Critical Analysis Of The Dominant Discourse On The Representation Of Rumi In The Book Thawāqib-i Manāqib (Based On Fairclough Theory)

As an art that has always served powerful kings and patrons in the pre-modern period, painting is a medium for representing phenomena influenced by dominant discourses. This art, which was popular in art workshops in different parts of the Ottoman Empire in the tenth century AH, such as Istanbul and Baghdad, was a platform for producing various literary and artistic texts with ideological functions. One of the texts created during this period in the city of Baghdad was the book "Thawāqib-i Manāqib" by Abdul Wahab Hamedani. This article considered a unique feature, which is presenting a particular image of Rumi, which is not evident in other illustrated texts. This book produced in a city that was not the capital and therefore not under the direct supervision of the court; on the other hand, it was religiously opposed to the central government; But inside it, a manuscript produced that has no royal patron and at the same time was given as a gift to the court and the king himself. These whole events bring an idea to mind that a work produced on such an occasion is about a particular subject. Probably in a confrontational or interactive action with the government and a particular discourse that should explore. For this purpose, this study analyzed the effect of dominant discourses on the depiction of Rumi's character in Thawāqib-i Manāqib. The whole study based on answering this question: 1. What is the subject of the paintings of the Thawāqib-i Manāqib manuscript, prepared in the Ottoman Baghdad school, and from what position Do they speak? And 2. how is the arrangement of visual elements, and how is the ideological message expressed in these works? The present study conducted by descriptive-analytical method, and the method of data collection was library studies. The statistical population of this research is the paintings of the Morgan Library of New York version of the book Thawāqib-i Manāqib. The paintings of this book were 29, of which 15 drawings were selected non-randomly and judiciously as study samples of the study; the criterion for selecting these samples was the active presence of Rumi in them. The information obtained in this study was analyzed based on Fairclough's theory of discourse analysis. Finally, it concluded that the position of the book's supporters and its producers and illustrators are a mediation between Shiite and Sunni discourses and the subject that the book tried to address. Rarely, Rumi's extraordinary and undeniable role in establishing interaction between the two discourses, and in this way, several visual or thematic effects are used, each of which emphasizes this mediation and its qualities somehow. In this book, the Prophet (PBUH), the Sultan, and the Caliph represent the Sunnis, and the Imams (AS) represent the Shiites, and they are depicted in different spaces next to each other artists have formed intertextual and inter-discourse spaces with different audiences. By looking at it, they find themselves in it. In these paintings, Rumi is sitting and standing with the Prophet (PBUH) as well as with the sultans and nobles; He deals with saints, he has an everyday life with ordinary people, humans and animals resort to him, he deals with natural animals and supernatural beings, he both dies and can bring the dead back to life. Slowly These mediating features have given Rumi's life and, consequently, this book an intertextual and interdisciplinary quality that is in line with a higher goal. The lofty goal of this mode of representation, as noted, is the link between the Shiite and Sunni discourses in those historical contexts. At this historical juncture, Rumi sees, as an institution that does not have enough power for absolute domination, the only way to remove division and find an ally. In the context in which Rumi is trying to establish himself, two poles have no common point other than a single origin (the Qur'an and the Prophet (PBUH)), and only by introducing a third and neutral character can one remain between them. In order to bring in a third party, no choice can be better than Rumi because in addition to establishing this relationship, it will have a more significant function, and that was to legitimize him. Finally, it can be concluded that all of these, along with the mentioned visual features, somehow carry the ideological message of Rumi's sovereignty and his rightness. The transcendental composition of the paintings, Rumi's position in each painting, the ratio of his dimensions to other people, the whole image and even the ratio of his head to the body, the use of symbolic colors such as azure, the use of special coatings appropriate to each person's social status, including visual elements some artists created clever works to emphasize Rumi's degree, his influential role in the Sufi, Shiite, and Sunni discourses, and his place with everyone.