Ounar, a cemetery from the Safavid era

Tombstones have great importance in belief and artistic areas due to its close connection with human beliefs. Meshkinshahr’s city was selected as the studied area due to its location at a particular geography and its proximity to the Safavid religious capital (Ardabil), as well as its richness in terms of Islamic gravestones and lack of adequate studies in this field. Among the cemeteries of this city, the cemetery of Ounar was investigated due to main kind of graves and various symbolic motifs. The purpose of this study was to identify, typology, analyze the used symbolic designs or signs, particularly paintings assigned to the Shiite religion, and chronologize the gravestones. This research has been conducted through field surveys and library studies based on the descriptive-analytical approach, so that the conducted studies have shown that the chronology of most graves is related to the Safavid period and the most used motifs were used in the religious domain. Prayer of the Great Salvat and the role of three-leaf palm sterlization is the symbol of Imam Hussein's coffin which was common in the Safavid era