symbolic tents.
  In general it can be said the motives in Hosseyniye in Yazd  are symbolic and ritual values are rooted in the culture and religious beliefs of Muharram. The interaction of form and color and harmony in the building, rooms and Takaya’s motives installed in the roof of tent and margins, expresses a spiritual state.

Problem statement: Nasir al-Molk mosque, which is described in architectural writing resources as a distinct mosque, has become a tourism center in Shiraz for many years and seems to have lost its devotional function. This distinction from the mosques with a more historical dating in Shiraz results in the assumption that the architectural features of this mosque are the reason for this distinction. Characteristics that come with the change or emphasis of common patterns in traditional mosques, and field observations and reviewing the documents of related resources include the lack of elongation of the prayer hall perpendicular to the axis of the qibla, the aberration of the perception of the qibla, the maximum decorations in the space of worship and the likeness to non-Muslim patterns. In order to examine these characteristics that cprayer hallenge the historic originality, it is necessary to refer to non-timely religious criteria, which goes beyond this feature, to ensure the devotional function of the mosque in an optimal way.
Research objective: Hence, the main purpose of this research is to judge and critique the distinctive features of the design of the Nasir al-Molk mosque in Shiraz based on religious criteria.
Research method: In the present article, using the verses of the Qur’an and narrations, especially those who refer to the construction of Masjid al-Nabi(The prophet’s Mosque) by the prophet (pbuh), as criteria for criticism, the judgment of these four attributes in the mosque of Nasir al-Molk will be considered.
Conclusion: The findings show that the division of the prayer hall into the eastern and western parts, which contradicts the policies of the prayer hall design from the point of view of Islam, as well as the aberration from the axis of the qibla alongside the maximum decorations that damage the experience of the worshipers, and finally use the signs and patterns of imported architecture in the Qajar era prove that the effect of these features is to enhance the mosque’s exhibitive capabilities and, hence, reduce its worshipability.

The Negarestan Mural was among several murals depicting prominent members of the Qajar ruling family, with the ruler, each time, featured at the center of the monumental work. The question this paper asks and seeks to resolve is this: Were these murals simply displays of prominent events at the court or where they intended to send a message to the viewer and posterity, beyond the aesthetics of the work itself? And if the latter, what might this message have been?

This analytical study identifies and analyzes two innovative instruments of Persian music, the Majles Ārā, and Tarab Angiz. For almost a century, the whereabouts of these two instruments had remained unknown, with no information available beyond their names. However, following the publication of my article in 2015, which identified and described the instruments in detail, one of them was discovered in the Musee de la Musique in Paris.
By examining primary sources and historical documents, I was able to provide patterns and a structural map of the instruments, which will be useful for their reconstruction in the future.

Fashion in the twenty-first century in Iran has become highly inventive, surprisingly innovative, and undoubtedly glamorous. This is a surprise to some in the West who are accustomed to seeing images of large public gatherings of men and women in drab clothing engaged in religious or political activities that seem to be decidedly lacking in any elements that could be called “fashionable.”

Women in particular are portrayed in the all-enveloping
chador, usually solid black, which has become a Western trope for female repression. Fashion in Iran has, in fact, been remarkable for its flexibility and for its role in cultural communication. It has been directly responsive to social and political events in the country for as long
as documentation has existed. Iranians take enormous care in their dress, exhibiting a great deal of attention and individualism.

Every element of Iranian fashion is socially coded, making it easy to determine the political, social, and personal attitudes of the wearer. Because dress is such a potent public statement, attempts on the part of the Iranian state to impose standards and requirements
on the population have been a universal phenomenon over many centuries.

Before one can understand the current status of fashion in Iran, it is necessary to understand the elements from which fashion is constructed. These consist both of material element, like fabrics and tailoring, ethnic traditions from the many cultural groups that live under the rubric of Iranian culture, and historical social forces that have inspired the expression of Iranian identity
over the years. These three elements: material, cultural, and historical, have shifted and interacted with each other to create fashion variation.

Unveiling the Veiled
Royal Consorts, Slaves and Prostitutes in Qajar Photographs

Photo exhibition curated by: Dr. Pedram Khosronejad
Associate Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies, Oklahoma State University

A special Exhibit and Panel Discussion as part of the UCSB Conference on:

"Slavery and Sexual Labor in the Middle East and North Africa"
Mosher Alumni House, McCune Library, UC Santa Barbara.

Saturday October 20th 2018
Co-sponsored by: The Iranian Studies Initiative, UCSB, the Middle East Studies Program, SBCC and the International Qajar Studies Association (IQSA)

هزار و یک‌شب، مجموعه‌ داستان‌هایی از مشرق زمین است که به دستور ‌‌ناصرالدین‌شاه و زیر نظر ابوالحسن‌خان صنیع‌الملک کتابت و تصویرپردازی شد. با توجه به این فرضیه که ابوالحسن‌خان در تصویر کردن حکایات ‌هزار و یک‌شب از زندگی ایرانیان زمان خود تاثیر پذیرفته، در این مقاله، نگاره‌های «حکایت ملک نعمان و فرزندانش» به‌منظور تطبیق تصاویر خلیفه‌ای به نام ملک ضوءالمکان با تصاویر ‌‌ناصرالدین‌شاه، موردبررسی قرارگرفته است. در این پژوهش، این پرسش مطرح است: چه رابطه‌ای بین تصاویر ضوءالمکان در نسخه‌ هزار و یک‌شب با تصاویری که صنیع الملک از ناصرالدین‌شاه کشیده، وجود دارد؟ هدف از این پژوهش که در گستره پژوهش‌های توصیفی- تحلیلی قرار می‌گیرد، بررسی احتمال تاثیرپذیری تصاویر شاهان هزار و یک‌شب از تصاویر شاهان عصر قاجار است. به همین منظور از رویکرد نشانه‌شناسی بهره گرفته شده است؛ ابتدا، نشانه‌های کلی به‌کار رفته در تصاویر ‌‌ناصرالدین‌شاه قاجار و سپس، نظام‌های نشانه‌‌ای تصاویر ملک ضوءالمکان موردبررسی قرار گرفته است و درنهایت، به مطالعه‌ تطبیقی نظام‌های نشانه‌‌ای تصویری و کلامی در حکایت ملک ضوءالمکان با نظام‌های نشانه‌‌ای در زندگی ‌‌ناصرالدین‌شاه پرداخته شد. در انتها، این نتیجه حاصل شد که، صنیع الملک احتمالا، قصد داشته در تصاویری که از ضوءالمکان در نسخه‌‌ ‌هزار و یک‌شب کشیده، وی را به هیبت پادشاه زمان خود، ناصرالدین‌شاه، تصویر کند. هم‌چنین، با رجوع به داستان زندگی این دو پادشاه، این نتیجه به دست آمد که، زندگی ضوءالمکان نقاط مشترکی با زندگی ‌‌ناصرالدین‌شاه داشته که‌‌ می‌تواند تاییدی باشد بر احتمال تعمد نقاش در ایجاد شباهت میان تصویر ‌‌ناصرالدین‌شاه و ملک ضوءالمکان.

Fingernail art is a little known and studied Persian artistic medium, which was used in making calligraphy and drawing artworks, predominantly in the second half of the 19th century.

Part one of this article briefly introduces the technique and its history, before discussing prevalent themes and subjects. It then presents an exquisite album at the Harvard Art Museums, which contains unique examples of fingernail calligraphic scripts. In part two it considers the use of the technique in countries neighbouring Iran, such as India, Turkey, and Afghanistan.

No doubt, every nation had possessed a set of deeply rooted
beliefs, these rendered into variant practices and traditions,
establishing civilization aspects. The belief in magic,
superstitions and divinations are categorized under these
beliefs. Mankind had tremendously believed their ability to
hurt, bring bad destiny, and on other hand, trusting their
capacity to bestow protection and guarantee good luck, thus,
motivated the appeal to possessing amulets and talismans.
This research paper deals with ‘Bāzūbands’; a form of
amulets and talismans, worn by warriors to, morally,
safeguard them and ensure triumph through Qur’ānic
inscriptions, invocations, besides other magical texts. The
research tackles some important aspects related the Safavid
and Qajar bāzūbands, like the belief in magic, its roots in the
Persian culture, an etymological study for the different terms;
‘amulet’, ‘talisman’ and ‘bāzūband’, to reveal their roots and
consequent development. This is followed by a preview for
the Shi‘ītes’ attitude regarding amulets and talismans, and the
main elements that should be exploited in fashioning them,
and the influence of the Shi‘īte belief on its mounting and
ornamentation. In addition, a detailed description for a
special collection of talismanic ‘bāzūbands’ from world-wide
museums and private collections; some of which are to be
published for the first time, is enclosed. Thenceforth, a
concise analysis for the described samples is incorporated.

Dr. Pedram Khosronejad, the Associate Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies at Oklahoma State University, curated a photography exhibition titled Re-Imagining Iranian African slavery: Photography as material culture that will be on display at the University of California at Davis May 10 through June 27 at the Walter A. Buehler Alumni Center.

The exhibition focuses on the overlooked study of race and ethnicity in the field of Iranian photography. The photographs showcase Africans enslaved during the Qajar period of the 1840s-1920s and are considered to be a new topic in the field of visual studies of modern Iran. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

This is the first ever photo exhibition organized in the United States that uses photographs of the Qajar and early Pahlavi periods to study the level of ability of the medium as material culture. Dr. Khosronejad will speak on this topic at the exhibition’s opening Thursday, May 10, from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Buehler Alumni Center.

The photographs included in the exhibition are from the Dr. A. Fazel Visual Archive, Media Collection and Digital Resources (Oklahoma State University), the Kimia Foundation (U.S.A), and the Farhad and Firouzeh Diba Collection of Qajar Photographs (Spain).

The exhibition is sponsored by the Mellon Research Initiative Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds and co-sponsored by Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Persian Language and Literature and the Art History Program at UC Davis in cooperation with the Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies at Oklahoma State University

P. Khosronejad, April 30. 2020.

Fajouriyeh, An Exceptional Persian Pornographic Manuscript of Qajar-Era Iran
For being published in:

Journal of the Anthropology of Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia
Special Issue, Summer 2020
Beauty and the Beast: Photography, Body and Sexual Discourse in the Middle East

This is the publication that accompanied the exhibition, 'Qajar Women: Images of Women in 19th-century Iran' (9 April, 2015 - 11 June, 2016) at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar.  It contains chapters giving the historical and cultural context of artistic production in Qajar Iran, and documents the themes and objects of the exhibition. 

The original exhibition description is the following:

"This exhibition features the centrality of the female form to the artwork of the Qajar period in Iran (1785-1925). Through a variety of historical objects from MIA's collection, in juxtaposition with photographs and contemporary artworks inspired by the Qajar period, we explore the meaning of the image of women at the onset of modernity. From the texture and visual culture of women's daily lives to the refinement of the Qajar court, from symbolism and mythology to the shifting understanding of female beauty over time, this exhibition looks at the representation of women in the art of Qajar Iran from a variety of angles.

In addition to the traditional art objects and photographs, a number of reproductions of contemporary artworks are also on display in Qajar Women, demonstrating the continuity of Qajar visual language. The power of the Qajar female image is felt today, in the works of Hojat Amani, Shadi Ghadirian and Mahmood Sabzi, who adapt the iconic Qajar aesthetic to comment on modernity and femininity, as well as the role of the past in shaping the present."

Khosronejad's unique collection provides us with a treasure trove of images focusing on the daily life of Naser al-Din Shah, his wives, concubines, and slaves of both sexes.

Janet Afary

Mellichamp Professor of Religious Studies

UC Santa Barbara

Pedram Khosronejad has provided invaluable new information about the history of photography in Iran during the 19th-century Qajar period. In particular he has carefully researched the photographs taken by Naser al-Din Shah, perhaps the Qajar monarch most fascinated by Western technology. These intimate photographs of his own harem are unique and highly informative, not just for their intrinsic value in a period in which human images were disapproved of, but also for what they reveal about Naser al-Din Shah, his self-image, his household and his court.

William O. Beeman
Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Minnesota

In 19th-and 20th-century Iranian photography, images of cross-dressing appear far more frequently than one would expect. Through tracing the gendered imageries of Qajar court portraiture and court photography, this article places the cross-dressed figure in a lengthy history of Iranian representation that saw gender ambiguity as beautiful. Yet, some photographs of cross-dressed girls are later institutionally catalogued as 'prostitute' (ruspi). In examining various discourses surrounding prostitution at the turn of the century, this essay inquires into how certain cross-dressed images come to acquire a 'prostitute' connotation in modern Iranian conceptions.

This paper problematizes five central themes regarding Qajar art in general and erotic representation in Qajar art in particular. The paper addresses the continued existence of the tropes that the Qajar era is not worthy of serious academic study; that concern with erotica was a unique Qajar elite concern resulting from their debased morality and that this was unique to the Qajar era; that erotica was a particularly Eastern, read Iranian, addiction in contra-distinction to the morally superior West (the colonialist and orientalist thesis); that erotic representation in paintings and other media specific to the early 19 th century was accessible to a wider population; and finally, that Qajar art is not high art because high art is not hybrid art, that only pure indigenous art can be considered high art. Beyond addressing and countering these five themes, this paper concludes with a series of "coincidences" of artistic erotic representation between West and East (Europe and Qajar Iran), and suggests that these cannot simply be coincidences.

The following article is a biographic and photographic overview of Dust `Ali Khan Mo`ayyer al-Mamalek's life and work. It is the first and only such record to date and it is meant as an introduction to my forthcoming translation and annotation of Dust `Ali Khan's last written work, Yaddashtha-i az Zendegani-e Khosusi-e Naser al-Din Shah, to be published in English as Notices on the Private Life of Naser al-Din Shah in 2022. Dust `Ali Khan was the last "Mo`ayyer al-Mamalek," member of one of the most distinguished aristocratic families of Iran. He was the grandchild of Naser al-Din Shah and Princess Khojasteh Khanum "Taj al-Dowleh." His recollections of life at the court of his grandfather form the second part of this article and are the subject of the forthcoming translation of his work. Dust `Ali Khan represents the last of a generation who had personal memory of the last four shahs of the Qajar dynasty and of both the shahs of the dynasty that replaced them. With his passing in 1966, a whole era came to an end, and what is left of his memoirs constitute the last published eye-witness record of life in the Naseri court.

This paper focuses on the evolution of the Orientalist ideas
expressed in one of the most European artistic genres,
namely ballet, and how they are related to its ”Oriental” literary
prototype. To make it feasible I will concentrate on one case study: Diaghilev’s cult ballet Scheherazade, which was produced for his second Russian season in Paris in 1910. The transformation of the ballet libretto throughout the ages and cultural milieux reflects the development of perception of the main story: from its literary protograph in the Arabian Nights throughout its European “translations” as reflected in visual art, cinema, music and ballet,2 from Paris and St. Petersburg of 1910 to Baku of 1979 and
Stockholm, Dushanbe and Hamburg of 2013.

https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/475898

Very soon after its official announcement, photography was introduced to the Near and Middle East. The new medium became a global phenomenon of the nineteenth century, and its themes, visuality, and practices were arguably shared wherever it was used. The techniques and their uses in a studio or outdoors created certain requirements that were universal, thus spreading European norms of depiction across the globe. As a discipline, the history of photography, through this inception, has foregrounded early photography in Europe and North America. While this narrative has emphasized the global diffusion and universal impact of European photography, it has underexposed local photography in other regions where the new pictorial medium was quickly adopted. This volume brings current scholarship on local photography of the nineteenth century in the regions of the Near and Middle East to an international discussion....

In modern Iran and throughout their entire history, the majority of Persian Shiite visual arts in which one can observe the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, his Ahl-i Beyt (Imam ‘Ali, Fatimah Zahra, Imam Hassan and Imam Hoseyn) and other saints are deeply connected to the folk narration (rivayat-i ‘amiyanih) and popular literature (adabiyat-i ‘amiyanih) of the history of the Iranian version of Twelver Shiism (Ithna‘ashari).[2] One of the main functions of these illustrations, which appeared for the first time in royal books (Gruber 2008) during the Timurid Dynasty (1370–1506) and were seen up to the Qajar period (1785–1925), in the popular Shiite lithograph books of the period (1785–1925), was to depict visually related religious events and stories. These series of illustrations (tasvirsazi) are mostly decorative (taz’ini) and function as a bridge between the text and the reader and, as far as we know, were never used as devotional devices.

This article analyses one aspect of the early historiography of Eastern carpets: namely, how carpets from Persia were acquired, studied and presented in the context of late nineteenth-century British responses to the Orient and industrialization both in Europe and Persia. The discussion centres on the scholarly output and the collecting activities of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) – an institution that emerged within a landscape of orientalism, capitalist-imperialism, design reform and exhibitionary spectacle. By examining the works of key figures connected to the museum, such as Owen Jones, George Birdwood, Robert Murdoch Smith and William Morris, the present study discusses how the Victorian art establishment shaped discussions on taste, authenticity, taxonomy and commodification. It argues that such activities have helped to entrench a hierarchical and evolutionary understanding of ‘Oriental’ carpets that privileges imperial Safavid specimens over market-led Qajar and machine-made British examples.

Fluctuating changes in style are often described in terms of fashion when in fact they are often developed to better meet practical demands. This is especially true of bookbinding craft techniques in the Islamic world that evolved from scribal practices of the Late Antique period into a distinct trade over time. Instead of an individual scribe producing an entire manuscript from start to finish, a specialized bookbinder would focus strictly on producing the cover of a manuscript, often in a range of styles depending on their patron’s taste and budget. 

By the 16th century, bookbinders in the Eastern Islamic world adopted a number of innovative procedures that reduced the cost and increase the speed at which books could be produced. Panel stamping largely supplanted the time-consuming process of tooling covers by hand. Cloth and decorative papers were adapted as frugal covering materials in place of more costly leather, and one particular method of minimal leather used only along with the spin, flap, and edges of the board are commonly observed today covering a wide variety of materials.  While some of these advances allowed books to be luxuriously decorated for members of the elite, these methods were also used to produce affordable covers that catered to less affluent members of society. These methods proved so effective that with the passage of time, they supplanted earlier methods and became established traditions in their own right.

In the 19th century, the arrival of mechanized printing and lithography directly impacted the bookbinding trade. In the specific context of Iran, several important documents shed light on governmental reforms that were implemented in the 1860s in response to the burgeoning printing industry.  These reforms were initiated by ‘Itiżād al-Ṣaltana, a half brother of Nāsir al-Dīn Shāh Qajār, who served as the first Vazīr-i ‘Ulūm, or the Minister of Sciences of Iran. Fortunately, a set of legal resolutions approved by the Shah survives today that explains the changes, and a summary announcement in the newspaper Rūznāma-yi Dawlat-i Ālī-yi Īrān confirms that these reforms were in fact carried out.

Modernization came about through contact with Europe but was also facilitated by print media resulting in the free exchange of information and ideas within the Islamic world. One Indo-Persian treatise, the Kashf al-Ṣinā'at va Makhzan al-Beżā'at, or ‘Muntakhab-i Muḥammadī’, compiles both traditional and foreign techniques for making inks, dyes, and paper coatings, as well as novel adaptations of traditional methods, such as marbling the edges of a text block in the European manner. When considered together with surviving physical evidence, these documents help to explain why, how, and to what extent the bookbinding trade dramatically changed in the Early Modern period.

NOTE: While I employed the term "leather-edge binding" in this published essay, I now prefer the "hemmed binding" as it is both an accurate translation of the various Persian terms mentioned and also sufficiently describes the appearance.

This article demonstrates how that gradual shaping of a new royal Kayanid Crown under  Fath 'Ali Shah Qajar (1798-1834) not only symbolized consolidation of Qajar dynasty but the revival of the Persian institution of kingship, inspired largely by Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (The Book of the Kings) but also by memories of the Iranian past.

Book review by
Dr. P. Khosronejad, Dec. 2019. For being published in:
Journal of the Anthropology of Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia
Special Issue, Spring 2020
The Portrait of Prophets and Saints of Islam: Prophetic Images, Sacred Portraitures, and Visual Devotion.

(1) An Album of Artists' Drawings from Qajar Iran, Roxburgh, D. (ed.), New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017 ISBN- 10: 0300229186, 244 pp. $ 50
(2) Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, McWilliams, M. and Roxburgh, D. (eds.), New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017, ISBN- 10: 0300229194, 174 pp. $ 42
(3) A Collector's Passion: Ezzet Malek Soudavar and Persian Lacquer, Farhad, M., McWilliams, M. and Retting, S, Cambridge: Harvard Art Museums, 2017, ISBN-10: 0934686416, 176 pp. $ 30

Litography was created as a result of literacy expansion and the need for cheap and available texts. The lithographed book’s illustrations, as an arena for representation of popular art, add the social aspects to the Persian art. The question which will be studied in this research asks if in the lithographed copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis, angels which are present in the same situation are illustrated with a similar appearance. For studding “the same situation”, angels appearing in the illustrations of one miracle and also angels performing a same role, among different copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis, would be monitored. The study platform, as mentioned before, is the lithographed copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis which are kept in the Tehran public libraries, because Tuhfat Al-Majalis, a book about the miracles done by holy men, is packed with wonders and imaginary beings, including angels. In order to study the above-mentioned question, the library data would be studied by the use of descriptive-analytical method.
In this paper, after a brief introduction and a short explanation of what angle is, the bibliography of lithographed copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis gathered from Tehran public libraries, would be represented. This research represents 22 copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis; 8 illustrated and 14 nonillustrated lithographed copies. Then, through reviewing the table of the angels illustrated in these copies, the angels’ classification into four groups would stand. At last, by studding the angels which are illustrated in “the same situation” in the copies of Tuhfat Al-Majalis, it would be concluded that the answer to the main question of the research, which is above mentioned, is no.

Few people look at the history of Qajar from this point of view, what are the achievements of this family during the rule of Iran? Also, few researchers have studied the history of the Qajar period with a critical and, of course, meticulous look. On the other hand, the large number of surviving paintings of Fath Ali Shah and his courtiers has not yet been the subject of research to examine the patterns embedded in them. Patterns that can reflect the views and thoughts of the first king of the Qajar dynasty and their purpose in creating such magnificent and luxurious works of art. The present article is an attempt to obtain the fact that the first kings of the Qajar dynasty (Agham Mo-hammad Khan and Fath Ali Shah), in their efforts to defeat the rivals and establish a new unified government, had what ideas and how much of Through royal paintings (as the most important media of that era), they succeeded in displaying it. It also seeks to answer the question of whether the Qajar kings considered themselves the heirs of the Safavids, and if so, to what extent they reflect their adherence to Safavid ideas. Tavan can be seen in the royal works of art of the Qajar era.