Roman Jakobson, the prominent Russian linguist, believes that all linguistic structures have communicative purposes. He asserts that the orientation of a message toward any of the six communicative elements—sender, channel, receiver, contact, code, or message—reveals the message's function. According to this theory, it can be argued that the decorative Kufic inscriptions and motifs used in the context of Buyid textiles also serve a communicative function. The textile artists of the Buyid era, with their unique ingenuity, crafted a dynamic media framework using symbolic language, signs, symbols, and inscriptions, thereby creating a vibrant textile narrative. This study is significant because it examines the functional role of the Buyid style as a medium, which has not been previously explored. It addresses the question of how the Buyid style functioned as a promotional medium in the emerging Iranian-Islamic society. This article focuses on the analysis of 26 pieces of textiles discovered in the tomb of Bibishehrbanu and the Nagarakhanah cemetery in Shahr-e Rey. Data for this research were collected from library documents and credible museum websites, with data analysis conducted both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings indicate that the textiles of the Buyid era served as a local medium that prioritized the distribution and transmission of political, cultural, and religious messages. Based on Jakobson's theoretical framework, the textiles exhibit various communicative functions, including aesthetic, referential, metalinguistic, emotive, conative, and, at last, phatic functions, with the aesthetic function being of the highest priority. Furthermore, the most frequently represented symbol is the tree of life, signifying power, growth, transcendence, and eternity, while the elephant symbol, which represents power, is the least frequently depicted. Additionally, the promotional-media function of this style corresponds to the fifth priority among the medium's functions, with the foremost function being aesthetic to attract and engage the audience toward the message.
Type of Study:
Original Research |
Subject:
3 Received: 2024/11/1 | Accepted: 2025/02/6