Representation of the interior design of the Islamic Royal Courts in the Islamic miniature paintings

ABSTRACT: The majority of the Islamic countries are located in hot and dry climatic areas of Asian and African continents. Islamic religion, which gives special attention for the privacy of the family life or personal life is an important factor that affects the life style. Thus, due to both factors as well as the sense of creating secure and defensive environment for the most mighty one of the country, the highest ruling authority like the sultan, shah or emir, the design of the spaces created for his / her administration as well as private life deserved more special care. Under these conditions, within the palace of the mighty reign, there are always special quarters defined as ―the court‖ reserved for him which reflect his political power and economical level of his country. As a result of the climatic characters, the court is considered to provide the necessary climatic environment besides the needs and luxury for the administration, private life and leisure life. During the times when the mighty ruler went to war expeditions or hunting, a special organization to bring the maximum luxury for his comfort were provided with architecturally built pavilions or tent courts all of which deserve special attention as they bear spatial design organization and high quality artistic work. Also, due to climatic reasons the Sultan may prefer to change his residence during the summer for a cooler atmosphere. For the reason of such conditions, they had designed multi-functional interior spaces designed according to the fashions of their times and equipped the interiors with fitted-in. Furniture as well as movable objects which could be easily transferred from a place to another. Thus they used ceramic tiles and marbles for walls and floors, wooden lattices for windows or separators, beautifully carved doors and windows, painted walls, ceilings to design the interior spaces as well as produced easily movable interior design elements items such as carpets, pillows, sofas, chests, portable tables, stools, brass braziers and clocks. All of them are beautifully ornamented with richly designed motifs. The fitted-in niches, shelves, closets, water fountains and wall tiles, all beautifully ornamented, were some of the stable parts of the architectural design all of which played a mystical role in the interiors as spaces for their self-comfort, meditation, as well as revealing the socio-economic level of the house owner. It is a well-known fact that due to cultural impact resulted through the contacts with the other parts of the world as well as the adaptation of new technological improvements, tastes and fashion for the organization of interiors have changed in time. Adaptation of European style of living with more massive furniture and industrially produced items, such as tiles, textiles, glasses, wood works and carpets led to the vanishing of most of the traditional design elements of the Islamic architecture of the past. However, the interior design style of the courts of noteworthy ruler and the changing of styles from traditional to western styles could be comprehended only through the architectural heritage and object matters inherited as well as court records such as inventories, account books or other documents. Nevertheless, in the absence of the original state of the buildings or their original interior design, the contemporary illustrated sources, such as paintings depicted on the walls or other mediums, mainly the miniatures that illustrated the texts in the manuscripts as well as engravings in the European sources or photographs are the best sources to consult for getting hints of the original design as well as the life style experienced in such spaces. Thus in order to bring out a general information relevant to the selected topic, the study focuses on a selected group of miniatures that mainly represent the interior design of the Islamic royal courts of the Classical Period of the Ottoman Empire (1299 – 1923), Safavid period of Iran (1501–1736) and the Mughal rulers of India (1526–1857) between 15th century to 18th century. The selection of these three different royal reigns is due to a fact that they were the most dominant powers in the Islamic world during the concerned period. Also it is believed that all these three nationality share a common background feature that the architecture and art of these three geographical areas developed on the basis of an earlier of era, mainly on the influences of Il Khanid (1256- 1335) in Iran area. The close cultural relation between the three Empires as well as competitive moods is another reason for selecting these three geographical regions for the case study in the thesis. Today, there is no original setting to show us how the court of an imperial ruler was designed during the 15th-18th centuries in the Islamic countries since most of the interiors were subjected to change in order to keep up with the new fashions or renovate of such spaces due to warn out of the decorative items such as carpets, throne, curtain, lightening devices or wall or floor coverings. Method of the study is to follow qualitative research method. Literature review to understand the spatial organization of the Royal Courts and for the selection of miniature painting examples for our analysis is the first steps for the study. Then an interpretive research method is applied to analyse all selected samples. Thus, they are categorized geographically and chronologically and analyzed in a comparative way so as to reveal the design style of the imperial courts. The aim of this thesis is to present an idea about the interior design of the Islamic courts of the imperial rulers of Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal India between the 15th-18th centuries in view of miniature paintings. Keywords: Islam, miniature paintings /illustrations, interior design, Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire, Mogul Empire. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………