Islamic Art

Islamic Art

Comparative Analysis of Selected Illustrations of Kalila wa Dimna in the Schools of Persian Painting of the Islamic Period

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Samaneh Malekpoor Afshar 1
Mojtaba Yazdanpanah 2
1 Master of Arts in Iranian Painting, University of Art, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Art, Kerman University of Art, Kerman, Iran.
10.22034/ias.2026.569906.2451
Abstract
This research aims to comparatively analyze the illustrations of the book Kalila wa Dimna within the context of Iranian-Islamic book illumination art, focusing on the dialogic relationship between text and image, and examines the visual evolution of two allegorical tales—the Lion and the Bull and the Lion and the Hare—across the schools of Persian painting from the medieval centuries to the Timurid period. Its main question is how the visual language of these illustrations in different schools formulates key concepts of political and ethical philosophy, and what relationship these formulations have with the historical context and Iranian-Islamic thought of each period. The research method is descriptive-analytical with a historical-comparative approach. Data were collected using library sources and an examination of authoritative illustrated manuscripts of Kalila wa Dimna from the Islamic period, and then comparatively analyzed with a focus on page composition, text-image arrangement, coloring, and the style of animal depiction. The findings indicate that while narrative structures continued, the visual formulation of these two tales evolved from a direct and dynamic representation of power struggles in the Ilkhanid period toward a symbolic and more developed formulation of concepts such as justice, wisdom, and ideal order within the aesthetic framework of the ordered garden of the Timurid period. This transition is not only a stylistic change but also a reflection of the transformation in political thought and the deepening of the Iranian-Islamic approach to art as a didactic medium.
Research Objectives:


Identifying and classifying the most important illustrated manuscripts of Kalila wa Dimna in the schools of Persian painting and explaining the course of aesthetic and structural evolution in the visual representation of the two tales of the Lion and the Bull and the Lion and the Hare.


Comparative analysis of these illustrations based on the theoretical framework of the text-image relationship, symbolism, and historical context, with the aim of discovering how political and ethical concepts are formulated in the visual language of each period.


Research Questions:


What are the distinctive stylistic and structural features of the illustrations of the two tales of the Lion and the Bull and the Lion and the Hare in the major schools of Iranian-Islamic painting, and how are the key concepts of political and practical wisdom (power, justice, intellect, deception) formulated through visual elements in them?


What relationship do the observed visual formulations establish with historical developments, the Iranian-Islamic intellectual context, and the patronage patterns of each period, and what picture do they present of the continuity and transformation of didactic art in Islamic civilization?
Keywords
Kalila wa Dimna
Persian Painting
Schools of Painting of the Islamic Period
Text-Image Relationship
Didactic and Allegorical Literature
Subjects
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