liminal or transitory realm within which the
to be most harmful to those in the liminal stages
passage from the perilous exterior to the secure
of life, such as newborn children, the newly mar-
interior might be negotiated 6 The doorway, gates
ried or pregnant women Moreover, in keeping
and further openings, or other vulnerable zones,
with ideas relating to the protection of deceased
were considered to be a favourite abode of dan-
individuals entering the liminal and transitional
gerous spirits, hence the particular precautions,
states, burials are sensitive sites At funerary sites
rites of spatial passage and apotropaic sacrifices
and mausolea, the dragons serve as markers of
enacted in these areas on special occasions 7 One
sacred spaces
of the primary uses of the iconography of the
The depiction of dragons may be associated
dragon was therefore to identify the threshold
with the fact that some dangerous animals, in
and thereby operate as liminal marker The choice
particular vipers, are held to have a poison-
of the dragon in this capacity reflects a consis-
ous glance 10 This is illustrated by the story of
tently followed principle according to which
the marine dragons reported by the renowned
anyone entering a building is confronted by the
tenth-century Arab geographer and travel er, Abu
dragon figure While the dragon’s intermediate
’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Masʿūdī
position and hybrid character itself is marked out
(d 345/956) Marine creatures are said to have so
as incarnate liminality, characterised by ambigu-
frightened the workmen who built Alexandria as
ity, its fierce, menacing aspect is here found in
to prevent Iskandar (Alexander the Great) from
a “helpful” context in that it is directed towards
constructing the city He is therefore said to have
the outside world, warding off all hostile attack,
dived into the sea in a glass box inserted into a
and turning into a symbolism of defence of those
wooden box from where he drew pictures of the
that are “inside ” It is employed in its apotropaic
sea monsters These images were used to construct
capacity to ward off evil and afford protection by
metal effigies which were then set up opposite the
taking a defensive role against baleful creatures
place where building was being carried out When
and dangerous influences such as natural catastro-
the dragons emerged from the sea and saw the
phes Its semantic horizon is thereby extended to
images they fled, enabling Iskandar to complete
include the function of guardian of the threshold
the building of Alexandria 11 This ruse was hence
akin to a “tutelary spirit” imbued with prophy-
linked to the idea that if confronted by represen-
lactic and talismanic power 8
tations of themselves, dragons would be repelled
The apotropaic and protective function of the
by their own noxious power
dragon may further be associated with belief in
The account has a precedent in the biblical
the Evil Eye, the blighting glance of envy, which
story of the plague of poisonous snakes which so
belongs to one of the most ancient concepts of
devastated the people of Israel that Moses inter-
humanity, prevalent in medieval Islamic culture
vened on their behalf, setting a bronze image of
and referred to in the Qurʾān ( sūra 68, 51–3) 9 The
a serpent upon a pole (Numbers 21:6, 7 and 9):
Evil Eye was feared and apotropaic symbolism,
sometimes in the form of fixed representations of
The Lord sent seraph serpents against the people
the Eye attached to architectural structures, was
They bit the people and many of the Israelites
used to ward off its malevolent gaze, to dissemi-
died The people came to Moses and said, “we
nate evil and to warrant protection It may further
sinned, by speaking against the Lord and against
be noted that the Evil Eye was often considered
you Intercede with the Lord to take away the
6 Cf Flood, 2006, p 149
about poisonous snakes whose looks alone are enough to
7 Kitzinger, 1970, p 640 and n 7; Engemann, 1975,
kil , see Ul mann, 1992, p 111; Ruska, “Almās,” EI¹ I, p 313;
pp 44–8; Henninger, 2004, pp 14 and n 66, p 22 and ns
Ruska and Plessner, “Almās,” EI² I, 419a The poisonous
109–11, pp 31–2; Zbinden, 1953, pp 36, 44
serpent or basilisk whose glance could kil a man was already
8 Kühnel, 1950, pp 4–18 Cf also Otto-Dorn, 1959, p 75
known in antiquity (cf Pliny, Naturalis Historia VII 1 2
and n 38, and eadem, 1978–9, p 130; Öney, 1969a, pp 214–
and 49 70; VIII 33)
25; Roux, 1972, p 393
11 Al-Masʿūdī, Kitāb murūj al-dhahab, tr and ed Bar-
9 Schimmel, 1994, p 91 Cf Marçais, “ʿAyn,” EI 2 I, 786a
bier de Meynard and de Courteille, 1917, vol 2, pp 425–7
10 Al-Damīrī ( Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, tr Jayakar,
See also Pseudo-Callisthenes, Historia Alexandri Magni, ed
1906, vol 1, pp 55, 633) records that the face of a certain
Kroll, 1926, p 32 The story is also recorded by Ibn Khaldūn
kind of serpent, called al-Aṣalah, whose looks kill by the
who discounts the practical aspect of it and observes “the
mere sight, “is like that of a human being, that it is of an
story of the many heads they have is intended to indicate
immensely large size, and that it remains in the same condi-
ugliness and frightfulness It is not meant to be taken liter-
tion even if a thousand years pass over it ” For other stories
ally ” Mu qad dima, tr Rosenthal, 1958, vol 1, p 73
dragons on monumental settings in regions west of iran
23
serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the
survived fled, and it remained empty for a while
people Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a
Then, to drive these calamities away, one sultan
seraph figure and mount it on a standard And if
[Byzantine emperor] fabricated a talisman,
anyone who is bitten looks at it, he shal recover ”
possibly the bronze one now presently shaped
Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it
like three serpents 16
on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by
a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent
ʿIzz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Shaddād (613/1217–
and recover 12
684/1285), the chronicler of the cities of Syria and
the Jazīra in the thirteenth century, mentions a
The expedient relates to the magical principle of
dragon tower (burj al-thaʿābīn) in Aleppo that
effecting a cure for snake venom by viewing the
was supposed not only to prevent the detrimental
image of the serpent, thus following the principle
effects of snake-bites but also to protect the city’s
of homeopathic (or imitative) magic, similia simil-
inhabitants 17 The late Mamluk topographer Abu
ibus, according to which things are believed to act
’l-Faḍl Muḥammad Ibn al-Shiḥna (active 1400–
upon each other, even at a distance, if they are
1450) more clearly specifies that the tower referred
alike in some relevant manner The purpose of the
to as burj al-thaʿābīn serves as a talisman against
bronze image was therefore therapeutic: anyone
serpents conferring immunity from snake bite in
bitten by a serpent could be healed by looking
Aleppo 18 Such apotropaic renditions were not
at it Since the peril was identified with the
unique to Islamic architecture but were also found
demonic power within the serpent, the bronze
in the Christian environment This is evidenced
image upon a pole constituted a counter-equiv-
by the twelfth-century ascetic Abu ’l-Ḥāsan ʿAlī
alent power which served as effective prophy-
ibn Abī Bakr al-Harawī (d 611/1215), who in his
laxis The famous copper alloy serpent column,
description of sacred sites of Anatolia describes
the triple-headed serpent tripod of Delphi in
a talismanic design of a double-headed serpent
the Hippodrome of the city of Constantinople,
in the church of Mart [ sic; perhaps a corrup-
is an example of apotropaic sculpture intended
tion of Mār] Dāris in Mayyāfāriqīn, northeast of
to afford protection from poisonous creatures,
Diyārbakr 19
including serpents 13 The early tenth-century
The conception of the existence of a serpent
Arab captive, Hārūn ibn yaḥyā, notes four copper
with heads at both ends of its body appears to have
serpents in Constantinople that served as talis-
been widespread in the medieval Islamic world It
mans14 to render noxious creatures inoffensive 15
is discussed in the best-known book on animals
The sixteenth-century Ottoman historian Aḥmad
of the Arab world, the Kitāb al-Ḥayawān (“Book
ibn yūsuf al-Qaramānī (d 1019/1610) similarly
of Animals”), written by the ninth-century lit -
reports:
térateur Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr, known
Serpents and snakes appeared in [Constantinople]
by his nickname al-Jāḥiẓ (“the google-eyed”;
and decimated men and cattle alike Those who
159/775–6–255/868–9) He quotes the Arabic
12 Tr after Wilson, 2001, p 75 The term seraph (Hebr
well-being; it also relates to architectural sculptures that
saraf) appears to be the general name for poisonous snakes
served an apotropaic function
whose poison, metaphorically, soref (“burns”) the body See
15 The text is included in Ibn Rusteh’s early tenth-century
also Astour, 1965, pp 232–3; Hendel, “Neshutan,” DDD,
geographical work, Kitāb al-aʿlāq al-nafīsa See El-Cheikh,
pp 615–6
2004, p 148
13 The Greek cities had dedicated the serpent column to
16 Akhbār al-duwal wa athār al-uwal fī al-tārīkh, 3 vols ,
the Delphic temple to commemorate victory over the Per-
eds Saʿd, F , and Ḥaṭiṭ, A , Beirut, 1992, vol 3, p 192, cited
sians at Plateia in 479 bc During the rule of Constantine I
after El-Cheikh, 2004, p 221
(r 306–337) the column, which originally was eight meter
17 Al-Aʿlāq al-khaṭīra, the part on Aleppo, tr and ed
high, was brought to Constantinople to decorate the spina
Sourdel, D , Damaskus, 1953, p 123 Cf Herzfeld, 1955,
(central divider) of the Hippodrome The intertwined heads
pp 24–5; Meri, 2002, p 206, n 360
of the serpents, into which the names of the victorious cities
18 Durr, cited after Herzfeld, 1955, p 25 To this may be
had been engraved and which once carried a golden tripod,
added the tradition that Balīnūs (the Pseudo-Apollonius
can be seen in sixteenth-century Ottoman miniatures and
of Tyana), known as the great master of talismans ( ṣāḥib
remained in place until about 1700 Only the shaft of the
al-ṭilasmāt), is reported to have left in many towns charms
monument remains in situ; one of the serpent heads is pre-
for protection against such adversities as serpents, scorpi-
served in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum Cf Eder, W ,
ons or storms Cf the Kitāb Ṭalāsīm Balīnās al-akbar, Paris,
“Schlangensäule,” DNP 11, 2001, p 184; “Picatrix, ” tr and
Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms 2250, fols 84–134; see Vajda,
eds Ritter and Plessner, 1962, p xli and n 1
1953, p 696; Sezgin, 1971, pp 77–90
14 The word talisman (ṭilsam) is used throughout the text
19 Kitāb al-Ishārāt ilā maʿrifat al-ziyārāt, tr and ed
to denote any type of object made to protect the owner, that
Sourdel-Thomime, 1957, p 65 Cf Meri, 2002, p 206, n 360,
is to say to avert the power of the Evil Eye, and to promote
and idem, 2006, p 162
24