Analytical Morphology of "Dev" in the works of Muhammad Siyah Qalam

Demons are among the most frequent patterns in Iranian paintings and have been illustrated as evil and malicious creatures for several centuries. According to Zoroastrian myths, before Zoroaster, demons were referred to a group of Aryan gods walking on the earth in human forms; however, after becoming a prophet, Zoroaster expelled them from the earth, and they had to escape underground and to continue their lives in secrecy. Meanwhile, demons were called devils and misleaders. In this connection, focus by Mohammad Siah Ghalam on these creatures and their illustration, as characterized by their diverse appearances, warrants further investigation. Mohammad Siah Ghalam was a famous Iranian illustrator back in the 15th century who inspired many other artists due to his specific styles. As stated in this study, he is actually Mohammad bin Mahmoud Shah Khayyam, also known as Ghiyas ul-Din Mohammad, the painter, who was dispatched by the Shahrokh court to China on a political mission and was tasked with recording his experiences during the trip. In his works, he has used a mythological creature, i.e., a demon, and depicted it in various states and human conducts, including in labor, conversations, conflicts and music. Various theories have discussed the nature of these paintings and the origin of these demons, with some theories considering demons to be symbols of demonic power and some idolatry religions. Yet, some other theories have regarded them as shamans with guises and masks imitating demons, as some of them are recognized as narrative rites. From another perspective, these shamans are attributed to some Turkish parts of Central Asia and relevant regional cultures. These demons are also considered to be religious and social concepts used by Ghiyas ul-Din as loan translation from temple images; in the meantime, he has illustrated human images in social concepts to criticize the behavior of his social era using an imagery approach. In sum, demons illustrated by Siah Ghalam have attracted the attention of researchers and inspired other artists of the century in illustrating the apparent and visual characteristics of these demons. The key point here is the pictorial diversity of these demons, distinguished by their noticeable visual characteristics, which has made these images worthy of greater consideration, as morphological approaches are needed to achieve their visual details. Using morphology in studying works of art helps better understand visual characteristics and interrelationships between different components. The objectives of this study were to study the apparent characteristics of demons depicted by Mohammad Siah Ghalam and to understand their visual characteristics. The study also aimed to respond to the question: “What are the visual characteristics of these demons using a morphological approach?” This qualitative study fell under descriptive-analytical methods. Sampling was purposive and included all 28 Siah Ghalam demon illustrations collected from the Topkapi Museums of Istanbul, Freer Art Gallery and New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Data were collected from library sources and note-taking and image-reading tools, as well as tables and figures were obtained. Data were obtained using the inductive method. According to the author’s findings, no independent study has ever undertaken the morphological sphere of Siah Ghalam’s demons. Therefore, the key necessity of this study was the provision of new results and the study significance was the provision of novel insights into the paintings of the demons. Generally, it was concluded that the visual characteristics of the Siah Ghalam’s demons fell under six categories of “general appearance characteristics, heads and faces, tails, coverings, ornaments and belongings”. Each category has its own sub-categories and each of the demons was unique compared to others in terms of appearance, ornamental and belonging characteristics, as they bear no resemblance with their counterparts and are independently unique. Siah Ghalam has employed praiseworthy precision in illustrating demons both individually and in combination with others using unique details. In depicting demons’ visual characteristics by employing equal human and animal details of various states, Siah Ghalam has sought to represent a dual half-man and half-human face in accordance with the visual tradition of demons in painting; in limb sections, however, human-like forms dominate. In the head and face sections (ears, eyes, hairs and noses) and tails and horns, animal like forms dominate. Meanwhile, demons’ tails exhibit more diversity compared to other parts. In representing other human characteristics, the painter has also employed other human elements of “coverings, ornaments, and belongings”, in addition to organs and faces.