Iranian Art Series: Ruba Kana’an

Picturing Polemics:
Iconography of a 1526 Painting from Safavid Tabriz

The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies presents "Picturing Polemics: Iconography of a 1526 Painting from Safavid Tabriz" for the Iranian Art Series 

Abstrct:
The Sermon of Hasan Ibn Ali is a single leaf painting from a fifteenth century copy of a manuscript on the lives of the Shi'a Imams written in 1338 by Ibn Arabshah, Muhammad ibn Abi Zaid al-Alawi Varamini (now in the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. Dorn 312). The painting is dated by inscription to 1526 during the reign of Shah Tahmasp and bears the signature of the painter Qasim ibn Ali who was trained in the court of Sultan Husayn Bayqara (d. 1506) and the scriptorium of Ali Shir Nava'i (d. 1501) in Herat. The painting depicts the formal architectural setting of a Friday mosque-recognized as such by the presence of a pulpit (minbar) from which the second Shi'a Imam Hasan Ibn Ali who dies in 678 is delivg his sermon. This paper explores the painting's pictorial and historical context. It argues that the painting closely depicts a mosque interior that is stylistically contemporary to the early 16^th century. It also demonstrates that the iconography of this painting and its prominent historical inscription are better understood as a commentary on the polemics about Friday prayer and the construction of Friday mosques that were rampant during the reign of Shah Tahmasp and throughout the 16^th century.

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