The Dragon in Medieval East Christian and Islamic Art by Sara Kuehn, Sebastian Günther, et al - HTML preview

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chapter two

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