intended effect of the vessels which were pre-
The dragon motif on weapons
sumably meant to protect their maker6 and more
often their owner, so functioning as protective
Cudgels seem to have been the most widespread
devices This is emphasised by inscriptions invok-
weapon in early Mesopotamia and Iran “Cast
ing familiar expressions of wishes for blessings,
in yellow bronze,”7 they were the most power-
luck, health, or long life for the mostly anonymous
ful and the most victorious of all the weapons of
owner, which are frequently of amuletic character
the Vedic and Avestan gods 8 Cudgels or maces
in themselves; these are rendered often in com-
were also associated with the dragon-fighting
bination with figural decorations of a symbolic
Indo-Iranian mythical heroes,9 and hence possi-
or “magical” significance such as the dragon A
bly serve to characterise them as primordial war-
clear function of the dragon’s iconography was
riors 10 Significantly, the mace of the legendary
thus to reinforce the propitious, apotropaic, or
dragon-fighting hero Kərəsāspa (Garshāsp in New
even magical or supernatural powers of such por-
Persian poetry), celebrated already in the Zoro-
table objects
astrian yasna and Vidēvdāt, is said to have been
carved in the shape of a dragon head 11 Similarly
the Mathura portrait statue of the Kushāṇa king
b The dragon motif on accoutrements relating
Kanishka is shown with a giant club tapering to an
to the hunt or war
open-mouthed head of a dragon-like creature 12
The representation of the dragon on ceremonial
Dragon imagery is attested on weapons and ban-
weapons must be evidence of the intention to
ners from early Zoroastrian times It is particu-
endow the weapon and hence its owner with the
larly associated with the mace and with the finials
magical powers of the dragon
of ceremonial weapons or staffs which may carry
The club was greatly favoured by the Par-
sculpted dragons with a human or animal figure
thians (250 bc–226 ad), too The club of Her-
in their maw Dragon banners, an important part
akles, the most popular of Greek heroes, even
of military insignia from ancient times, appear in
appears as architectural decoration in the early
Iranian art and literature The dragon motif simi-
Parthian monument referred to as the “Round
larly occurs on weapon fittings, ritual y significant
Hall” in Nisa, the Parthian metropolis in pres-
belt/strap fittings and equestrian accoutrements
ent-day Turkmenistan 13 Maces and battle axes
The use of such imagery on the paraphernalia
were used in the Parthian and Sasanian periods 14
of heroism and rulership communicated mas-
An important depiction is found on a bas-relief
tery over the dragon and appropriation of its
from a small house-temple in Parthian Hatra in
formidable qualities When featured on objects
northern Mesopotamia (an integral part of Iran
of personal adornment such as jewellery or belt-
in Parthian and Sasanian times), which shows the
ornaments, the motif endowed such items with
composite figure of Herakles-Nergal,15 the god of
prophylactic or apotropaic powers
the realm of death and the underworld, who can
6 Cf the twelfth-century large silver-inlaid brass ewer,
The heads of the mythical creatures, the Indian composite
now in the Georgian State Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia, which
marine creature, makara, and the Central Asian dragon,
bears the inscription:
were sometimes portrayed in a stylistically closely related
seven heavenly bodies, however proud they may be,
manner Since only the head is portrayed, it is impossible
are protection for the one who works so
to identify it with a degree of certainty as belonging to either
creature, though both the makara and the Central Asian dragon
Allan, 1982a, repr 1999, p 49
7
can to a large extent be considered semantically equivalent
yasht 10 96; cf for instance, also, “cudgel of bronze”
Clubs terminating in dragon-like heads are featured in the
(Rigveda 1 80 12) Gershevitch, 1959, p 121; Watkins, 1995,
seventh-century wall paintings at Sogdian Afrāsīyāb; see
p 411
8
Albaum, 1975, fig 13 On the makara in Indian iconography,
Watkins, 1995, pp 411–3
9
see Vogel, 1929–30, pp 133–47; Coomaraswamy, 1928–31,
Idem, pp 331–2
10
repr Delhi, 1971, pp 47–56, esp pp 47–9; Combaz, 1945,
Wikander, 1938, pp 60, 64–6, 99; Widengren, 1969,
p 249
pp 146–55; Bosch, 1960; Rosenfield, 1967, pp 179–83;
11 Asadī Ṭūsī, Garshāsp-nāma, p 269, l 10, referred to by
Boardman, 1986, pp 451–3
13
Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr; De Blois, “ Garshāsp-nāma
Colledge, 1986, p 21 and pl XLIa
14
(or Karshāsp-nāma),” EIr; Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, p 63;
Chegini and Nikitin, 1996, repr 1999, p 53
15
Sarkhosh Curtis, 1993, p 26; Bivar, 2000, p 24
Bivar, 1975a, vol 2, pl 4a; Drijvers, 1978, p 172;
12 Rosenfield, 1967, figs 2, 2b (photograph on the left)
Winkelmann, 2004, pp 248–51, fig 102
the dragon motif on portable objects
37
be at once life- and death-giving,16 whose attri-
istic “Saljuq”-type dragon heads22 which are typi-
bute is the serpent 17 Clad in Parthian garb he is
cally represented as ophidian, the elongated lips
shown wielding with one hand a double-bladed
(sometimes only the upper lip) curved upwards
battle axe, the right blade of which is replaced by
and rolled outwards revealing a proportionately
a serpent, and clasping the hilt of a dagger in his
deep cavity with large fangs
other hand The god is girded with a snake-like
An important example of such a ceremonial
rope to which three quadrupeds, probably dogs,
copper alloy mace terminating in a “ Saljuq-type”
are connected, the tail of one of the quadrupeds
dragon head with characteristic gaping jaw reveal-
being also in the form of a serpent Serpents spring
ing teeth and tongue, perhaps made in Afghanistan
from the god’s shoulders and rise from either side
and datable between the eleventh to the thirteenth
of his waist, while another serpent rests at his feet
centuries, is housed in the David Collection in
To his right he is flanked by a large cult-standard
Copenhagen (fig 20) Finials of such dragon staffs
(semeion), near the foot of which another snake
are preserved in several collections worldwide
and a scorpion are featured
An example in the Furusiyya Art Collection in
The close association of the ophidian creature
Vaduz which is thought to come from twelfth-
with the archaic weapon is reflected in the Per-
or thirteenth-century Anatolia is fashioned with
sian word gurza which not only means “a large
large almond-shaped eyes, small, rounded ears,
wooden club or mace,” but also “a large headed
and curved horns, and the back of the neck is
serpent ”18 Among the Iranian and Turkish tribes
embellished with elongated drop-shaped car-
the gurz was a weapon of special ceremonial
touches enclosing spiral ing foliage The particular
importance 19 Mace bearers were part of the
feature of the mace head is that the dragon’s maw
guard of the Samanid and Ghaznawid sulṭān As
holds the body of a quadruped, possibly a feline
attested by the Ghaznawid historian Abu ’l-Faḍl
(fig 21) The wide-open jaws of another twelfth-
Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Bayhaqī (d 470/1077),
or thirteenth-century copper al oy dragon-headed
the mace was the favourite weapon of sulṭān
finial with curved horns, small pointed ears and
Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd of Ghazna (r 421/1030–
with a small loop for attachment at the back of
432/1040) 20 The mace even appears on the dec-
the ophidian neck, is filled, in a corresponding
oration of silver-inlaid metalwork: among the
manner, with the seated figure of a human being
planets depicted on the cover of the twelfth-
(figs 22a and b) 23 The finial may have topped a
century Vaso Vescovali in the British Museum,
ceremonial staff, thought to be either from Iran
London, is an eight-armed deity, identified as the
or the Jazīra region, and is now in the Musée
planet Mars, holding different weapons among
du Louvre in Paris The dragon head’s very long
which is a dragon-headed club 21
jaws with drawn-up lips ending in curved tips
The iconography of a dragon head holding a
have paired fangs that frame the human figure at
quadruped or a human being in its open jaws is
found on several finials of ceremonial weapons
top and bottom The stylised figure is rendered
or staffs Dragons are often represented as fierce,
with a rounded mask-like head Another closely
devouring creatures However, since the animal
related twelfth- or thirteenth-century finial is in
or human being appears in the dragon’s jaws it
the David Collection in Copenhagen (fig 23)
is not clear whether the act is one of ingestion or
Thought to come from Iran or Afghanistan, or
expulsion The heads are portrayed as character-
perhaps Anatolia, it is cast in the form of a dragon
16 Dhorme, 1949, pp 40–3, 51
and the Israelites watching the Egyptians drown in the Red
17 For further related examples of chthonic deities with
Sea, depicted in the illustrated copy of the Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh
the serpent as attribute, see Winkelmann, 2004, pp 252–9,
(“Compendium of Chronicles”) by Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb,
figs 103–6
made in Tabriz in 714/1314, Mūsā holds an elongated staff
18 Cited after Steingass, 1892, repr 1981, p 1082
which ends in a closely related open-jawed dragon head
19 Herzfeld, 1927, vol 2, pl LXVI Cf Furūsiyya, 1996,
Talbot-Rice, 1957, p 61, cat no 11
23
vol 2, p 97
A further eleventh- or twelfth-century silver- and cop-
20 Abu ’l-Faḍl Bayhaqī, Taʾrīkh-i Masʿūdī, ed Ghanī and
per-inlaid copper alloy dragon-headed finial, probably a
Fayyūḍ, Tehran, 1324/1945, as cited in Bosworth, “Lashkar-i
sword pommel, thought to come from greater Khurasan or
Bāzār,” EI² V, 690b; idem, 1963, p 120
the Jazīra/Anatolia, shows the monster holding a stylised
21 Hartner, 1973–4, pp 119–20 and fig 17, no 5
human being in its wide-open maw Vaduz, Furusiyya Art
22 Cf L’Islam dans les col ections nationales, 1977, p 102,
Collection, inv no RB-94 L’art des chevaliers, 2007, p 107,
cat no 161 In the scene of Mūsā, Aaron (Hārūn ibn ʿImrān)
cat no 71 (only depicting the profile)
38