that the most lavishly decorated areas of Takht-i
Images of dragons enjoyed wide currency in
Sulaimān were situated in the īwān palace hall
the Turkic world (figs 165 and 166) and must
and the complex of octagonal towers joined to
have been well-known to the Mongols whose cul-
the īwān Various techniques were used for dec-
tural interrelationship with the Türk has a long
orating the tiles at Takht-i Sulaimān54 which range
history 58 The legendary beasts are known to have
from underglaze painting and monochrome glaz-
been used as architectural decoration in Mongol
ing to overglaze lustre-painting and lājvardina
cities They make a prominent appearance on the
(Pers lājvard meaning “lapis lazuli”), over- and
automaton tree mentioned earlier from Möngke’s
underglaze (an unusual technique believed to
palace at the first yuan capital in Qaraqorum in
have first been documented at Takht-i Sulaimān) 55
Mongolia Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
The dragons portrayed on the tile revetments
literary sources also include detailed descriptions
(figs 186a and b) closely resemble the carved Viār
of architectural elements carved with images of
dragon, datable probably to the second half of
dragons at the palatial buildings as well as bridges
the thirteenth century The creatures’ vitality is
at the second yuan capital Khānbāliq (Dadu) in
vividly conveyed The heads, crowned by fine ant-
China prior to its destruction in the 1360s 59 In
lers, show an elongated wide-open snout with
the summer of 1275 the Venetian merchant trav-
curled-up proboscis revealing the deep parallel
eller Marco Polo ( c 1254– c 1324) arrived at the
grooves on the roof of the mouth as well as the
court of Shangdu (in present-day Inner Mongo-
sharp fangs and the protruding sinuous tongue
lia), the summer capital of the yuan dynasty, and
Tufts of hair are growing from the nape of the
left an account of the so-called “Cane Palace”
neck The quadruped bodies are densely covered
which presumably relates to Qubilai’s “Sira
with scales and the muscular raptor-like legs have
Ordu ” He describes it as a temporary structure
formidable feet with four unsheathed talons
in the form of a huge tent decorated with sculpted
When shown as single entities, the dragons are
dragons supporting the architraves:
either rendered regardant with tails raised or
coiled, the head facing the expansive tail which
It is stayed on gilt and lackered [ sic] columns,
is tucked around one of the hind legs Similarly
on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail of
which is attached to the column whilst the head
vigorous dragons passant were also carved in
supports the architrave, and the claws likewise
relief on the torus moulding of the round capitals
are stretched out right and left to support the
that crowned the red sandstone columns, pairs
architrave 60
of which stood in each of the eight corners of the
south octagon (figs 187a and b) 56 yet although
The Italian explorer subsequently also visited the
the quadrupeds bear some resemblance to Chinese
winter court in Khānbāliq and noted that the wal s
or Chinese-inspired Mongol renditions of these
of the Khān’s palace were “adorned with repre-
mythical creatures, the bodies are heavier and the
sentations of dragons sculptured and gilt ”61 Sev-
twists are more angular, characteristic of a Central
eral palatial cities were erected throughout
Asian inspiration of the dragon; yet the mode of
Mongolia in the thirteenth- or fourteenth-cen-
transmission of the style and conventions of the
tury Sculpted granite dragon protomes were a
motif cannot be established with certainty 57
prominent feature at one of these palatial struc-
54 Eadem, 1997 For the excavation report, see Naumann,
movement of the Turks, the Mongolisation of Mongolia,
E and R , 1976
previously a Turkish homeland, began
55 Masuya, 1997, p 239
59 Tao Zongyi (1346–1415), Zhuogeng Lu (“Record of
56 Two capitals were reportedly taken from Takht-i
Rest from the Plow”), 1368, repr Shanghai, 1959 ed , juan
Sulaimān in the early twentieth century but given to the
21, p 2 and Xiao Xun, Gugong Yi Lu (“Record of the Remains
German excavators during their 1960 campaign Kleiss,
of an Imperial Palace”), repr Taipei, 1963 ed , p 251, cited
1961, columns 58–60, fig 14 Naumann, 1977, pp 89–90,
after Shatzman Steinhardt, 1988, pp 62–3, 71 and fig 14
figs 69 and 70 Cf Masuya, 1997, pp 228–9 and pl 8
The late fourteenth-century official Xiao Xun ( Gugong Yi Lu,
57 See, for example, the discussion of transmission of
1) gives an account of Qubilai’s audience hall as surrounded
representations between yuan China and Central Asia by
by a “marble balustrade carved with figures of dragons and
Shatzman Steinhardt, 1987, pp 59–71 For a study about
phoenixes ” During excavations at Dadu a marble panel was
the reception of Chinese painting and the types of mate-
discovered with a dragon in relief framed above by a border
rial evidence found in the Timurid context, see Sugimura,
enclosing two smaller dragons Kaogu, 6, 1972, pl 11, as cited
1986
in Shatzman Steinhardt, 1988, pp 62–3 and fig 14
58 Some Mongol tribes had been subjects of the Turk and
60 The Travels of Marco Polo, tr and comm yule and rev
Uighur empires With the collapse of the steppe empire of
Cordier, 1929, pp 299–300
the Uighurs in Mongolia in 840, which led to a westward
61 Op. cit. , p 364