Problem Statement
Khata’i and Eslimi motifs constitute the most fundamental decorative themes concerning form and content in Iranian Islamic art. Their origins predate Islam; however, with the advent of Islam, these motifs assumed a distinct manifestation aligned with Islamic law and spirituality. From the early Islamic centuries onward, they appeared extensively in architectural ornamentation, ceramics, metalwork, engraving, textiles, and other artistic media, and they have continued, to varying degrees, throughout the history of Islamic arts.
In the early Islamic period, these motifs appeared relatively simple in structure. During the Safavid era, however, owing to increased patronage of art and artists, a remarkable diversity of forms emerged in Eslimi designs, including filled Eslimi, floral Eslimi, cloud-like, serpentine, and dragon-mouth variations. Likewise, numerous Khata’i floral patterns evolved, among which the Shah Abbasi flower remains one of the most prominent examples.
On the other hand, despite substantial transformations and the gradual distancing from abstract perspectives in fields such as miniature painting, flower-and-bird painting, tash‘ir, and related visual traditions, no major structural alteration can be observed in the foundational compositions of Khata’i and Eslimi motifs. These two ornamental systems have largely preserved their essential structure up to the present day.
A study of Islamic art until the late Safavid period reveals a more coherent and eloquent continuity in the abstract language of Islamic art. Naturally, with the rise of the European Renaissance, humanism, rationalism, and the cultural interactions between East and West, artistic exchanges among creators shaped by different cultural contexts and lived experiences produced a form of intellectual and artistic eclecticism. One manifestation of this tendency can be observed in the Europeanized artistic trends of the late Safavid era, whose influences have persisted to the present.
Neglecting the ultimate purpose of art within the abstract vision of Islamic aesthetics, alongside the emergence of autonomous artistic attitudes grounded in individual taste and subjective abstraction during the late Safavid period—an approach fundamentally opposed to the abstract principles of Islamic art—caused Islamic miniature painting to decline gradually, and its abstract paradigms to fade into obscurity.
From the perspective of Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi, abstraction develops through two stages:
1. The determination toward abstraction
2. Spiritual striving within abstraction
Suhrawardi considers the ultimate purpose of abstraction to be “becoming God-like, or annihilation of worldly attributes and transformation into a mirror reflecting divine qualities” (Rastayi, 2022).
It is therefore evident that Islamic civilization and culture, grounded in an overarching unity governing all dimensions of society, perceive art through a sapiential and divine teleology. Consequently, artistic productions were historically aligned with this metaphysical worldview.
This issue has progressed to such an extent that today, even among certain practitioners of traditional arts, the content and meaning of Iranian Islamic art—formed upon the basis of abstract art—remain ambiguous. Many still regard abstraction (tajrid) and abstractionism as synonymous concepts. This is despite the fact that “the concept of abstraction in Iranian painting (between the 5th and 11th centuries AH) and the notion of abstractionism in Western painting (from the late nineteenth century onward), despite superficial similarities, differ fundamentally in terms of worldview, structure, and method of execution” (Hamdieh & Sharifzadeh, 2022).
Accordingly, in order to interpret abstract art and clarify its function and structure, this study turns to the semiotic framework of Charles Sanders Peirce as an interpretive model. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that even this theoretical framework cannot entirely articulate the essence of Islamic abstract art, since a comprehensive understanding of abstraction in Islamic art requires profound familiarity with the inner dimensions of Islam itself.
In this regard, Titus Burckhardt analyzed Islamic art from a deeply symbolic and metaphysical perspective. He regarded the source and origin of Islamic art as belonging to the spirit of Islam itself, asserting that the outward form of Islamic art is generated from the inward reality of Islam and Islamic law, a view particularly evident in architectural works.

Research Objectives
The principal objective of this study is to investigate the expressive quality of abstraction (tajrid) in Iranian-Islamic art and to provide a semiotic interpretation of Khata’i and Eslimi motifs based on Peirce’s semiotic model. The study further seeks to clarify the conceptual ambiguity between the notions of abstraction and abstractionism, while elucidating the conceptual function and the unity of form and content embedded within these motifs.

Research Question
Within the framework of Peirce’s semiotic theory, what concepts are signified by the decorative motifs of “Khata’i and Eslimi” in Islamic abstract art?


Research Methodology
From the standpoint of purpose, this study is fundamental research. In terms of method, it adopts a descriptive-analytical and qualitative approach aimed at interpreting the concept of abstraction and explaining its function and structure.
The research materials—including theses, images, scholarly articles, and books—have been collected through library-based documentation methods.

Conclusion
The present article was composed with the aim of semiotic interpretation based on the theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. Based on the discussions presented and according to the views of prominent scholars, abstraction (tajrid) and abstract art in Islamic tradition fundamentally differ from abstractionism in the Western context.
Khata’i and Eslimi motifs were first explained through the framework of abstract art and according to the hierarchy of perception proposed by Avicenna. Subsequently, these motifs were analyzed through Peirce’s categories of signs—icon, index, and symbol—as well as through the interrelations among the sign itself, its internal relations, and the external world beyond the sign.
What becomes evident through the synthesis of Avicenna’s theory of perception and Peirce’s notion of abduction is that Khata’i and Eslimi motifs are not merely ornamental forms dependent upon visual structure alone. Rather, they are designed upon the foundations of Islamic wisdom, philosophy, and the principles of Islamic law. These motifs embody a highly intelligent and integrated unity of form and content, carrying profound metaphysical meanings.
The interweaving of Khata’i and Eslimi motifs through spiral movement—symbolizing the transition from multiplicity to unity and the reverse journey—functions simultaneously in determinate (visual) and determinative (conventional) dimensions. In this context, corporeality and objectivity are manifested in the Khata’i motif, while convention and symbolic determination are represented in the Eslimi form.
The flower, regarded as the most abstract worldly element due to humanity’s abstract sensory perception through smell—a sensory faculty itself possessing highly abstract qualities—evokes the meaning of abstraction as a movement from unity and singularity toward multiplicity, birth, generation, and the creation of the cosmos.
Conversely, the Eslimi motif, through its fluid and muscular forms that possess no direct equivalent in the material world, transcends representational imagery and approaches the realm of abstraction, spirituality, and transcendence.
The Tree of Life, which according to Arthur Upham Pope “grew from the vase of the waters of life,” has been a motif of enduring significance since ancient times. Diverse examples of this motif can be observed throughout Iranian art, particularly within architectural ornamentation and even in Achaemenid stone carvings.
The abstract signs embedded in this imagery—from the stylized reduction of the Tree of Life to the birds, symmetrical compositions, the vase of the waters of life, and the symbolism of growth—all originate in abstraction. These can be traced within decorative architectural inscriptions and ornamentations.
As Titus Burckhardt observed, “the absence of realism is neither accidental nor due to the artist’s lack of skill; rather, it is an essential element of a qualitative space that seeks above all to be unreal—a space in which forms suspended in the mind appear devoid of matter and its associated properties.”
In the present article, the signs and their modes of perception were analyzed and interpreted. The concepts raised in the fundamental research question were addressed through reference to the views and theories of distinguished scholars in the field.