In his biography of the Prophet Muḥammad,
I heard Abu ’l-Ḥasan al-Fārsī saying: “I became
al-Ḥalabī describes how one day the serpent was
so extremely thirsty in a desert that I could not
move any more I had heard that the eyes of
on top of the wall of the Kaʿba when a large bird
thirsty people burst before they die I was wait-
snatched it and cast it on the hill of al-Ḥajūn
ing for the bursting of my eyes when I suddenly
(where the cemetery of Mecca is located):
heard a voice I turned my face and saw a white
[…] where it was swallowed by the earth Some
serpent, as bright as pure silver, approaching me
people say that this is the creature, which will
I ran fearful y because fear had engendered power
speak to mankind on the day of Resurrection It
in me Then due to weakness I walked slowly
is also said that the monster will come forth from
while the serpent was still after me In this way
the ravine of the mountain Adjyād 1
I walked, till I reached water The voice grew
silent and I could not see the serpent 4
He thus implicitly seems to associate the serpent
The powerful voice of the dragon is also referred
with the Beast of the Earth (al-dābbat al-arḍ)
to in an account of the dragon fight of Sām/
mentioned in the Qurʾān ( sūra 27, 82) 2 Here the
Garshāsp, the legendary ruler of Sīstān and grand-
serpent will raise its voice on the day of Resur-
father of the hero Rustam When the dragon, who
rection
was fifty thousand cubits (gaz) in length, saw Sām,
Citing the seventh-century Jewish convert Kaʿb
he jumped at him Sām struck him with his mace
al-Aḥbār, the early medieval writer al-Kisāʾī
so that the dragon fell to pieces and “uttered so
describes the voice of the great serpent:
fearful a cry that all of Sām’s companions fell to
When the serpent extols God, its exaltation over-
the ground in terror ”5
whelms that of all the angels When it opens its
Al-Damīrī also reports that there is one species
mouth, the heavens and the earth are lit by the
of serpent, found in abundance in the country of
lightning that flashes Were not this serpent tem-
the Turks, whose hiss is deadly even at the dis-
pered by extolling God, it would strike down all
tance of a bow-shot and yet another type of ser-
created things with the might of its voice 3
pent, “the voice of which if a man hears, he dies ”6
On the other hand, he cites the interpretation of
In this tradition its voice is likened to the terrify-
a dream according to which:
ing sound of thunder, thereby metaphorically
associating the dragon with climatological phe-
He, who dreams as if a serpent has spoken to
nomena
him, will obtain happiness 7
The voice of a beneficial serpent saves the life
A speaking dragon appears in the epic Shāh-
of a mystic in a story recorded in Abū Ibrāhīm
nāma, during Rustam’s third trial This creature
Mustamlī al-Bukhārī’s (d 434/1042–3) Persian
lives underground on the road to Māzandarān8
commentary on the celebrated manual on Ṣūfism,
and the hero inadvertently strays into its terrain
Taʿarruf li-madhhab ahl al-taṣawwuf, by Abū
The dragon is endowed with the magical power
Bakr al-Kalā bādhī (d 380/990):
of invisibility, and is portrayed as using his faculty
1 Al-Sīra al-Ḥalabiyya, Cairo, 1292, vol 1, p 192, 2–4,
ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Isfandiyār (tr Browne, 1905, pp 41–
cited after Wensinck, 1916, repr 1978, p 64
2)
2
6
See also pp 187–8
Tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1, p 633 Cf Ruska, “Al-ḥaiya,”
3 Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, tr Thackston, 1978, p 7
EI 1
4
7
Sharḥ-i al-taʿarruf, vol 4, ed Raushan, M , Tehran,
Tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1, p 656
8
1366/1987, pp 1792–93, as cited in Gohrab, 2000, p 86
For a discussion on the location of Māzandarān, see
5 Tārīkh-i Ṭabaristān, compiled c 613/1216 by Muḥam mad
Monchi-Zadeh, 1975, pp 48–79
192