Identification, Classification, and Analysis of Handwoven Products in Muhammad Sadiq’s Works (Second Half of the Twelfth Century AH)

Karim Khan Zand personally oversaw the processes involved in making artworks. The cultural heritage remaining from the twelfth century AH / eighteenth century AD mirror the cultural atmosphere of Iran during the Zand period. Accordingly, delving into the works of Muhammad Sadiq (Aqa Sadiq), a prominent artist in the second half of the twelfth century AH / eighteenth century AD, can further illuminate the mysteries of Zand woven products. Muhammad Sadiq was a painter at the court of Karim Khan and his works represent a diverse range of cultural products including traditional rugs. This study aimed to explore the motifs and designs in woven products portrayed in Muhammad Sadiq’s works and examine the relationship of the motifs, designs, and positioning of the products and the themes of his paintings. Studying Muhammad Sadiq’s preserved works, with his raqam (signature), can help expound our knowledge of the era they were created. Muhammad Sadiq was a distinguished painter and artist of the Zand period. A comprehensive understanding of the various aspects and components of his works could reveal factual information about the Zand era. For example, interior building decorations and ornamentations, foods, flora and fauna, individuals’ attire and makeup, and woven products (including machine-made, loom-made, and handwoven types). This study aimed to explore the motifs and designs in woven products portrayed in Muhammad Sadiq’s works and examine the relationship of the motifs, designs, and positioning of the products and the themes of his paintings. Studying Muhammad Sadiq’s preserved works, with his raqam, can help expound our knowledge of the era they were created. What are the most frequent designs and motifs of rugs portrayed in Muhammad Sadiq’s paintings? More importantly, how can we explain the relationship between the themes of his works and the types of  woven products in the miniatures? What is the relationship of the motifs, designs, and positioning of the woven products and the subject matters of his paintings? Given the fact that Muhammad Sadiq’s raqams were adapted for the status of the client or the people depicted in his paintings, could there be a link between the motifs, designs, and positioning of the woven products in the paintings and the status of the figures? What can Muhammad Sadiq’s works reveal about loom-made woven works? There seems to be a significant relationship between the themes in Muhammad Sadiq’s works and the represented woven products in his paintings. With a developmental research design, this qualitative study sought to expand written sources on Iranian art in the Zand period by analyzing woven products, a type of applied art, as depicted in visual and fine arts of the Zand era. To this end, first, pictures of Muhammad Sadiq’s works, including murals, paintings, and lacquer works, were collected. Next, the woven works portrayed in the paintings were studied and classified. Finally, the motifs, designs, dimensions, and positioning of the woven works and their relationship with the themes of the paintings were analyzed. The study population included Muhammad Sadiq’s available works including murals in Haft Tanan Mansion in Shiraz, Iran, miniatures like the portrait of Rustam Khan Zand, and items preserved at the Malek Museum in Tehran, the Pars Museum in Shiraz, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and other museums based on Muhammad Sadiq’s signature. The data were collected through library research. The works were selected by nonprobability sampling focusing on availability. Overall, there were a considerable number of works available.
Yaghoub Azhand’s Muhammad Sadiq (Aqa Sadiq) (2015) is the most comprehensive biographical work about Muhammad Sadiq, exploring various aspects of his life and character. Azhand’s analytical approach was a guiding light for this research. He provides an accurate analysis of different periods of Muhammad Sadiq’s life. Gianroberto Scarcia briefly reviews Safavid, Zand, and Qajar arts in a section of the Encyclopedia of World Art. In “Composition in Figurative Paintings in the Zand Court” (2010), published in the collection of articles presented at the Great Zandieh Conference in Iran, Maryam Berahmand broadly studies figurative paintings in the Zand period. In Lacquer of the Islamic Lands (2007), Nasser Khalili endorses Mohammad Ali Karimzadeh Tabrizi’s view on the contrasts between the works of “Muhammad Sadiq” and “Aqa Sadiq”. However, he contends that no authentic source is available for this supposition and considers both as the same artist. Khalili’s book also offers a biographical account of Muhammad Sadiq’s life and is held as a valuable source for providing pictures of the artist’s all lacquer works. In Ahval va Asar-e Naghashan-e Ghadim-e Iran [The Lives and Art of Old Painters of Iran] (1997), Karimzadeh Tabrizi writes about Muhammad Sadiq under the entry of the Persian letter sād. Like other researchers, he neglects the changes in the artist’s name, title, rhymed signature, and signature, presuming that Muhammad Sadiq and Aqa Sadiq are two different artists. Conversely, Azhand (2015) proves the presumption that Muhammad Sadiq and Aqa Sadiq are the same person based on the evidence that supports his idea. In his Divarnegari dar Iran: Zand vs Qajar dar Shiraz [Murals in Iran: Zand and Qajar in Shiraz] (2002), Abdolmajid Sharifzadeh also introduces Muhammad Sadiq and Aqa Sadiq as two different artists congruent with Karimzadeh Tabrizi’s view.
The study of Muhammad Sadiq’s diverse works led to the identification of various woven products such as rugs, satchels, saddle blankets, and felt mats. There was a significant relationship between the themes of his works and the portrayed loom-made woven works. In addition to depiction of the interior and exterior spaces, which is a crucial element in selecting woven works, the themes were of significance to the analysis. Saddle blankets as a practical item decorated with gol farang design were the main woven products among works with war themes and exterior settings. Satchels were the principal loom-made woven products among works with mystical themes such as Haft Tanan paintings. Felt mats were found in most of the works that portrayed Karim Khan Zand, indicating their significance in the Zand period, particularly during the reign of Karim Khan Zand and Sadeq Khan Zand. Another interesting point was the depiction of characters from all classes of the society in the paintings and how the woven works were adapted according to their status. Some of Muhammad Sadiq’s artworks are decorated with tiles painted with rug motifs. Some of his court figurative paintings portray the Persian rug of the second half of the twelfth century AH / eighteenth century AD, among which the miniature of Rustam Khan Zand is an excellent instance. Rugs, as Iranian woven products that have the earmarks of Iranian identity, were not observed in miniatures with foreign subject matter.
Furthermore, Muhammad Sadiq’s active years during the Zand and Qajar period helped form a comparative analysis of the motifs and designs in woven products like saddle blankets, found in miniatures of the Battle of Chaldiran and the Battle of Karnal in the Qajar Iran. This demonstrated the extent of developments and changes in the appearance of saddle blankets.
Given that Muhammad Sadiq lived during the Afsharid, Zand, and Qajar periods in Iran, his works can be seen as reflecting the common woven products of the time. The analysis indicated that in some miniatures, Muhammad Sadiq has determined the position of the woven products in the paintings based on the significance of the subject and the importance of woven works as a cultural element. For example, the rug in Rustam Khan Zand portrait is crucial, among other elements, in conveying an Iranian quality (Iranianness). It occupies a considerable area of the miniature. However, only a small part of the felt mats can be distinguished in the miniatures of Karim Khan Zand. To return to the question on the significance of Muhammad Sadiq’s works in understanding woven products, it can be concluded that the analysis led to new findings about a part of the pictorial history of traditional Iranian woven products of the twelfth century AH considering the variety of themes such as mysticism, love, lyricism, and war in his works as well as his figurative paintings and Muhammad Sadiq’s status as a painter who witnessed most of the twelfth century AH.