ghāyat al-ḥakīm wa aḥaqq al-natījatain (the so-
and tongues (the lower head is less legible on
called Picatrix), which relates that the owner of a
account of the deteriorated condition but may
finger ring engraved on the bezel with a serpent
be presumed to mirror the upper head) 97
surmounted by a scorpion will be protected from
In his discussion of the Çankırı darüşşifa knot-
snake bite; or again that he will be healed from
ted double dragon motif Gabriel drew attention
any such bite when the ringstone is placed into
some time ago to the reminiscence of the ancient
a liquid which is then imbibed 95
Asklepian symbol (consisting of a single serpent
A comparable conceptualisation connecting
coiled around a staff) 98 It is also of note that in
the knotted dragons with the subject of medicine
some thirteenth-century star pictures the constel-
and healing governs the depiction on a marble
lation Ophiūchus (Serpentarius), the “serpent-
relief plaque of a pair of confronted dragons
holder,”99 is rendered knotted in such a way as to
linked by a quadripartite knot at mid-section with
appear almost double 100 This is of special impor-
further knotted interlaces above and below The
tance for the interpretation of the iconography of
plaque was found at the darüşşifa of the atābeg
the knotted dragons, taking into account that in
Lālā Jamāl al-Dīn Farrukh in Çankırı, outside
classical antiquity Ophiūchus was also referred to
Ankara, dated by the inscription to Muḥarram
as Asklepios, the god of medicine par excellence,
633/1235,96 but is no longer extant (fig 175) The
whose attribute is a pair of intertwined serpents,
serpentine bodies are oriented to the left; their
and as Hygieia, his mythical daughter 101 The con-
confronted heads, with gaping jaws, almond-
stellation Ophiūchus governed physicians and
shaped eyes and cusped ears, reveal sharp teeth
pharmacologists as wel as huntsmen and athletes
95 The German translation of the Arabic version of the
two closely related dragons, knotted in a similar manner,
Ghāyat al-ḥakīm, ed Ritter, 1933, 2 Abh , 10 Absch , f115,
but with a large tripartite knot, are found in an Armenian
states:
Gospel book of 1304 by the miniaturist Vardan in Astapat,
Man graviert auf einen Ringstein das Bild einer Schlange
Nakhichevan, Ms 3722, fols 290b, 319a, 171a, 280a, 232a
und darüber einen Skorpion wer diesen Ringstein
Mnatsakanyan, 1955, p 517, fig 1023; Armenian Miniatures,
trägt, den beißt keine Schlange und er wird geheilt
eds Gevorkian and Abgarian, 1996, pl 24 (upper left corner)
98
von ihrem Biß, wenn er ihn in eine Flüssigkeit legt
Gabriel, 1940, p 168, n 1, and fig 137 Cf Süslü, 1987,
und sie trinkt
p 641 As noted earlier, the darüşşifa became a place of spiri-
tual healing and snake charming by the Ottoman period
Cited after Barb, 1953, pp 17–8, n 119
See p 31, n 75
96 Meinecke, 1976, vol 2, p 103 Cf general references in
99 On Ophiūchus, see Scherer, 1953, p 184
Gabriel and Sauvaget, p 168, n 1, fig 137; Kühnel, 1950, p 8
100 Saxl, 1932, vol 1, p 293, fig 344; “Ophis, Ophiuchus,”
97 The relief has been lost since 1940 and is only known
RE; “Sanitas et duo dracones perplexi” in Gundel, 1936,
from photographs and a drawing done before this date Cf
pp 174–6 See Rogers, 1969, p 156, n 17
Gierlichs, 1996, p 156 Marginal ornaments in the form of
101 Cf idem, 1969, pp 156–7
the dragon and the magico-medical sphere
169