imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (81/700–147/765) who initi-
expresses the alchemical concept of heat acting as
ated him into alchemy and secret teachings 29 In
male, cold as female, and their union producing
his Kitāb al-aḥjār (“Book of Stones”) Jābir ibn
humidity and dryness, which has close parallels
Ḥayyān includes several recipes for creating beasts
to the Chinese theories of yin and yang 38 How-
such as serpents 30 The earliest texts of the corpus
ever, these correlations could only happen due
are thought to have originated in the scientific
to a “trans-Asian continuity” from ancient times
culture of the great cultural oases the Oxus (Āmū
that was greatly enhanced after the conquests of
Daryā) and Jaxartes (Syr Daryā) rivers: Marw,
Alexander (r 336–323 bc), son of Philip II, king
Balkh, Khiva, Samarqand and Bukhara, the tra-
of Macedonia, and later through the traveller and
ditional roads of exchange between east and west,
explorer Chang Chhien’s diplomatic and com-
from where it was transmitted to the rest of the
mercial expeditions (fl c 138–126 bc) 39
Islamic world 31
In a text known as the “Congress of Philoso-
Another work was the Tabula Smaragdina
phers” (surviving only in a twelfth-century Latin
(“Emerald Tablet”) attributed by Islamic sources
translation and hence lacking its original Arabic
to Hermes, which purported to reveal the key to
title), tentatively dated to c 900 and attributed to
the ultimate secret of alchemy, and which was
a certain Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Kasdānī,
included in the Kitāb Sirr al-Khaliqā wa Ṣanʿat
better known as Ibn Waḥshiyya al-Nabaṭī and
al-Ṭabīʿa (“Book of the Secret of Creation and
the Muṣḥaf al-jamāʿa of the Turba philosopho-
the Art (of Reproducing) Nature”), written in the
rum, a symposium of philosophers and alchemists
mid-seventh century or later in about 205/820
voice their divergent opinions 40 In the speech of
under the caliph Maʾmun 32 Julius Ruska, who
“Socrates” chemical reaction is compared with
translated the text, was the first to suggest that its
generation, lead is male and orpiment female
origin lay further east 33 He similarly proposes that
According to “Diamedes” both male and female
its genesis should be sought in “the great culture-
substances are needed, mercury relating to the
oases in the region of the Oxus and the Jaxartes
former and sulphur to the latter “Ostanes” makes
rivers, of Merv and Balkh, or Khiva, Bokhara
copper female and mercury male, while “Theophi-
and Samarqand, those great cities which since
lus” offers allegories of nights between husband
ancient times have seen the exchange of mate-
and wife, etc 41
rial and intellectual goods between west and east,
The great emphasis on sexuality in chemical
and where Greek traditions endured for such a
substances and reactions that are detailed in the
surprisingly long time ”34 Ruska visualises these
Turba philosophorum is one of the main charac-
cities at the crossroads of Asia north and east of
teristics of alchemy This is based on the belief
the Sasanian empire as fil ed with a mixed popula-
in a universal sympathy that ultimately unites all
tion of Iranians, Tūrānians, Syrians, Indians, and
parts of the universe, metals and stones (which are
Chinese,35 places where Buddhism, Manichaeism,
alive), males and females 42 Further, the uniting
Nestorian Christianity and Chinese cults coex-
of the opposite principles female/male, passive/
isted Here the sciences of astrology, alchemy and
active, cold/hot, humidity/dryness finds expres-
macrobiotics were very much alive 36 The close
sion in the coupling of the Sun and the Moon, a
analogies especially in the account of cosmic Cre-
cosmological motif of central importance since
ation with Chinese alchemy have been pointed out
it symbolises the generation of all things 43 It is
by Joseph Needham and Ling Wang 37 The text
believed that all metals are a result of their union
29 Anawati, “Arabic Alchemy,” EHAS, 1996, vol 3, p 866
38 Eidem
and n 40 Although the traditions about Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq are
39 Chang Chhien’s expeditions are recorded by Ssuma
persistent even in many books of the Jābirian Corpus itself,
Chhien in the Shih Chi (ch 123) and the Chhien Han Shu
the claim that he himself is the instructor appears to be
(chs 61, 96A, 96B) Eidem, pp 332, 387
untenable Cf Needham and Wang, 1965, p 390, and ns h-k
40 Sezgin, 1971, pp 60–3; Needham and Wang, 1965,
30 Haq, 1994, pp 14–21
pp 397–9
31 Cf Corbin, 1998a, pp 45–6
41 Ruska, 1931, pp 200, 215–6, 229, 247, see also the
32 Ruska, 1926 Cf Needham and Wang, 1965, p 369
summaries, sects 54–5, 57, 59; Plessner, 1954, pp 331–8
33 Needham and Wang, 1965, p 370
Cf Needham and Wang, 1965, p 401, n A; Ullmann,
34 Ruska, 1926, p 167, as cited in Needham and Wang,
“Al-Kīmiyāʾ,” EI 2 V, 110a
1965, p 370
42 Anawati, “Arabic Alchemy,” EHAS, 1996, vol 3, p 863
35 Eidem, p 370
and n 35 Cf Needham and Wang, 1965, pp 469–70 and
36 Eidem
n h with references
37 Eidem, p 373
43 Cf eidem, 1965, p 373
vestiges of ancient dragon iconographies
149
in different proportions and according to different
is recreated in the self-devouring 50 In the sym-
modalities Under the influences of the planets,
bolism of medieval Islamic alchemy, the paired
these are formed in the heart of the earth by the
interlaced dragons represented a fundamental
union of the correlative hypothetical substances
polarity, on which the cosmic rhythm is based,
of sulphur, male, in which fire and air are pres-
the solve et coagula of the alchemical process: the
ent and which has hot and dry “natures,” and
sulphur and mercury of alchemy 51
mercury, female, which contains water and earth,
This double aspect is echoed in the popular
which is cold and wet 44 This relates also to the
belief, mentioned earlier, that the earth is sup-
circular nature of the alchemical process and the
ported by the biblical monsters Leviathan and
agency of transformation that both devours and
Behemoth 52 It is also found in rabbinic tradition
restores
where it is stated that:
The ouroboros symbol is depicted in Arabic
alchemical texts, such as the writings of Muḥam-
Behemoth and Leviathan are serpents (monsters)
mad ibn Umayl al-Ṣādiq al-Tamīmī ( c 287/900–
on the edge of the ocean who encircle the earth
like a ring 53
287/960, known in the west as “Senior Zadith”) 45
His most renowned work was the Kitāb al-Māʾ
Concerning nāḥāsh ʿāqallāṭōn in Isaiah 27:1 the
al-Waraqī wa ’l-Arḍ al-Najmīya (“Book of the
Talmudic commentator Rashi ( c 1040–1105)
Silvery Water and Starry Earth”), known in Latin
similarly remarks that “this entwined Leviathan
as the Tabula Chemica,46 in which the schematic
surrounds the whole earth” [emphasis added] 54
depiction of a pair of winged creatures biting each
The ouroboros symbol was especial y important
other’s tails is shown (fig 149) 47 The ouroboros
for the Ophite (from ophis, the Greek for “ser-
motif is also illustrated in the work on alchemy,
pent”) Gnostics 55 In the ancient Orphic mystery
Kitāb al-Aqālīm al-sabʿa [ dhāt al-ṣuwar wa
the great dragon was the sphere of the Sun, the
’l-tashābīh] (“The Seven Climes”) of the mid-thir-
supreme cosmic force, the good spirit of light,
teenth-century writer Abu ’l-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn
stretched like a radiant ribbon around the rim
Muḥammad al-ʿIrāqī 48 Similarly, in Abū Maslama
of the heaven of fixed stars; closely related to
Muḥammad al-Majrītī’s treatise Ghāyat al-ḥakīm
the four winds, the four quarters of the cosmos
the opposing principles of positive and negative
and the four seasons 56 Writing in c 400, Macro-
bodily temperaments are associated with the two
bius, moreover, describes the iconography of the
celestial nodes (knots), the head and the tail of
dragon, which encompasses the world tail in its
the “hidden essence ”49
mouth, as like the forward and backward looking
It is significant then that in medieval Islamic
god Janus, a visible image of the universe which
iconography the ouroboros dragon was doubled
feeds on itself and returns to itself again 57
and is often pictured as two entwined dragons
However in some Gnostic-Christian writings
eating one another (or, in other words, threaten-
such as the Pistis Sophia ( c fourth century),58
ing one another), in an act both self-destructive
in which belief in heavenly bodies and demonol-
and at the same time parturient, the cycle that
ogy are closely connected, the serpent became the
44 Anawati, “Arabic Alchemy,” EHAS, 1996, vol 3, p 866
50 Joseph Needham and Ling Wang (1965, pp 378–9)
Cf Needham and Wang, 1965, p 373; Moulierac, 1987, p 88;
consider this development to have been due to “Chinese
Kraus [Plessner], “Djābir b Ḥayyān,” EI² II, 357b
influence” on the Hellenistic single tail-eating serpent motif
45 Cf Sezgin, 1971, pp 283–8; Needham and Wang, 1965,
Cf Schütt, 2002, pp 106–7
p 378; Ronca, 1998, pp 95–116, esp pp 102–9
51 Moulierac, 1987, p 88
46 Stapleton and Ḥusain, 1933, 12, no 1, pp 117–213
52 Cf Streck [Miquel], “Ḳāf,” EI 2 IV 400a
47 The highly stylised illustration is accompanied by an
53 Goldschmidt, 1892, p 83
Arabic inscription in the Lucknow manuscript as:
54 Grünbaum, 1877, p 275
two Birds [with an indication of the position of
55 Leisegang, 1924, repr Stuttgart, 1955, pp 111–3, 160,
the respective heads and the tails]; the Male and the
and idem, 1955, repr Princeton, 1979, pp 218–20 On the
Female; Two in One
pivotal function of the serpent for the Ophite sects, see
eidem, 1933, pl I, A A closely related, yet even more stylised,
Schlüter, 1982, pp 56–9
version of the motif is depicted in the Paris Ms no 2610,
56 Leisegang, 1955, repr 1979, pp 218–20
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, see eidem, pl 2 B
57 Saturnalia 1 9 12 Merkelbach, “Drache,” RAC IV,
48 Ullmann, 1972, p 237 and n 1
1959, p 227
49 “Picatrix,” tr and eds Ritter and Plessner, 1962,
58 Known as the Askew Codex, British Library, Ms Add
p 45 16–9
5114 See Sacred, ed Reeve, 2007, cat no 72
150