to southern latitudes, the Moon develops malefi-
refer to the knots of the jawzahr (tᵉli) as knots of
cent qualities ”32
love and mystical union:
Instructions are given for the manufacture of
And the cosmic axis (tᵉli) is none other than the
an amuletic seal ring stone which has the extraor-
knot of the spheres, and there is no doubt that
dinary power of bringing about the disappearance
this is the subject of their existence, like the like-
of the wearer’s enemies, and of instilling fear and
ness of the connection of the limbs within man,
terror into enemies The making of it requires
and the connection of the limbs in man which
great precision and should be done at the hour
are suspended in the bones at the beginning are
of the zodiacal sign of Jupiter and the first decan
also called the axis in man as well And its secret
of the domicilium of his exaltation, which is
is that a magician bring this knot of desire and
Cancer 33 At this time green corundum should
renew it in order to preserve the existence of this
be engraved with the male figure of Jupiter ren-
compound for a certain amount of time And
dered with a lion head and raptor’s feet, holding
when the knot is undone, the matter of the tes-
a lance (mizrāq) with which he stabs a dragon
timony of the knot will be revealed, and one who
that lies under his feet 34
cleaves to these knots (qešarim) cleaves to false-
hoods (šeqarim), for as they are going in the future
Another interesting association with the head
to be undone, the knots of his cleaving will also
of the dragon (raʾs al-tinnīn) is made in the
be undone, and nothing will remain with him
Ghāyat al-ḥakīm describing in gruesome detail
any more, and therefore, before he loosens these,
the severance of a man’s head, carried out on a
he must tie and cleave to the ropes of love those
living subject, for divinatory purposes 35 The
who have not loosened the knots of his love and
soothsaying head is then posted in front of the
the cleaving of his desire; and that is God, may
raʾs al-tinnīn, denoting probably a navagraha
He be exalted; and no other in any sense 38
relief 36
Basing himself on the idea that the Intellect
and the Soul have intermediary roles in the Cre-
b The dragon staff
ation of the natural world, which again echoes
the well-known Rasāʾil (Epistles) of the Ikhwān
The supernatural and magic power of the rod has
al-Ṣafāʾ, al-Majrītī allegorically states in the
been renowned since the dawn of classical antiq-
Ghāyat al-ḥakīm that if inclined towards the intel-
uity The shape of the caduceus (kerykeion)
lect, the soul will be illuminated by it, but if it
appears at least as early as the middle of the sixth
moves away from the intellect the knot of the
century bc in the form of the figure eight or in
dragon’s tail will eclipse the Sun and the Moon 37
that of twisted serpents 39 First and foremost in
Associated notions are also known in Jewish
Greek mythology it was the attribute of the
mysticism, discussed by the thirteenth-century
messenger of the gods, Hermes, whose chthonic
mystic Abraham Abulafia in a passage from the
character is related to his magic might 40 The sym-
Otzar Eden HaGanuz, where he goes so far as to
bol’s appearance in the Central Asian region is
32 Hartner, 1965, p 446
(d 848) and the Nestorian church chronicle by the four-
33 The domicilium represents the position of a planet
teenth-century historian ʿAmr ibn Mattai, as cited in idem,
standing in a certain zodiacal sign, while the exaltation
p VII and ns 25, 26
(sharaf) signifies the point of the maximum power of a planet
36 “Picatrix, ” tr and eds Ritter and Plessner, 1962,
when standing in a certain zodiacal sign Cf Nasr, 1964a,
pp 146 6–147 22; with emendation by Hartner, 1965, p 448
repr 1993, pp 160–1, and table IV
Green, 1992, p 179
34 “Picatrix, ” tr and eds Ritter and Plessner, 1962,
37 “Picatrix, ” tr and eds Ritter and Plessner, 1962,
p 129 7–13
pp 45 19–24–46 1; cf introduction, p lxi
35 The implied human sacrifice is also recorded by Ibn
38 55a Bodleian Ms Or 606 This process of loosening
Khaldūn, Muqaddima, tr Rosenthal, 1958, vol 1, p 221 A
and tying is conceived as the path towards enlightenment,
comparable magical practice is ascribed to the Ṣābians Cf
see Idel, 1988, p 136
Ibn al-Nadīm, Kitāb al-Fihrist, ed Chwolsohn, 1856, vol 2,
39 Levi, 1941, p 227 On the origin and the history of the
pp 15, 19–21, and n 121; and ed Flügel, G , Leipzig, 1871–
caduceus, see also Wilson, 2001, pp 183–94
2, p 321; Chwolsohn, 1856, vol 1, p 142, and idem, vol 2,
40 To this may be added the Greek myth which tells of
pp 19–21, 130–2, 142–4 See also Dozy and de Goeje, 1884,
the blind soothsayer Teiresias who once came across two ser-
pp 365–6; Green, 1992, pp 178–80 The soothsaying head
pents in the act of copulation and killed the female one with
of the Ḥarrānians is mentioned in several other sources,
his staff He was immediately transformed into a woman
for instance, by the fourteenth-century author al-Dimishqī,
and remained so for seven years After seven years he met
Nukhbat al-dahr fī ʿajāʾib al-barr wa ’l-baḥr, book 1, ch 10,
again two copulating serpents and this time killed the male
ed Chwolsohn, 1856, vol 2, pp 388–9, in the chronicle
one whereafter he became a man again See Astour, 1965,
of the Syrian Jacobite patriarch Dionysius Telmaharensis
p 163
the dragon and the province of magic and divination
187
testified by its representation as early as the late
also take the form of “a writhing serpent the size
fourth century bc on gold coinage struck by
of a camel ”46 Mūsā is portrayed with such a rod
Sophytes, who ruled over the Oxus region in
ending in a dragon’s head in one of the surviving
northern Afghanistan 41
folios of Rashīd al-Dīn’s Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh (“Com-
In the Semitic world the shepherd’s rod, stick,
pendium of Chronicles”) transcribed and illumi-
or staff (ʿaṣā) could function as a symbol of sov-
nated in 714/1314–5 at the Ilkhanid capital,
ereign rule If used as such it was believed to be
Tabriz, which is further discussed below 47 The
a repository of the power of royalty, and when
complete transformation of the rod into a five-
bestowed upon someone it both signified and
clawed quadruped dragon of Chinese derivation
helped to effect the transfer of this royal force 42
is portrayed in the scene of Mūsā frightening the
Fol owing the example of the Prophet Muḥammad,
firʿawn il ustrated in a copy of Balʿamī’s Tarjumat-
the early caliphs carried a spear or staff on cer-
i tārīkh-i Ṭabarī, probably made in the Jazīra and
emonial occasions (ʿanaza) 43
dated to c 1300, now preserved in the Freer Gal-
The word serpent or snake (ḥayya) appears in
lery of Art, Washington, DC 48
the Qurʾān only in allusion to the staff or rod that
Trees, and twigs as part of trees, were widely
Mūsa carried as sceptre of his authority and
used for religio-magical purposes which relate
miraculously transformed into a serpent 44 Of the
nine miracles of which the Qurʾān speaks, Mūsā’s
the rod or wand to an artificial twig 49 This is
turning of his staff into a serpent is the first ( sūra s
reflected in the description in Arabic sources of
20, 17–24; 27, 10; and 28, 31); he accomplishes
Mūsā’s rod as a “two-pronged fork with a crook
this by throwing down the staff which takes the
under the meeting point of the twigs and when
form of a crawling serpent The transformation
it was turned into a serpent, the two twigs formed
of Mūsa’s symbol of sovereign rule, into a dragon,
the mouth of the serpent with its forked tongue,
is a magical act that proves the Prophet’s authen-
while the crook took the shape of the crest ”50 The
ticity In Mūsā’s duel with the magicians of the
Qurʾānic story of Mūsā’s rod turning into a ser-
pharaoh (firʿawn) the rods and ropes of the magi-
pent is, moreover, an example of the living power
cians were devoured by Mūsā’s serpent-rod ( sūra s
of the rod 51
7, 107 and 117; 26, 32 and 45) He thereby per-
Al-Tirmidhī records the popular eschatologi-
formed a miracle by which God provided evidence
cal belief according to which Mūsā’s rod is one
of his authenticity as a Prophet In post-Qurʾānic
of the things that will reappear in the Last Days
tradition as well as in magical writings this mir-
When the Beast (al-dābbat al-arḍ) which is
acle and the miraculous character of the serpent-
spoken of in the Qurʾān ( sūra 27, 82)52 becomes
rod play an important part The rod was directly
manifest as one of the significant signs of the
associated with the shape of a serpent45 and could
approaching Hour, it will bring with it Mūsā’s
41 The dating is suggested relative to Seleucid coinage
Antiquités orientales, section Islamique, inv no OA 6697)
which dates from circa 305 bc Reverse caduceus, obverse
Another closely related finial is preserved in Copenhagen,
Sophytes in profile with helmet See Bopearachchi, 1996,
the David Collection, inv no 47/1966 (von Folsach, 1990,
p 26
p 197, cat no 325, and idem, 1991, p 44, cat no 33, ill on
42 Glaznov, 2001, p 92
p 17) For related imagery in Armenian manuscripts, see the
43 Miles, “ʿAnaza,” EI² I, 482b
figure of a priest holding an upright undulant serpent with
44 Ruska,“Ḥayyā,” EI² III, 334b
gaping mouth as staff portrayed in an Armenian lectionary
45 Cf al-Thaʿlabī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, Cairo, n d , p 189,
from Erznga(n), dated 1362 (yerevan, Matenadaran MS
cited after Fodor, 1978, p 13; see also idem, p 12 and n 73
4519); Armenian Miniature, eds Gevorkian and Abgarian,
46 Al-Kisāʾī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, tr Thackston, 1978, p 227
1996, pl 54 Such a dragon-rod would also have been
Cf Ibn Iyās, Badāʾiʿ al-zuhūr, Cairo, n d , pp 125–6, as cited
carried by a Buddhist monk, see Whitfield, R , Whitfield,
in Fodor, 1978, p 15 and n 89 In the Old Testament, this
S , and Agnew, 2000, p 25
rod belonged to Aaron, before it was turned into a serpent-
48 Kadoi, 2008, p 147, fig 4 23
rod which swallows the rods of the Egyptian magicians, then
49 Cf Schimmel, 1994, pp 29–30
it bursts into bloom and bears almonds See Fodor, 1978,
50 Al-Ṭabarī, Mukhtaṣ ar taʾrīkh al-rusul wa ’l-mulūk wa
p 2
’l-khulafāʾ, I, Cairo, n d , p 401; al-Thaʿlabī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ,
47 Martin, 1912, repr 1968, vol 1, p 24, fig 12; Talbot-
Cairo, n d , p 90, cited after Fodor, 1978, p 4
Rice, 1957, p 61, cat no 11 The dragon finial of the staff held
51 Schimmel, 1994, p 30
by Mūsā closely resembles a twelfth- or thirteenth-century
52 See also the the commentary on this verse of the twelfth-
copper alloy finial from Iran or Jazīra, now preserved in Paris,
century Khwārazmian scholar Abu ’l-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn
Musée du Louvre, which may have topped a ceremonial
ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī, known as Jār Allāh, verse in which
staff ( L’Islam dans les col ections nationales, 1977, p 102, cat
he said that the beast will come forth from Ajyād without
no 161; L’Etrange et le Merveil eux en terres d’Islam, 2001,
stating what or where this is; see Lane, 2005, p xiii and n 1
p 110, cat no 74 Paris, Musée du Louvre, département des
Cf Abel, “Dābba,” EI 2 II, 71a
188