excellence 10 Another analogy between the two
consciousness Hence as a result of his triumph
healer-heroes is provided in the Avesta which
over his mighty foe he assimilated some of his
relates that the second mortal to press liquid
adversary’s positive ophidian characteristics, such
haoma (Ved sóma) was Āthwya, for which he
as the shedding of the skin, an act that is symbolic
received the boon of fathering Thraētaona, and
of long or eternal life Thus when the hero regained
the third haoma-presser was Thrita 11 The sacred
consciousness, he gave thanks to an angel The
haoma plant was regarded as chief of medicinal
dragon’s carcass was transported to the city where
herbs 12 The drink, made of the haoma seed, intox-
Garshāsp’s feat was celebrated and he was hon-
icated, gave heightened divine powers and mantic
oured as jahān-pahlavān (chief hero), a term
wisdom,13 and was used to counter the dragon
closely associated with the Iranian heroic tradi-
“who tosses poison around ”14
tion The event was commemorated in a flag
Further manifestations of the dragon in the
embellished with the representation of a black
realm of prophylaxis and cure are found in epic
dragon and a pole surmounted by a golden lion
narratives 15 In Asadī Ṭūsī’s heroic Garshāsp-
in turn topped by a moon 19 This was passed on
nāma,16 Ẓaḥḥāk (the historicised mythological
to Garshāsp’s descendants and became his fam-
foreign usurper and avatar of the Avestan demon
ily’s coat of arms,20 another allegorical example
Azhi Dahāka) requests the legendary hero
which suggests that the formidable qualities of
Garshāsp to vanquish a dragon that comes out
the dragon were appropriated by the vanquisher
of the sea and lives on Mount Shekāwand in
Doses of diryāq against the dragon’s poison were
Kābul 17 Before setting out to fight the dragon,
also taken by Rustam’s son, Farāmarz, and his
Garshāsp took an antidote/theriac (diryāq), a kind
helper, Bīzhan, before they slew the hissing
of universal drug which often contained the flesh
dragon that lived on the summit of a mountain
of serpents (see the discussion in the following
in India 21 Similarly, the legendary hero Borzū,
section) He finally succeeded in killing the beast
the son of Sohrāb, resorted to drinking diryāq
with a club carved in the form of a dragon head 18
and milk as an antidote to the dragon’s venom
By slaying the dragon with a weapon carved
before entering his lair on Mount Zahāb to slay
with his own likeness, the hero thus once again
him 22
applied the homeopathic (or imitative) principle
The ancient association of the serpent with the
of similia similibus curantur After the victory
art of healing23 appears also in the popular tale
Garshāsp is said to have shed his skin and lost
of the serpent that introduced the healing herb,
10 The Zend-Avesta, tr Darmesteter, vol 4, 1880, p 219
17 Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr See also chapter 3
11 Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, pp 98–9
18 Asadī Ṭūsī, Garshāsp-nāma, p 269, l 10, as cited in
12 Eadem, p 161
Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr Cf the related story of
13 Eadem, pp 158–9
Mūsā killing a giant serpent with his serpent-staff; al-Kisāʾī,
14 yasna 9 30; cf Schwarz, 2006, p 216
Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, tr Thackston, 1978, p 223 See also the dis-
15 The serpent is an age-old emblem of chthonic gods of
cussion on pp 38–9
fertility, healing and divination in the ancient Near East The
19 Widengren, 1969, p 17, n 35 Asadī Ṭūsī, Garshāsp-
association of the (serpent-)dragon with medicine and elixirs
nāma, pp 49–63, cited after Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,”
is also found in the ancient Jewish tradition According to
EIr
the Jewish Midrash the angel of healing, Raphael ( Rᵉphâʾel,
20 Asadī Ṭūsī, Garshāsp-nāma, pp 49–63, as cited in
who acted as a physician as well as a binder of demons), was
idem
originally called Labbiʾel, who was ordered by God to provide
21 Farāmarz-nāma, London, British Museum, Ms Or
healing for humanity ( Midrashim Konen 26–7; Yerahmeʾel
2946, fols 24, 25; Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, 1982, pp 22–45; idem
14–5) In addition to his attribute as healer, Raphael also
“Aždahā II,” EIr
has a chthonic aspect being known as “Prince of Hades” (1
22 Borzū-nāma, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms Supp
Enoch 20:2; 22:106) Significantly, the Babylonians reported
Pers 1023, fols 242, 243; idem
of the constellation ᵐᵘᶥ Muš, “serpent” (i e , Hydra, the sea-
23 Pliny ( Naturalis Historia, XXIX 4) notes the widely
serpent), that it was the image of the ancient Mesopotamian
held belief that the snake is full of “many remedies” ( inesse ei
dragon labbu (see Heidel, 1942, repr 1951, pp 141–2)
remedia multa creduntur) This view was shared by the early
Astour, 1965, pp 236–7; Kuntzmann, 1983, p 97; cf
Christian theologian Cyril of Jerusalem ( c 315–386 ad) in
Wilson, 2001, pp 30–1 In the Ugaritic texts the Rephaim
his Catechesis (9 14):
(Rᵉphâʾîm), the ghosts of the dead in the netherworld, are
Can you know the efficacy of all herbs, or the ben-
known for their healing abilities, Baal being known to drive
efit coming from every animal? Already even from
out serpent demons ( KTU 1 82:6), and another deity, Horon,
poisonous vipers have come antidotes for the safety
to neutralise the effects of snake venom ( KTU 1 100:61–
of humans But you will say, “The snake is terrible ”
9) See also Becking, “El Rophe,” DDD, 1995, pp 292–3;
Fear the Lord and he [that is to say, the snake] will
Kuntzmann, 1983, p 216
not be able to harm you
16 Ed yaghmāʾī, Tehran, 1354/1975; De Blois, “Garšāsp-
nāma (or Karšāsp-nāma),” EIr
Cited after Kelhoffer, 2000, p 440
the dragon and the magico-medical sphere
171
called Persian basil, to the Sasanian king Khusraw
celebrated in antiquity that was considered effica-
I (r 531–579), known as Khusraw Anūshirwān,
cious against the poison of snakebites or the bites
recorded by al-Qazwīnī in his encyclopaedic trea-
of other wild beasts (from ther, “wild animal”)27
tise Kitāb ʿajāʾib al-makhlūqāt wa gharāʾib
dealing with the effects of snakebites
al-mawjūdāt The king had saved a large serpent
The earlier of the two copies, dated 595/1199,
that crept under his throne and had sent one of
in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale,
his horsemen to protect it from the bite of a scor-
Paris, since 1853,28 has a double frontispiece 29
pion The following year, the thankful serpent
The doubling of the near-identical pages, once
came again before the throne of the king and cast
again, serves to increase and underpin the
out of its mouth a black seed This seed the king
intended effect, underlining the double potency
ordered to be sown and a basil plant grew out of
of the symbolism of the paired images The pages
it which the king used to cure his “cold in the
depict two seated figures each holding up large
head and pains in the brain ”24
crescents with two diminutive attendants in
More all-encompassing is the popular Arme-
princely dress on either side, each enclosed by
nian tradition which records that a serpent king
two confronted dragons and four framing figures
endowed the archetypal physician Luqmān
that are equal y splendidly clad (fig 176) 30 Flank-
al-ḥakīm (after whom sūra 31 is named) with the
ing the central section of both miniatures hori-
knowledge to cure all diseases But seeing that
zontally at top and bottom are epigraphic bands
in Kufic which read: “Its owner and scribe is the
the knowledge would enable men to achieve
meekest of God’s servants, be He praised,
immortality, God became jealous and ordered an
Muḥammad, son of the fortunate Abu ’l-Fatḥ,
angel to empty out Luqmān’s elixir and cast his
son of the rightly guided imām, Abu ’l-Ḥasan,
books into the sea 25
son of the beneficent imām ”31 A second double
page composition carrying an inscription on the
right side states that the book was made for the
b The dragon and the theriaca as illustrated
library of a certain imām Abu ’l-Fatḥ Maḥmūd,32
in the Kitāb al-diryāq
possibly a nephew of the owner/scribe named on
the frontispiece, and apparently a member of the
From earliest times the serpent-dragon was asso-
Shīʿī religious class 33 Unfortunately the place of
ciated with poisons as well as antidotes In differ-
production is not stated The paintings of the
ent forms snake flesh and other ophidian elements
manuscript have been attributed to Iran, but most
were used as remedies for various kinds of ail-
scholars concur that they originate in the north
ment Among the earliest extant illustrated
Mesopotamian (Jazīran) school of Mosul 34
Islamic manuscripts are two copies of an Arabic
The haloed and crowned female figure on the
text on antidotes derived from snakes and used
two miniatures, richly clad and bejewelled, her
as a remedy for snake venom 26 As mentioned in
plaited hair falling over her shoulders, is seated
its title, the Kitāb al-diryāq (“Book of the Theriac”)
with folded legs and crossed feet One of the soles
concerns the preparation of the theriac (a deriv-
faces upwards showing the tips of the henna-
ative of the Greek thēriakos), a medicinal remedy
tinted toes, while the uplifted hands with henna-
24 Al -Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, tr Jayakar,
29 In the course of reassembling the manuscript with
1906, vol 1, pp 639–40
missing folios, the double frontispiece has been repaginated
25 Hoogasian-Villa, 1966, pp 426–9 and 531–2 On
to pp 36 and 37, see Duda, 1992, pp 48–9
Luqmān’s title of ḥakīm in Turklish folklore, cf Eberhard and
30 Cf Grube, 1967, pl 27 (colour illustration); Grube and
Boratav, 1953, p 346
Johns, 2005, p 230, fig 77 1
26 Ms Arabe 2964 in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris,
31 Pancaroğlu, 2001, p 155 and n 6, with the transcrip-
and Ms A F 10 in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek,
tions of the Arabic text In spite of the prestigious titles the
Vienna For a monograph on the Paris manuscript, see Farès,
name of the scribe is unknown to chroniclers and historians;
1953; for a discussion on the Vienna manuscript, see Holter,
Moulierac, 1987, p 84
1937, pp 1–48, and Duda, 1992, pp 46–69
32 Farès, 1953, pp 8–9, pl V; Pancaroğlu, 2001, p 155
27 A recipe for theriac is recorded in Moulierac, 1996,
and n 7, with transcr of the Arabic text and English tr
pp 102–3 Its production is visualised in Ms Arabe 2964,
33 See Pancaroğlu, 2001, p 157 and n 14
p 5, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
34 An Iranian origin has been suggested by Melikian-
28 The date given in the colophon is Rabīʿ al-awwal of
Chirvani (1967) who however does not exclude the possi-
the year 595/31 December 1198–29 January 1199, copied
bility of an Artuqid (Jazīran) provenance Farès (1953) attri-
by Muḥammad Abu ’l-Fatḥ ʿAbd al-Waḥīd Paris, Biblio-
butes the paintings to the “school of Baghdad ” Ettinghausen
thèque Nationale, Ms Arabe 2964 Farès, 1953, pls III–
supports a Jazīran provenance (1962, pp 86, 92), which was
IV
strengthened by Nassar (1985) and Ward (1985)
172