Art and Culture

Iran boasts an impressive contemporary art scene. Galleries such as the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Ahvaz house works by renowned modern Iranian artists. Unique and intricate pottery has been found at Susa dating back to the fifth millennium BCE. Recurring themes are nobility and animal figures.

Persepolis is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a wonder of Persian art from the Achaemenid, or Parsian, era of architecture and art. Remains of the Apadana Palace built by Darius the Great still show friezes depicting the grandeur of the kingdom and the era.

Also in Tabriz is the Maqbaratoshoara and its fascinating Mausoleum of Poets dedicated to Persian poets. The famous eleventh century poet Asadi Tusi is interred here. Astronomical wonders such as astrolabes and scales of all kinds are found at the Measure Museum in Tabriz. A bizarre petrified five million year old tree is also on display. In Shiraz, the Pars Museum is home to sacred Islamic texts and Persian paintings.

Iranian art has gone through numerous phases of evolution. The unique aesthetics of Iran is evident from the Achaemenid reliefs in Persepolis to the mosaic paintings of Bishapur. The Islamic era drastically brought changes to the styles and practice of the arts, each dynasty with its own particular foci.

A Persian miniature is a small painting, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works that are richly detailed. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, which probably had an influence on the origins of the Persian tradition. Although there is an equally well-established Persian tradition of wall-painting, the survival rate and state of preservation of miniatures is better, and miniatures are much the best-known form of Persian painting in the West. Miniature painting became a significant Persian form in the 13th century, and the highest point in the tradition was reached in the 15th and 16th centuries. The tradition continued, under some Western influence, after this, and has many modern exponents.

Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others.

Dance is a beautiful and valuable ritual among Bakhtiari tribes which is the symbol of unity, sympathy, correlation and cooperation of them. Bakhtiari people are resolute and accurate in performing their traditional dances and also they dance in various forms in their happiness ceremonies and wedding parties. First of all, you should be familiar with the words related to Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari dance the most important of which is “Tushmal”.

khorasan area is one of the exclusive regions in Iran, where different tribes live together despite differences in race and culture and it is due to its climatic variability. Khorasani music is one of the oldest type of Iranian music which is played by different rhythms and melodies among the people in cities and villages of Khorasan region. There are some special music for doing different things such as agriculture, wheat cultivation, rain beginning and other traditions in Khorasan region, which distinguishes the identity and the culture of the people in this desert region from the other people in Iran. The modern music of southern regions in Khorasan, which today has been turned into South Khorasan, has a long history so that the ceremonies and cultural rituals of south Khorasan has been registered on the list of Iranian national heritage. Rhythmic and dramatic movements are the features of local music in this region, which is run simultaneously.

Tarke Bazi is one of the old, local and martial games among the Iranian people, mostly performed in happy events and parties such as wedding party accompanied with music and dance. Tarke bazi is originally taken from the battlefield, but its nature has been changed to a local dance by adding the music and various movements to it that arouses the sense of excitement and delight of the people. Tarke Bazi means play with a piece of wood that is common among nomads and tribes and mostly among the Bahmaei Lur tribe (Bahmaei region in the southwest of Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari, west of Kohgiluye & Boyerahmad and the east of Khuzestan), Bakhtiaries, Yasujies, Qashqaeis, Mamasanies, Farahanies people and some villagers and the nomads of Lorestan.