| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
The Renaissance and the Enlightenment, spanning from the mid-15th to the mid-18th century, steered the West in a new direction by emphasizing humanism, reasoning, and rationalism. Concurrently, the Aq Qoyunlu and Safavids, at the zenith of their power, welcomed travelers from Europe who began writing travelogues to document their experiences and provide a roadmap for political delegations aiming to alleviate Ottoman pressure through an alliance with Iran. As they entered Iran, they observed a diverse array of issues within Iranian society. The travelers' numerous references to cultural traits reflect an acknowledgment of these aspects, which can foster a new understanding of Iranian architecture through the lens of its cultural history. The architecture of any country arises from how people perceive the world around them and how they respond to the events they encounter throughout their lives. The limited resources and knowledge of the pre-modern world led people to embrace beliefs that, while not providing solutions to crises, could soothe the human mind and soul, making it easier to endure repeated hardships. One such belief is fatalism, which manifests in a variety of words such as destiny, fortune, time, and spinning wheel in everyday Iranian conversations. The presence of such cases in travelogues prompts an inquiry into how fatalism in Iranian culture influenced architecture and what manifestations these effects have on buildings. To address this issue, the current study seeks to find answers by examining the documents of non-Iranian travelogues from the era of the Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid dynasties, employing a critical approach and an external perspective. This method, grounded in the cultural history of Iranian architecture, aids in recognizing behaviors that seem normal to individuals within society due to their concealment behind everyday habits. The objective of this research is to explore how fatalism impacted the architectural works of the Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid dynasties from the viewpoint of non-Iranian travelers. This study adopts a documentary and interpretative-historical approach, analyzing recurrent statements about fatalism through purposeful sampling from non-Iranian travelogues, with findings derived from grounded theory and mixed methods. The influence of fatalism permeates every facet of the Iranian world, affecting individuals, society, government, and theology. Effects on individuals include tolerance, living at the moment, submission, astrology, and the pursuit of fame; societal aspects involve prioritizing oneself over society and shirking responsibility; in government, there are threats of confiscation, tyranny, abrupt decisions by rulers, forced migration, and border policies; finally, in theology, there is a faith in mortality, a belief in death, and superstitions noted in travelogues. According to travelogues, the repercussions of these factors on architectural works manifest as the demolition of buildings deemed bad omens, the reliance of structures on their creators, gradual deterioration of buildings, neglect of public structures, insufficient investment in architecture, declining building quality, the rise and fall of neighborhoods, damage to public buildings, lack of restoration efforts, and reduced building lifespans, all of which arise from a culture that has endured the weight of fatalism for centuries. |