The Semantics of Colors Throughout the Social-Political Movements of Umayyad and Abbāsīd Periods

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mohamad Abdolmaleki ¹
• Khodadad Asemi ²

¹ Assistant Professor, Deparment of Islamic Studies, School of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences

² PhD student of Islamic philosophy and wisdom, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Member of the Faculty of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences

10.22067/jhistory.2022.73410.1087

Abstract

Throughout history, colors have always communicated various messages and emotions. This communication was crucially important in the political and social scene at a time when media was not available in its modern sense. Additionally, the suppression and dictatorship imposed by the government led activist groups to use colors as their symbols. Therefore, a detailed observation of colors and their meanings can help the historian in better understanding past events.
The present study uses first-hand library resources in order to explore the meaning of colors through political movements during Umayyad and Abbāsīd periods. It is concluded th at colors were extensively used with the purpose of communicating messages like political agreement or disagreement, announcing political identity and togetherness, and also promoting the goals of new political strategies.

Keywords

• The Semantics of Colors
• Function of Colors
• Umayyad Period Movements
• Abbāsīd Peropd Movements

Main Subjects

• History of Islamic culture

---

References

Qurān-i Karīm.

Amīn, Aḥmad. Fajr al-Islām. Cairo, Mūʾassisa Hundāvī l-l Taʿlīm va al-Thaqāf,  2012/1433.

Dihkhudā, ʻAlī Akbar. Lughat Nāmah. ed. Muḥammad Muʻīn va Sīyyid Jaʻfar Shahīdī, Tehran: Mūʾassisa Intishārāt va Chāp University of Tehran, 1998/1377.

Dīnawarī, Abu Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwud, Akhbār al-Ṭiwal, translated by Maḥmūd Mahdavī Dāmghānī, Chāp 7, Tehran: Nashr Niy, 2007/1386.

Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, n.d.

Ḥimyarī, ʻAbd Allāh ibn Jaʻfar. Qurb al-Asnād. researched by  Mūʾassisa Āl al-Bīyt, Qum, 1993 /1413.

Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī. ʿIlal al-Sharāʾiʿ. Qum, Dāvarī, 2006/1385.

Ibn Hishām. Sīrat Rasūl Allāh. Translated by Qāżī Abarqūh, Muqaddamih va Editor by Aṣghar Mahdavī, Tehran: Intishārāt-i Bunyād Farhang Irān, n.d.

Ibn Khaldūn, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad. Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn. researched by Khalīl Shaḥāda, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1988/1408.

Kāfī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb Kulīnī. Uṣūl-i Kāfī. Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1986/1365.

Kattani, Abdulhayye. Nizān Idārī Musalmānān dar Ṣadr Islām. Translated by ʿAlī Rīżā Zikāvatī Qarāgizlū, Chāp1, n.p. Pazhūhishgāh Ḥūzih va Dānishgāh, 2005/1384.

Mez, Adam,Tamadun Islāmī dar Qarn Chāhārum Hijrī, vol.2, Translated by ʿAlī Rīżā Zikāvatī Qarāgizlū, Chāp1, Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1983/1362.

Spuler, Bertold. Tārīkh-i Irān dar Qurūn-i Nakhustīn Islāmī. Translated by Javād Falāṭūrī va Maryam Mīr Aḥmadī, vol:2, Chāp 4, Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʻElmī va Farhangī, 1994/1373.

Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr. Tārīkh Ṭabarī. Translated by Abū al-Qāsim Pāyandih, Chāp 5, Tehran: Intishārāt-i Asāṭīr, 2006/1385.

Ṭabāṭabāyī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurān. Chāp8,  Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 2005/1384.

ʿUmār, Fārūq. Buḥūth fī al-Tārīkh al-ʿAbāsī. Dār al-Qalam li-l-Ṭibāʻa, Beirut: 1977/1397.

Yaʿqūbī, Aḥmad ibn Abī Yaʿqūb. Tārīkh Yaʿqūbī. Translated by Muḥammad Ibrāhim Āyatī, Chāp6, Tehran: Shirkat-i Intishārāt-i ʻElmī va Farhangī, 1992/1371.

Zarīn Kūb, ʻAbd al-Ḥusayn. Dū Qarn Sukūt. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 2013/1392.

Zaydan, Jirji. Tārīkh Tamadūn Islām. Translated by ʻAlī Jawāhir Kalām, Chāp7, Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1993/1372.