Arguments drawn from my research — offered for challenge.
This section is different from the rest of the site. The panels and the Guide describe what Rashti-Duzi is — the craft, its symbols, its history. Here I set out what I have come to believe about it: conclusions drawn from my own research, kept deliberately separate so that argument is never mistaken for established fact.
These conclusions concern a small group of artists whose work, I believe, was original and influential yet went uncredited or wrongly attributed. The first and strongest case is Fath’Ali Khomami Sr.: that he was not only a master embroiderer but also a painter, and that a number of unsigned Qajar-period works are his. Other artists will follow, each presented the same way. I lay out the evidence as I see it, knowing I may be wrong.
I try to hold each case to the same test: documented signatures where they exist, recurring signature motifs, provenance, the consistency of an artist’s “hand,” and whatever contextual evidence survives. Where the evidence is thin, I say so — and I try to state the strongest objections to my own view.
These are working conclusions, not final verdicts. I welcome disagreement — especially informed disagreement. If you can strengthen a case, complicate it, or overturn it, I would be glad to hear from you.
More artists will follow, each presented the same way — with its evidence and the arguments against it.