Document Type : Original/Research/Regular Article
Authors
1
Department of Textile and Fashion design, Alzahra University
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Textile & Fashion Design, Faculty of Arts, Al-Zahra University
10.22051/jtpva.2023.40486.1421
Abstract
The Buyid dynasty (934 to 1062) is considered the time of reviving the traditions and culture of ancient Iran. Coupled with the rise of other Iranian dynasties in the region, the approximate century of Buyid rule represents the period in Iranian history sometimes called the 'Iranian Intermezzo' or Persian Renaissance. Revival of Iranian identity occurred under the Buyids. With rulers who are Iranian and who sought to show their connection with the pre-Islamic Iranian past. At the same time, the inhabitants of the Buyid kingdoms and eastern Iranians showed a high level of self-esteem as the people of Iranshahar who means the kingship based on pre-Islamic governmental traditions. As Daylamite Iranians, the Buyids consciously revived symbols and practices of Iran's Sasanian Empire. One of the Persian Arts continued during this era was textiles that had been reached great prosperity during Sassanid Empire. The previous decorative patterns of Sassanid textiles are contained geometric, plant, human and animal motifs has combined with Islamic symbols. Through centuries, Sassanid textile’s motifs have been adapted as the main textile design trend in many parts of the world and around five centuries after them, their impact could be seen in many parts of the world. In addition, many of these stylistic influences from Sasanian art went on to play a considerable role in the art of a Byzantines, and remain an excellent illustrative example of the ways in which concrete artistic elements diffused across the vast regions encompassed by the Silk Roads, and Egypt, Spain, and China. In Buyid period textiles became valuable artifacts as a result of silk fabrics production in Iran. Royal textiles were produced from silk and the inscriptions were either embroidered or woven on them in Kufic or Naskh scripts combined with Sassanid textile motifs.
After Islamic Period, the trade between Iran and Byzantium Empire that had been started during Parthian era did not decline but continued and flourished during Buyid period. They tried to echo their neighbor’s imperial courts in Constantinople to compete with them. A long-standing game of one-upmanship vis-à-vis the equally elaborate etiquette in the courts of Middle East, and, from the late seventh century, Islamic rulers. Intricate court ceremony had a long history in ideas of divine kingship. Prior to Islam's introduction, the Byzantines had established relationships of reciprocity in peacetime as well as war with the Sassanian dynasty, by sharing designs, motifs, and figures. The first Islamic rulers of the Umayyad Caliphate attempted to match the opulence of Byzantium in the architecture and decoration of their desert palaces. The Abbasid Caliphs, settling in Baghdad, provided further rivalry to Constantinople in conspicuous consumption; late eighth-century texts describe how Syria's merchant fleet supplied luxury items to the Byzantine court.
During the Byzantium era, textiles had been used as mediators in the Christian culture of Byzantium more broadly. In some periods the textiles were embroidered by Christian symbols as a background for iconographical representing of power and religious character of empire and a valuable present. During all times especially during iconoclasm era the Persian motifs was a main theme of Textile designs.
Due to the trade through the Silk Road and the purchase of raw silk and some textiles from Iran, the first generation of skilled weavers were brought to Constantinople, and during the sixth century, the textile production centers of the Mediterranean border and the court workshops of the Byzantine Empire were established and given priority. it placed. These workshops and their productions were controlled to meet political and religious needs. Byzantine silks of the 6th century show overall designs of small motifs such as hearts, swastikas, palmettoes and leaves worked in two weft colors, and later recognizable plant motifs and human figures appear. Surviving textiles document shows a rich exchange of techniques and iconographic themes between Constantinople and the newly Islamic textile centers of the Mediterranean and Central Asia in the years after the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. Designs of the 8th and 9th centuries show rows of roundels or medallions populated with pairs of human or animal figures reversed in mirror image on a vertical axis. Many motifs represent Sassanian designs including the tree of life, winged horses, lions, and imaginary beasts, and there are numbers of surviving pieces like “The Shroud of Charlemagne”, a polychrome Byzantine silk with a pattern showing a quadriga, 9th century that specialists cannot agree between a Byzantine or Islamic origin. These impacts were both sided and the influence exerted by Byzantine silk weaving was profound. Byzantine silk court ritual and ecclesiastical practices were adopted by many parts of Christian world and in addition, Byzantine court furnishing styles and dress codes were echoed across the Islamic world.
This paper aims to investigate the influence of Buyid textile designs on Byzantine textiles by focusing on meaning and concepts as well as their relationship with motifs and symbols. The main objective is that focusing and revealing this relationship could distinguish its Persian or Byzantine origin and their usage in political and religious content. These interdependencies could explain the numerous shared features in the art of the Mediterranean and Middle East cultures especially Iran, as well as the staying power of certain recurring motifs.
After selecting some evidences from two culture, researchers assume to use a comparative study method to investigate the various textiles deign impacts and why some motifs and symbols have been used for a long time in their design and what is the political and religious idea behind them. So through a descriptive analytical methods through reviewing historical documents and other researchers papers tried to shape a chain between the usage of each symbol and common or different meaning of it in each culture. The result shows that the visual aspects of byzantine textiles are mainly based on Persian textiles and many of them, are not related to Buyid dynasty addition and they shaped through a long period Impact. However, some common motifs are used with different attitudes. Some of them like hearts and horses and some floral motifs could be described as direct replica of post Sassanid and especially Buyid motifs. There are ancient Iranian motifs that have roots in Persian mythology and depicted as an ornament on some byzantine textiles. Some motifs has the equal meaning in two culture and many of them placed between political symbols. The eagle, double-headed eagle, lion, elephant, griffin, Gilgamesh, and horse rider are the symbols of political power who turned into religious/political symbols in Byzantine Empire. The other series are the symbols who turned to Christian symbols and they have different meaning from their originals like tree of life that echoed Christ, double-headed eagle that turned into Byzantine Empire emblem and peacocks who replaced two adjoining animal of tree of life and horse rider and chariot riders who shaped the Christian chivalry representation. The third series are the long lasting one that are repeated for a long time in the Byzantine Empire textile designs. However, in many cases, the combination of motifs and symbols continued the Sassanid tradition of pattern repetition based on the tangent or connected by an intermediate ring circle that are repeated in simple or symmetrical horizontal rows, and the empty space between them is filled with decorative plant and animal motifs.
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