Narrative Analysis of Isa Bahadori's "Bashariat" Carpet Traditional Design through the Perspective of Roland Barthes' Five Narrative Codes

 
Traditional design encompasses the artistic practice  of creating Slimi and khatai on spirals and sporadic arches. From this perspective, these motifs can be interpreted as symbolic expressions, akin to words embedded within the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes to serve the purpose of storytelling. These motifs hold a dual significance with respect to both form and meaning. In this manner, the narrative elements that require pairing to convey coherence are substituted with pivotal concepts.  These visual symbols resemble sentences formed by merging words along the horizontal axis, facilitated by their meaningful arrangement along spiral connections. The interplay between these dispersed motifs across the overall composition contributes to the establishment of overt and implied narrative meaning.
 It is crucial to focus on the cultural context as the shared origin of representation and content. Recognizing its significance within the design context is connected to the selection of content and its alignment with representation. In fact, neglecting this importance in the research context of Iranian traditional design art in general and the art of carpet design, in particular, is one of the issues that requires research. Focusing on the semantic dimension of motifs elevates them from mere decorative forms to forms that generate narratives and meanings.
The "Bashariat" carpet, designed by Issa Bahadri, offers an opportunity to investigate the realization of the aforementioned attributes. The Khataei and Slimi motifs designed in its context deal with the hidden depiction of human figures, which in meaningful interaction, narrate the story of the origin and continuation of the human race. In other words, the "Bashariat" carpet within the context of a general image system is the convergence point for two distinct histories – one mythological and the other religious – visually intertwined at the core of its backdrop motifs. To comprehensively analyze this aspect, employing a methodology aligned with narrative analysis subjects, such as Roland Barthes' narrative codes, proves essential. According to these connections, the narrative doesn't have a preset meaning; instead, it has a interconnected structure made up of five codes.  Understanding these codes is imperative for grasping Barthes' delineation of the narrative's author and reader roles. Although the words for writing are available to all authors in the same way, in his opinion, what makes them stand out is the way these words are employed in the narration. When a writer writes with passion at the helm, they produce significant texts, and their readers transform into writer-readers who revise the texts on the precipice of reading and writing as they read. The significance is further exemplified by the carpet designer of "Bashariat," who, despite drawing inspiration from customary patterns, sought innovative and meaningful representation
Hermeneutic and action codes, which have a horizontal relationship in the syntagmatic axis, are seen to be the causes of the development of the story. The story is created by merging the other three codes, which likewise point the reader to associated semantic bases outside of the text and have vertical relations in the paradigmatic axis. An important point in this field is the lack of researches that have studied the traditional design from the perspective of narrative codes.
 The current study adopts a descriptive-analytical methodology to address the question: "What are the meaningful interpretations of motifs within the narrative of the 'Bashariat' carpet based on Barthes' narrative codes?"  In this sense, just the text portion was examined, based on the significance of the topic of mankind and the creation story from the standpoint of narrative ciphers. This significance highlighted the need for human themes in the visual interpretation of this tale, and its lack in the carpet's margin precluded the study of the margin from considering the research process. The findings of this study demonstrate that, in addition to serving their primary purpose of adorning and beautifying the carpet's surface, the visual elements created for the carpet of Bashariat also took into account the two elements of narration and meaning generation, which are divided into five codes as follows:
-The hermeneutic coder investigates the Khatai motifs of Toranj and Slimi of Lakh from the perspective of the concepts contained in human motifs and the meaningful relationships coming from the arrangement of motifs of men, women, and children. This is done by challenging the text's unity. The solution to it pierces the second theme region, which has its roots in a mythical account of how early humans first came into contact with plants. According to mythology, Mesh, and Mishyaneh, the first human parents, were born from Gyumerth's discarded sperm and enhanced Urmuzd's excellent creation by bearing offspring. The human figures tucked away in the center of Taranj's khatai patterns, whose unity symbolizes the continuance of the human race, can be considered as the visual representation of this idea. However, in accordance with Islamic doctrine, the first birth's beginning point is related to descent. The human body created in Lakh in an abandoned state is an example of the fall, and its decline has been the cornerstone of Bashariat that marked the beginning of the human race in Toranj.
 - In accordance with the text's fundamental meaning, the man, female, and rooster characters' sequential acts provide the context for the action symbols. The word Bashariat is written in the Toranj region by two men, holding the word firmly in their hands to act as a guardian. Next is the representation of a woman's living head, corresponding to the mythical ideas about women's bodies being healthy and ensuring reproduction. A body covered in flowers and the pattern of two blossoming flowers in a woman's maternal body are manifestations of this health. When it comes to ensuring that the generation continues, these traits complement the active action of the woman and the protective action of the male. In the setting, the rooster's ultimate stance, in which it is flying toward the infant, serves as a protective function, and it symbolizes the rooster's mythical and religious significance.
- The upward reading of Toranj's design, ascending from bottom to top, considers Islamic discourses that prioritize male origin in the creation of humankind. The positioning of the male figure as Adam at the bottom of the female body symbolizes this hierarchy. The dynamic interplay of stillness and movement between the male's horizontal posture and the female's vertical placement signifies complementarity. The spiral arcs on the carpet's background, rising from under Adam's hand, convey both humanity's perfection post-fall and additional connotations.
- The child's form, arising from the convergence of male and female forces, bears symbolic meaning. Resembling his father in posture, hair color, and appearance, he embodies Zoroastrian principles. Although there is no difference between having a boy or a girl, documented records indicate that boys are preferred over girls. A single body is another sign with a two-way reference to descent in the elastic portion. According to the theories of ancient Iran, he is evocative of Gyumerth because, as a human prototype, he creates a common appearance among people without gender distinctions. He has a fluid condition and is devoid of gender signals. The second case could represent Meshi and Meshianeh, who split off after succumbing to Satan's temptation and were created from Gyumerth's pure sperm in the shape of a rhubarb plant. In contrast to this design element, the background of the carpet has snail and rooster motifs, which symbolize male and female genders.
-The dual notions of ancient Iran and the Islamic faith in the carpet of "Bashariat" are realized as cultural symbols that have an impact on all symbols. As a result, human themes have evolved into pairs in mythical and religious narratives, such as "Mashi and Mashianeh" and "Adam and Eve," or they have taken on symbolic dual meanings, like snail and rooster motifs. However, the focus on the idea of couplehood that has been achieved in the general design of the carpet with the 1/2 pattern is crucial to the consensus of these ideas. As a result, while depicting male and female couples and the idea of their complementarity in producing a pair of occurrences in one half of the carpet, it also deals with their multiplication in the second half, which highlights multiple marriages.