The Analytical Study of Plant Motifs Used in Iranian Glassware dur-ing 11th-12th Centuries (A.D)

The Seljuqs were a tribe of Turkmen Ghuzz whose rule was terminated by Khwarazmian. The works of this era are considered to be masterpieces of the Islamic epoch, among which are glassware art whose way of decorating and making has put it in a special place. In decorating these works, geometric, animal, written, human and plant motifs have been used. The purpose of the present research is to focus on identifying the plant motifs of this period and recognizing the most extensively used plant motifs. Therefore, the present research seeks to answer two questions; a. What are the mostly used plant motifs in Seljuks glassware? b. What are the most widely used plant motifs in this period? This research was conducted using a historical, descriptive-analytical approach with referring to library resources. A total of 54 works were used in this paper, among which 42 glassware were analyzed as a sample. The results of this study indicated that the plant motifs used in Seljuk glassware included motifs such as flowers, arabesque, fruits, leaves, buds, ivy and the placement of plant motifs along with geometric, animal and written motifs. It was also found that the most frequent motif was flower, which was implemented in various shapes. In addition, the mostly used color in decoration of glassware was green in different shades. In terms of the style of implementation and decorating tools, the most common way was using mold.