Religious Popular Art: Iconography of Imam Ali's Pictures

The Iconography of the Prophet Mohamad and the Shiite Imams is very common among the Muslims and the Shiite countries like Iran. In this popular art, illustrators using the historical narratives depict the great religious figures of Islam. Surveying of the motifs in this popular genre suggests that it is not only a form of folk art motif dialogue between different religions out there, but depending on the historical and cultural condition of the illustrator, these motifs have been used by different combinations. Although this kind of iconography is simple stylistically, it can mobilize the Muslim people throughout the world emotionally. The strength tie between this iconography with the religious practices (for example, during Muharram in Iran), is an evidence for its place in the religious culture of the Muslims. The iconography of Hazrat Ali as one of the key figure in the Iranian Shiite culture has a special place among the people. At least two hundred years, during which his effigy plurality of addresses, stating that high position and meaning. The desire to "be original" images from the perspective of the sociology of art is remarkable for all the people. The desire to show how the production cycle of these images and try to get closer to the still will last. The result of the study shows that in addition to the influence of different painting traditions of various countries (Iran, Turkey, Egypt and the West) in Imam Ali’s Paintings, These paintings are linked with cultural and religious traditions of every specific country. The painting illustrated in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Arabic countries clearly reveals that each popular paiting is associated with a specific cultural patterns. For example, in Turkey, Turkish Sufi mystics and Imam Ali’s images are interwoven. In Arabic countries like Syria, Imam was pictures as a man of his peers and elders, as a tribal, Arabic man leaning on a sword. In Arabic images signs like sword, horse, and mustache are symbols of bravery, masculinity and the tribal staus. In the Iranian pictires, bravery and piety are the essential elements featured in the images. The common motifs in images reviewed include: swords, horses, halo, lion and palm. In Some images, Hazrat Ali just sitting on while a lion is sitting next to him. In other images, he is seen along with his two sons Hasan and Hussein. Interestingly, the images have changed based on the cultural and historical context of the artist. For example, in the image of Imam that is drawn in in Egypt, the Ottoman period costumes and hats are seen. In this paper, we have extracted the key motifs of the images by Ervin Panofsky’s iconological method. Panvfsky method has three stages: pre-iconography, iconography, and finally iconology. In the first stage (pre- iconographical stage) the main elements or motifs are extracted from the images. In the Second stage, these elements are interpreted in relation to each other. The main goal at this stage is that the general meaning of the image obtained. Finally, the third stage, the relationship between these elements (motifs) with ethnic and religious stories and myths from different countries are examined.