Reference
Motifs & patterns
نقشهاMotifs travel between crafts. Where a symbolic reading is contested, this archive sets out the competing interpretations rather than presenting one as settled.
Botehبته
A teardrop form with a curled tip, the ancestor of the European paisley pattern, found across weaving, printing and metal.
Interpretations
- A stylised cypress bent by wind, read as endurance.
- A floral bouquet or shrub in profile.
- A leaf or seed form with no fixed symbolic content.
Found in
Shah Abbasi palmetteشاه عباسی
A large composite palmette named after Shah Abbas I, usually set on a scrolling vine system.
Interpretations
- A court design associated with Safavid royal workshops.
- A composite flower rather than any single identifiable species.
Found in
Heratiهراتی
A small repeating field pattern: a rosette inside a diamond, flanked by four curved leaves often called fish.
Interpretations
- A garden lattice reduced to its smallest repeat.
- The 'mahi dar ham' or interlaced-fish reading of the curved leaves.
Found in
Gol-o-morghگل و مرغ
The flower-and-bird pairing, widespread in painting, lacquer, enamel and tile from the Qajar period onward.
Interpretations
- A lyric image of the nightingale and the rose drawn from Persian poetry.
- A decorative convention used without narrative intent.
Found in
Eslimi arabesqueاسلیمی
Continuous scrolling vine work, split-leaf and rhythmic, used as the connective tissue of Persian ornament.
Interpretations
- An abstracted vine system valued for continuity rather than depiction.
- A geometricised plant form developed in manuscript ateliers.
Found in
Gereh (geometric knot)گره
Strapwork star-and-polygon systems generated from a compass grid, shared between tile, inlay and lattice woodwork.
Interpretations
- A geometric system prized for its constructive logic.
- Readings of cosmological symbolism, which vary considerably between authors.