The Investigation of Illumination Design in Bāysonḡorī Manuscripts According to Comparative Study of Five Samples in Illustrated and non-Illustrated Bāysonḡorī Shahnamehes

Illustrated Bāysonḡorī Shahnameh manuscript beside non-Illustrated Bāysonḡorī Shahnameh manuscript are only versions of  Baysongori book-decorating style have survived from the time accidents and remained in their homeland despite abundant loots. The illustrated manuscript that maintains in Golestan Museum Palace in no. 716, is a masterpiece of Baysongori style and one of the most prominent book-decorating art samples in the history of Iranian book-decorating. The non-Illustrated manuscript that holds in Malek National Museum and Library in no. 6031, is an excellent example of non-Illustrated Bāysonḡorī style manuscripts. On the other hand, Baysongori style among Iranian book-decorating styles is an obvious example of classical art. This means that not only the characteristics of that were imitated by artists from other art centers and capitals from East Muslim world from Mongolian India to Ottoman Turkey for a long time, but also this impact was such it could be argued had a lasting impact on the fate of book illustration and painting in this geographic area. One of the most important features of this style is the utilization of glorious, beautiful and multiple illuminations for manuscript decoration. However, today, researchers don’t know properly what the principles and rules are, that Timurid artists design these illuminations on the basis of them. Because not only ancient sources has remained silent on the matter, but also contemporary studies in this area are few in number and very low. Among these researches we can note to the paper of Adle entitled "Recherche sur le Module et le trace Correcteur dans la Miniature Orientale" that shows how the epigraph illumination in a manuscript of Fotohat Homayon designs on the basis of the Integrated system that follows from the manuscript layout’s modular structure. Another study is the article of Polosin that believes the using of geometric methods is the responsible for the design and composition in Arabic manuscripts illuminations. Therefore, the current study tries to introduce and describe the illuminations of two manuscripts of Bāysonḡorī Shahnamehes, Illustrated and non- Illustrated; then discuss about the composition and illuminations design of these two manuscripts by using of descriptive-analytic case-study and quantitative methods. In the next step by the implementation of the results, some possible methods and principles of Islamic Middle Ages illumination design, will be recovered. The achievements of this research shows the    illuminations of  both versions have been combined and designed on the basis of common principles and rules such as dividing a segment into equal parts, dividing a circle into equal slices, network structure and utilization of the proportions such as 1/√2, 1/√3 and … . These principles and rules that drawn directly from the Euclidean geometry system, are consistent with the design method in the Bāysonḡorī style that are based on ordering stereotypes and pre-patterns on the one hand, these principles create the structure and space that the aim of it, is not the representation of the apparent phenomena, but experiencing the rhythmic, melodic and proportional world.