The relationship between veiling the Prophet's face in Iranian painting of Safavid era and Hurufism beliefs

The Safavid era in Iran's history of Islamic period is of paramount importance in terms of socio-political and religious developments. By investigating the art works of this era, this importance becomes double, especially because a "visual revolution" occurred with regard to the importance of religious paintings and Prophet's illustration i.e., veiling his face with a white cloth for the first time. However, socio-economic, verbal-juridical, and theosophical factors contributed to this revolution. Most researchers have mentioned these factors and their effects and conducted research studies, but scant attention was paid to some thinking schools. Can thinking guides such as Hurufism be regarded as effective on and related to this visual revolution? Hurufism thinking school was founded by Fażlu l-Lāh Astar-Ābād (740-796 AH) in 8th century AH and continued to exist until the Shah Abbas era; the alphabetical letters were invested with special sanctity by this school. Hurufisms believe that the divine names and attributes are manifested in the form of letters in the human face. Their guides seem to have a great effect on the Safavid era such that these effects can be seen in the poetry of Shah Ismāʿīl I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty. it seems that there is a significant relationship between veiling the Prophet's face in paintings of Safavid era and Hurufism beliefs. Therefore, the present research has only investigated the relationship between Hurufism beliefs and veiling the Prophet's face in paintings of Tabriz, Qazvin, and Mashhad schools using a descriptive-analytical approach.