The Orders of Seeing in the Safavid Era: Considering the Rules of Seeing in Naghsh-e-Jahan Square

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Arts, Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran

10.30480/vaa.2022.4006.1691

Abstract

Title: An Investigation in the Orders of Seeing in the Safavid era, whit Emphasis on the rules of Seeing in Naghsh-e-Jahan Square
abstract
WE are Living in the age of Visual explosion, nd its important to develop our skills in seeing. According to critical approach in contemporary humanities, its obvious that seeing is historical. Although the new concerns on Orders of Seeing have been associated with modernity, visual engineering has always been a way of governing societies. What Can be seen in a certain society, at a certain time; places of seeing and the relations between the spectacle and the spectator, Are the revealing points of the characteristics of a scoopic regime in a particular position.
Discovering the Orders of seeing in a particular Society is a way pf understanding why societies make images whit particular characteristics, to show and hide what may be seen. So By looking through the outstanding visual culture scholar’s opinions on visuality/visibility, I’m trying to suggest some methodological approach for analyzing the order of seeing in a given point. In this approach constructed sites are not just spaces to move in, but they are spaces for controlling inhabitant's behaviors. The main purpose of this study is to discover the most important characteristics of Safavid order of seeing through a profound investigation in the role of the square in premodern Iranian monarchy, by emphasis on Isfahan s Naghsh-e-Jahan square and its public and private sites. Naghsh-e-Jahan is the symbol of Safavid power relations and maintained its function through the years. It is the well known image of Safavid era and Safavid city.
The literature review shows that the dominant visual order in premodern kingdoms is based on "Spectacle" and Safavid society is no exception to this rule. In the spectacular order, governments establish the pillars of their power and the foundations of their legitimacy by manipulating the spectacle and performing theatrical rituals, creating an image of monarchy that forces their subjects to surrender. Considering the Naghsh-e -Jahan square as one of the most important places of seeing in the Safavid era, showed that the Shah himself and the religious, military and economic foundations of the Safavid monarchy were the most important things to be seen. By the Way, the right to look in Safavid square is distributed in two dimensions which is in line whit the power relations in Safavid society and reproduce and strengthen Safavid legitimation pillars. These directions are, up to down(person to public), which is the supervision look, and emphasizes the superior position of the king and his courtiers; and down to up (public to private), which is the look of admiration, amazement and submission.
Key words: order of seeing, visibility, visual culture, Safavid era, Spectacle, Naghsh-e-Jahan

Keywords

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Journal of Visual and Applied Arts
Volume 15, Issue 38
December 2022
Pages 5-21

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