humoral physiology and pathology, was informed
the dragon represents the “sky,” that is, the
by a structure of sympathies The four elementary
material world; its four feet the four elements,
qualities or natures (ṭabāʾiʿ) (hot, cold, moist and
its seven heads the seven planets 80
dry) were regarded as the crucial constituents of
It is, moreover, recorded that above the throne
all things, whether metals, minerals, plants, or
of the Ghaznawid sulṭān Masʿūd, who although
animals; these qualities traditionally correspond
being ethnically Turkish was deeply imbued with
to other quaternary groupings such as the four
Persian and Islamic courtly traditions:
Aristotelian elements of earth, fire, air, and water,
and to the Hippocratic-Galenic cardinal humours
a gold-plated chain [was] hung from the ceiling
(al-akhlāt) which consisted of phlegm, yellow bile
of the chamber containing the dais, and came
(choler), black bile (melancholy) and blood 73
down over the dais where the crown and the
The eleventh-century historian of the
throne were The crown was attached to this chain,
and there were four bronze figures fashioned in
Ghazna wids, Bayhaqī, stresses the importance for
the shape of human beings and mounted on col-
man to “understand that he is composed of four
umns which were secured to the throne itself, so
elements, which must be maintained in equilib-
that their hands were outstretched and thus held
rium ”74 The actions of the poisons in the body
the crown safely 81
were explained as an imbalance (iʿtidāl) of the
four humours, or the entire constitution 75 More-
Hence, the number of four figures holding up the
over, as Meisami states, “the four elements and
crown above the throne may be indicative of stan-
humours (i e , the bases of all creation), when
dard patterns for enthronement scenes that were
maintained in equilibrium, are symbolised by the
current in the Central Asian world It may thus
image of a square within a circle ”76 Since this text
be possible to view the four winged figures fram-
is largely associated with medicinal preparations,
ing the personification of the Moon that is
Oya Pancaroğlu argues that the four winged fig-
enclosed within interlaced dragons of the Kitāb
ures which surround the central figure may have
al-diryāq as representing the heavenly sphere,
been intended to symbolise the four elements and
while by contrast the serpent-dragon, with its
their four humoral counterparts which, by exten-
symbolism evoking potent therapeutic talismanic
sion, may also be reflected in the four knots
devices directed against the “demons” of illness,
formed by the two dragons that may be read as
is related to the medical sphere
a reinforcement of this number symbolism 77
However, since the pillars of Galenic humoral
physiology and pathology are linked to worldly
c Studies on the properties of serpent(-dragons)
existence and its material manifestations, they
and the effects of their venom
may also be more closely associated with the motif
of the dragons with fourfold knot This motif
Based largely on late antique forms of Greek
would lend itself as a more likely association since
medical knowledge with their magical practices
the representation of the dragon often served to
and beliefs, medieval Islamic medical science,
embody the world and its material expressions 78
pharmacology and toxicology likewise maintained
The poet al-Fāryābī accordingly defines the four
a close link between science and supernatural
senses that bind humans to the world as four
medical paradigms,82 as reflected in the Kitāb
dragons:
al-diryāq 83 Hence supernatural and magical
explanations of diseases were often sought How-
This human who is the highest of creations
ever, while magic spells as remedies were usually
Is constantly in the throes of the four dragons
prohibited they could exceptionally be resorted
[that make up his senses] 79
to in special cases such as snake or scorpion
In a similar vein, in Niẓāmī’s Haft Paykar:
stings 84 The use of both natural (ʿilm sīmiyā) and
73 Cf Browne, 1921, pp 120–1; Needham and Ling, 1954,
80 Tr Wilson, 1924, vol 2, 1645, n 1616, and Dastgirdī,
p 459; Dols, 1984, pp 10–24, esp 10–1
V , Haft Paykar, Tehran, 1313, p 244, n 1; as cited in
74 Meisami, 1999, p 82
Meisami, 1987, p 228, n 56
75 Johnstone, “Summ,” EI 2 IX, 872a
81 Bosworth, 1963, pp 135–6
76 Meisami, 1993, p 166
82 Moulierac, 1987, p 88 i
77 Pancaroğlu, 2001, p 164 and n 30
83 Cf Bürgel, 1988, pp 33–7 For the lands of the
78 Daneshvari, 1993, p 19
Fertile Crescent, see also Farès, 1953, p 26, and idem, 1959,
79 Al-Faryābī, Dīwān, ed , Bīnish, T , Tehran, 1958, p 43,
p 162
as cited in Daneshvari, 1993, p 16, n 7
84 Cf Ullmann, 1978, pp 2–5
the dragon and the magico-medical sphere
177
supernatural (siḥr) magic which was thereby
creatures, translated and compiled from the Greek
involved may largely be seen as a reflection of the
most probably in the ninth century and in circu-
beliefs and practices current in contemporary
lation throughout the medieval period, reveals
society 85
the association between toxicology and the Her-
The relationship between pharmacology, tox-
metic notions of sympathies 91 The belief in a link
icology and other occult sciences is evidenced by
between the terrestrial and the celestial informed
the attribution of one of the earliest and most
in particular the description of the serpents, their
complete known works in Arabic on the scientific
venom and the theriac antidotes, which were sys-
study of poisons, their detection and actions, and
tematised in the text according to their corre-
the treatment of the conditions they cause, the
spondence to the twelve constellations of the
Kitāb al-sumūm wa dafʿ maḍārrihā (“Book on
zodiac and the planets Among the serpents cor-
Poisons and the Prevention of Their Harm”), to
responding to the description of the planets is a
the renowned alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān which
dark green or black and saffron-coloured serpent
was probably written about 900 or earlier 86
which represents the head and tail of the planet
Another important text on poisons in Arabic
of the dragon (al-jawzahr) 92 A list of fantastic
ascribed to ʿAlī ibn Waḥshiyya al-Nabaṭī who
serpents follows, among them a deathly red ser-
lived in the second half of the ninth century sim-
pent with black wings living in the air93 and a
ilarly exhibits a mixture of science and magic 87
large marine serpent with branching horns like
Texts on pharmacology and toxicology, in par-
those of a stag and a mane like that of a seahorse
ticular, contained ideas infused with late antique
We learn further that this marine serpent has a
concepts of magic based on the Hermetic notion
black neck, a white head, a red belly and a mul-
of a unified cosmos of independent forces 88 The
ticoloured back; that it can be caught with the
subject of toxicology intersected above all with
help of music; that a stool made with its vertebra
the Hermetic tradition of late antiquity, for mu-
can both cure the sitter of podagra and serve to
lated in writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistos
protect the house in which it stands from vermin,
(including a number of astrological treatises)
and that this serpent’s head yields stones that are
which had great influence on magical, divinatory
used for talismans 94 Another deathly dark-green
and alchemical discourse in the medieval era 89
serpent from the Egyptian desert is human-
This body of discourse emphasises the close rela-
headed with a curly beard 95 A serpent from the
tionship or cosmic “sympathy” between the divine
mountains of Inner Armenia has a fishtail, a bird’s
and the physical world, spirit and matter, between
head and is adorned with many colours, while
the hidden and the seen, and was aimed at gain-
another from the same region has two breasts
ing intellectual and spiritual mastery of the
and, if not deathly, is able to inflict harm 96 The
cosmos by tapping into supernatural forces 90
most vicious of all serpents is the pale yellow
An Arabic text ascribed to Hermes Trismegistos
“Basiliskos” (“the queen”), whose head is crowned
on the venom of serpents and other poisonous
by tufts of hair Whoever so much as sees it dies
85 Levey, 1966, pp 10–1
p 159), provided some of the greatest translators and scientists
86 Tr Siggel, 1958, p 3; Levey, 1966, p 16
of Islam In his classic study on the Ṣābians, Daniil Chwolsohn
87 Poison is clearly defined as “overpowering in its na -
enumerates some thirty Ṣābian scholars compris ing astrono-
ture,” arising “from the mixing of the soul in its makeup with
mers, philosophers, doctors and mathematicians (1856,
its uniting substances according to the influence of the stars,”
vol 1, ch 12); al-Battānī al-Ḥarrānī al-Ṣābiʾ, one of the most
destroying “that which is called the life-force,” affecting the
renowned Arab astronomers, was born before 244/858,
bodily organs, prohibiting breathing, and ending ultimately
probably at Ḥarrān, into a family that formerly professed
in death Levey, 1966, pp 11, 15, 25–6; see also Sezgin, 1971,
the Ṣābian religion The theology of the Ḥarrānians, who
pp 318–29
came to be known as the Ṣābians after a visit by the caliph
88 O’Connor, 1994, pp 21, 52–5, esp 53
al-Maʾmun, is Babylonian in origin, and is a complex
89 Cf Peters, 2004, pp 189–90
blend of polytheism, Gnosticism, Mithraism, Hellenis-
90 A large body of this literature probably originated in
tic Neopythagoreanism and perhaps even Indian cultural
the city of Ḥarrān (ancient Carrhae) in northwestern
components in a synthesis catalysed by Hermeticism Cf
Mesopotamia, a major centre of ancient scholarship, in par-
Marquet, “Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ,” EI 2 III, 1071a
ticular in astrology and astronomy (Ullmann, 1972, pp 289–
91 Ullmann, 1994; for the dating of the manuscript, see
93; Massignon, 1950, repr 1981, pp 384–400) During the
idem, p 159
ʿAbbasid period Ḥarrānian scholars were present in large
92 Idem, p 18 24, p 54 187–90
numbers in Baghdad Many citizens of Ḥarrān, claiming to be
93 Idem, p 28 79
Ṣābians, resisted conversion to Islam and the city remained
94 Idem, pp 28–30 80–3
largely pagan until the early eleventh century The Ṣābians,
95 Idem, p 30 84
whose liturgical language was Syriac (Chwolsohn, 1856, vol 1,
96 Idem, p 30 85–6
178