Historical Awareness of Art in the Etemad al Salṭaneh’s Writings

The Qajar age, and especially the Naseri era, has been the beginning and the origin of the formation of the Modern Persian Historiography and has been coincided with the emergence of the concept of the Fine Arts in the West World. Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Moghadam Maragheie who has been nicknamed to Etemad al Salṭaneh and also Sanee o’ doleh by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, has been one of the prominent and famous historians and writers of those days .It would be obvious that due to his new approach to the Historiography, writing the History and also his interest in researching about historical monuments, ancient buildings and antiques, his writings and books are so important in the field of Persian History of Art and Persian Historiography of Art. Through Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Etemad al Salṭaneh’ s academic studies in the field of History and Geography in France of that days, he became acquainted with the new research methods in the studies of the History and Geography. Therefore he could use these new and modern methods in compiling his Historical, Geographical and Literal writings and books. In this essay, with a qualitative strategy in the historical studies framework and in an interpretive historical manner, we have tried to study and investigate his writings, including such as the book Montazam Naseri History, Maaser v’ al asar, Merat al boldan and Ruzname Khaterat  Etemad al Salṭane (Etemad al Salṭaneh’s Diary book). The main question of the research has been proposed in this way: How is the historical awareness of art in the above mentioned writings of Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Etemad al Salṭaneh? And what are the examples of this historical awareness of art? The study and analysis of references and descriptions related to the Persian Art in the above mentioned texts have shown the scattering and hidden signs indicating the historical awareness of Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Etemad al Salṭaneh about the art and also the lack of boundaries between the History, Geography and Art fields in these writings. Also the review of the book Montazam Naseri History, Maaser v’ al asar, Merat al boldan and Ruzname Khaterat  Etemad al Salṭane (Etemad al Salṭaneh’s Diary book) indicates that there are some considerable information about  the Persian History of Art, including  ancient buildings, antiquities and works of arts, which can promise the emergence of a new trend in historiography of Persian Art along the evolution of Western History of Art, especially French History of Art in that time. The historical awareness of art for Moḥammad Ḥasan Khan Etemad al Salṭaneh, as the origin of the emergence of this information, is classified under the title of familiarity with Western studies on the History of Art, and the methods of Historiography of Art for him. The historiography methods of this famous historian and writer of the Naseri era and Qajar age are also manifested in the paying attention to the artists, the Numismatics and Archeology fields, and in reference to the texts and books related to the arts.