A Provenance Study of the Gulzar Script in Persian Arts

Gulzar script is one of the many types of decorative scripts in the history of Persian calligraphy. Most of the works that created in this way belong to the late Qajar era. However, the formal and visual bases of this type of calligraphy go back to the pre-Qajar centuries; this research aims to identify, introduce and determine the origin of its formation based on the available evidences. Therefore, the main question is: When has the Gulzar script been formed? The sampling method of the 23 architectural arrays is Convenience Sampling that based on library and field studies. The samples are in the historical monuments of Samarkand, Mashhad, Farumad, Taybad, Soltanieh, Qom, Tabriz, Yazd, Isfahan and Oshtorjan. The date of construction of these monuments includes from the Seljuk period (429-590 AH/1037-1194 AD) to the end of the Safavid period (906-1135 AH/1501-1736 AD). The results indicate that the early examples of Gulzar can be seen in the form of an architectural decoration so called "Kalouk-band" in the Seljuq and Ilkhanid periods. Its use extends to at least the beginning of the 12th century AD. In addition, this method of decoration is used in the Square Kufic Inscriptions and include the geometrical, herbal and written motifs. The result shows that the use of Gulzar style in calligraphy pieces on paper has been influenced by architectural decorations, because the oldest examples of this type are several centuries after the squared Kufic inscriptions in Jame Mosque of Isfahan, Pir Bakran's tomb, Chalabioglu's tomb etc. The decoration of the inner surface of Squared Kufic inscriptions started from the end of the Seljuk era and continued until the 17th century AD. One of the changes made in the design of decorating the surface of the inscriptions is the use of written motifs in the form of "Kalouk-band" decorated with words (in Oshtorjan and Qom). Another change was the forming of a kind of nested square Kufic which has appeared in the Jame Mosque of Isfahan and Amir Chakhmaq Mosque in Yazd. This method has been continued later in Isfahan's Hakim Mosque (17th century AD) and Nimavard School in Isfahan (18th century AD). In the Safavid era, an example of square Kufic in the western entrance hall of Imam Mosque in Isfahan was decorated with Arabesque motifs, which shows the first use of this kind of ornaments in inscriptions. About 80 years before the formation of this inscription, Zain al-Din Mahmoud Mozahheb created a piece that inspite of having many distinctive features some similarities can be seen in them. The latter work is the oldest known piece that carried out the tradition of ornament on the calligraphic surface on paper. Despite the major difference in the structure of these two works, both of these works are decorated with herbal motifs (Arabesque and Khatai).