the analytical investigation of qajarian reliefs in taq-i-bustan collection, kermanshah*

abstract reliefs are one the most important archaeological evidences to elucidate vague facts of previous cultures. this tradition has a long history in iran`s culture that revitalized in qajarians in different parts of iran, there are forty seven reliefs with engraved decoration in stone collection of taq-i-bustan, too. so far, no report or newsletter about qajarian reliefs in taq-i-bustan collection has been published. as such, this research is the first attempt to introduce it. the goal of the research is to identify the reliefs and their formation process. this collection which is detected and seized by intelligence ministry of kermanshah  when it was  being taken out of  the country at the middle of 1370s, seems  to be  acquired from a construction out of kermanshah and  not to be  related to qajarian construction in kermanshah.the authors couldn’t find any clues about the main origin of the reliefs construction in filing center or documents in taq-i-bustan museum. however, etched impressions of this collection are similar to tiles in eram garden, qavam house, atrvash house in shiraz, or patterns in chaleshtorcastles (kodarahm khan and sotudeh house), shalamzar, shams abadand dezak castle in chaharmahal and bakhtiari province. the pictures on these reliefs are generally showing party scenes, celebrations, courtier festivities to which most of the collection has been devoted to, regal hunting on hunting ground,  that the majority of them have been affected by ancient carvings, especially from sassanian hunting motifs and silver medallions. in addition, a similar example of such motifs could be seen on both sides of the big arch of taq -i - bustan relating to sassanid era. moreover, portrait of soldiers with arms in hand, generally, stand among the flowers and plant, bird and flowered motifs have composed the other painting of this collection. the most important questions of this research are: what are artistic effective patterns in creation of the reliefs of kermanshah stone museum? and how could we recognize and explain them? what are our reasons on reliefs` creation? the results of this study showed that reliefs are more created during the qajar dynasty than any other periods after islam. also, in islamic period for the first time the king or courtier motifs has been exposed in a large scale as relief. base on the results of the study, it could be concluded that qajarian kings have been influenced by safavian, ancient iran and western art. goals of qajarian kings to create relief were:  assimilation of ancient iran`s emperor, representation of a great dynasty in order to extent the influence and power of the kings among the common people, qajarian multiple defeats against russia and britain`s government and their effort to retrieve their status among people, advertising kings’ constructions and services. furthermore, based on comparative studies of reliefs, this collection probably relates to an aristocratic building in shiraz or its district, and it has probably constructed in fathalishah`s time. we used comparative studies and firsthand sources of qajar`s period in order to clear entity, the main position and the artistic process which have had influence on them