The Iranian world has a
well-established Tradition
of images that goes back
to anitiquity .The structure
relation between text and
image become increasingly
intricate in illustrated
manuscripts ,at least from the
middle of forteenth century
onwards .These links can
be observed through the
composition and layout of
the paintings .These relations
seem to be expressed in some
Persian poetical texts .It
would be interesting to know
if this relationship between
painting and text found
during the classical period
of Persian painting had some
theoretical basis .The Theory
know as the «seven principles
of painting» can throw
some light on the sobject .
Although probably drawing
on an earlier litrary tradition
,this theory appeared in
Safavid Iran ,and this theory
represented an attempt to
link painting to calligraphy
in order to give the former
some sort of legitimacy in
Islamic Art .The study of
such a theory can through some light on the relations which existed between calligraphy
and painting .Some technical aspects will also be discussed through the study of the
seven principles of painting and related terminolog .These seven princeples apear in
a number of texts on the art ,such as Abdi Beg Shirazi’s Poem ,Dust Mohammad’s
Preface to Bahram Mirza Album ,Qutb Al-Din Mohammad Qissakhan’s Preface to
Shah Tahmasp Album ,Qadi Ahmad’s Gulistan-i hunar and Sadiqi Beg’s CanonHistorical Circumstances which
made the formulation of this
theory will be also considered
.The earliest referece to seven
principles of painting seems to
have been made by Abdi Beg
Shirazi in his Rowzat al-sifat
,without naming them .But Qutb
al-Din Muhammad Qissakhvan
names them in his preface to
Album : « As in calligraphy
,which has six styles ,in this
technique [i.e ,painting] seven
styles are to be found : Islami
,Khata’i ,Farangi ,Fassali ,Abr
,Daq ,[Vaq] ,Girih.» The list
given by Sadigi Beg is slightly
different : Islimi , Khatai ,Abr
,Vaq ,Nilufar ,Farangi ,Band-I
rumi .Qadi Ahmad gives almost
the same list as Qutb al-Din .
Khatai in his list to be in second
styles of Persian Painting .All
the operations described by these
authors seem to deal with book
painting and bookmaking .But
this should be noted that the seven
principles of painting were not
limited to bookmaking .The most
spectacular and earliest painting
which decorate the borders of
Persian manuscript pages are
something of an enigma. Border
paintings demonstrate to the full the Iranian love of nature and also the way in which
the early 13th century Chinese elements had become totally absorbed. Corn-poppy,
lotus motif and jujube were all borrowed from Chinese art and called Khatai. In this
article the variety and style of Khatai motives in Persian art were studied.