Safavid Iran were embodiment  The concept of branding. of Persian soldiers and their plumed helmets.[16] The large group of Safavid alams in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul are presumably reached to Ottoman by the several wars between the Safavids and the Ottomans suggested by the explicitly Shiite messages inscribed on the roundels with the names of the Imams [Fig, ]. Given the richne The concept of branding. ss of imagery evidence from the illustrations of alams in the Shahnameh commissioned by Shah Tahmasp, a distinctive relationship between alam, sovereign and warfare can be demonstrated. In the battle of Pashan Begins [Fig, ], alams dressed up with colourful flags and ribbons were illustrated at the background as indicator of the presence of emperor and well as the battlefield. They are the symbols of warfare together as the various weapons illustrated. This type flat almond-shaped alam has particularly stand out during Safavid times. Evident from textual descriptions, it probably started to appear in The concept of branding.  religious processions in around the sixteenth century at the time of the establishment of Shiism as the state religion of the Safavid dynasty. They copied and symbolised the alams as the standard Imam Husayn and his comrades carried at the battle of Karbala. The ultimate relationship between the Imams’ martyrdom and the ritual processions can be demonstrated from the alam made in the seventeenth century Iran in a shape of sword [Fig, ]. It symbolizes Zufiqar, the sword used by Ali in the battle [Fig, ]. On its openwork inscription, the names Allah (God), Muhammad, Fatima, Ali, Hasan and Husayn and the invocation ‘O Ali!’ has all been included to indicate its ritual functions. The devotion and commemoration of the death of Husayn and his family would be especially evoked and enhanced by alams with a hand-shape. There is an alam in the Metropolitan Museum of Art made in early eighteenth century, with one finger missing, still have the shape of hand clearly represented [Fig, ]. The hand-shaped steelwork inscribed with prayers and auguries raised on the stick, signified the severed hand of Abbas, the revered half brother of Husayn, who were both killed at the battle of Karbala.[17] This man as the standard-bearer leading the whole branch of the Third Shia Imam, represented the loyalty to his religion. As such, alams became the symbol of firm devotion and courage of defending for the religion. In Muharram processions, alams are embodiment of the tough fight of Husayn and his army in Karbala. Standard-be The concept of branding. arers and participants in the ritual processions became the followers of the martyrs, who are eager to show their determination of self-sacrifice in commemoration of the Imams. The standard-bearers who stands at the front serves a same role as Abbas, leads his band in the Muharrum procession. The alam would indicate the presence of the leader, motivate the branch by recalling the e The concept of branding. ntire tragic event and the sacrifice of the Imams. Those long standards not only evoke a spectacular visual effects, the various inscriptions that generally called to the Prophet and Imams would also provide a sensory experience of sound to the public by calling to the names of the Imams. The large amount of surviving alam has not only proved the crucial notion of battle and warfare in the rituals, it has also made a huge contrast with the abs>