head holding in its wide-open mouth a bovid,
Or, the hopelessness of a political situation, as
whose protome peers out of the dragon’s jaws 24
expressed by one of the last Sasanian rulers,
Interesting in this regard is the use in medi-
Khusraw II (Khusraw Parwīz, r 591–628):
eval Iranian poetry of the metaphor “caught in
But what can this avail now that my head is in
the dragon’s maw” (akin to “held in the dragon’s
the dragon’s maw?27
claws”) which is conventionally used to reflect a
potentially fatal calamity In the pre-Islamic epic,
In Islamic culture dreams were considered an
Wīs u Rāmīn (“Wīs and Rāmīn”), translated (from
important means of communication with the
Pahlawī into classical Persian) and versified by
world of the unknown Their meaning would
Fakhr al-Dīn Asʿad Gurgānī around 442/1050,
be explained, often as a prophetic message from
the protagonist Rāmīn uses it, for instance, to
the world of the unseen 28 Hence, it is interesting
describe his separation from his beloved Wīs, the
to consider a dream interpretation recorded in
daughter of the queen of Media who is the wife
al-Damīrī’s fourteenth-century para-zoological
of his older brother, king Mūbad of Marw:
encyclopaedia which reverses the generally nega-
tive associations of the ophidian-devouring pro-
I have left my hostage heart with you
cess He states that:
It is as if, upon your soul I swear,
I’m in a dragon’s jaws when you are not there 25
He who dreams of a serpent swallowing him,
In the Shāh-nāma, in which the ancient history
will obtain power 29
of Iran, from its legendary origins down to the
In the heroic epic Garshāsp-nāma composed by
extinction of the Sasanian dynasty in 652 was
Asadī Ṭūsī in 456–8/1064–6, the eponymous hero,
recorded, this metaphor is used to describe a polit-
who is the great-great uncle of the legendary war-
ical misfortune, such as the defeat of the Iranians
rior Rustam, is requested by Ẓaḥḥāk at the tender
by the Türkmen:
age of fourteen to slay a dragon that dwells on
The world thou wouldst have said, “is in the
Mount Shekāwand having emerged from the sea
dragon’s maw, Or Heaven level with earth 26
following a storm 30 The hero accomplishes the
feat by clubbing the beast to death with a cudgel
carved in the form of a dragon head 31 Employ-
24 The iconography of the dragon devouring or disgorg-
an initiation process, the successful completion of this ritual
ing a human being or an animal such as a felid or a bovid is
entitling the initiate to start a new phase of life or existence
also known in the Christian iconography of the Caucasus
An analogous relief probably representing Jonah in the maw
A dragon with quadruped forelegs and a looped tail, por-
of a mythical creature, a “whale” with quadruped forelegs
trayed in profile and depicted in the process of swallowing
(only the protome is featured) is shown above the south
or delivering a proportionally small human figure, is shown
door (east side) of the Georgian Tao-Klardjeti monastery
above the southern entrance of the mid-tenth-century Geor-
church of Haho (Georgian Khakhuli), modern Bağlar Başi
gian church of Beris-Sakdari, near the village of Eredwi
in northeastern Turkey, datable between the tenth and
in the Patara Liakhvi Gorge The depiction is probably
eleventh centuries (Baltrušaitis, 1929, pl LXXI, fig 118;
related to the story in the book of Jonah in the Old Testa-
Winfield, 1968, pp 62–3 (line drawing, fig 6), pl 30b)
ment of a sea-monster or ketos who devoured and cast up
However, whereas on the relief of the Georgian church of
the hero under divine command For the ketos, translated
Beris-Sakdari, the human figure is depicted with its head in
vishap, which swallowed Jonas in later Christian Armenian
the dragon’s maw (as if being swallowed), the Haho relief
art, see Russell, 2004, p 373 The imagery of the dwelling-
shows the figure’s upper body and head topped by small
place of sinners “in the midst of the jaws of the dragon of
fish projecting from the beast’s jaws (as if being spat out)
25
the outer darkness” also repeatedly appears in the Gnostic-
Tr and ed Davis, 2008, p 388; the same metaphor is
Christian writings of the Pistis Sophia ( c fourth century)
employed on pp 143, 166 and 230
26
which are further discussed in the following chapters; Pistis
Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 6, p 538
27
Sophia, text ed Schmidt and tr Macdermot, 1978, bk III,
Idem, vol 6, p 88 For further examples cited in the
ch 108, p 551, ch 119, p 609, ch 121, p 617 The fact that
Shāh-nāma, see, for instance, idem, vol 3, p 171, l 377,
the imagery was depicted above the entrance to the church
p 469, l 670; vol 4, p 13, l 95; vol 5, p 13, l 95; vol 6,
also indicates that its iconography was associated with the
p 233, l 876
28
warding off of evil and the affording of protection Referring
Marzolph and van Leeuwen, 2004, p 542
29
to the work of Vladimir Propp, Boris Marshak has pointed
Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1,
out the archaism of the theme of the hero being devoured
pp 655–6
30
by a monster (Propp, V y , Istoricheskie korni volshebnoi
Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr; yamamoto, 2003,
skazki (“The Morphology of a Fairy Tale”), Leningrad, 1946,
p 115
31
pp 200–23, as cited in Marshak, 2002, p 49, n 39) Accord-
Asadī Ṭūsī, Garshāsp-nāma, p 269, l 10, cited after
ing to Propp (1984a, pp 116–8, 207, 208, and idem, 1984b,
Khāleqī-Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr In the Shāh-nāma, the
p 96) the imitation of devouring and expectorating of a
hero employs serpent-like sword (tr and ed Mohl, 1838–
hero by an animal such as a dragon was sometimes part of
1878, vol 5, p 341, l 728)
the dragon motif on portable objects
39
ing the principle of sympathetic magic – “like
rings, in the belief that its presence would aid
affects like” – Garshāsp succeeds in killing the
in attaining victory over their opponents 40 Very
dragon by means of a weapon carved with its own
informative in this regard is the entry under the
likeness This magical power appears to be con-
heading yashf (“jade”) of al-Bīrūnī’s pharmaco-
tagious and can be transmitted from its source,
logical work, the Kitāb al-Ṣaydala fi ’l-Ṭibb (com-
in other words from the dragon onto different
posed in 442/1050), which states that dragon
kinds of implements such as the mace32 or a staff,
iconography was engraved on jade and used by
as evidenced, for instance, by a story recorded by
the Turks to adorn swords:
al-Kisāʾī Here Mūsā similarly employes a mimetic
The yashf stone: this is yashb on which they
or “homeopathic” principle by using his serpent-
engrave the radiate dragon [ al-shuʿāʿ is trans-
staff to strike a giant serpent that has devoured all
lated as “ray of light” in Steingass] We tested it
the sheep of the Prophet Shuʿayb’s flock that pass
without the engraving and it delivered [a result]
through an exceptional y fertile val ey thereby cut-
Its characteristic, they say, is to dispel stomach
ting it in two 33
pains “The stone of victory” is a variety of it and
Literary accounts of the medieval Islamic
that is why the Turks adorn their swords with it 41
period describe the bejewelled weapons that
The affiliation of the dragon with arms was also
were paraded on ceremonial occasions 34 Sabres
made by the great twelfth-century poet Ilyās
were probably introduced into the central Islamic
lands by the Turkic guard of the ʿAbbasid caliph
ibn yūsuf Niẓāmī Ganjawī (535–40/1141–6–
al-Muʿtaṣim (218/833–227/842), which can be
575–613/1180–217) in his romance Haft Paykar
seen on a representation of a ninth-century wall
(“Seven Portraits”), when he compared to drag-
painting in a building at Nīshāpūr that depicts
ons the blades of the idealised fifth-century Sasa-
a horseman with a belt with hanging straps
nian king Bahrām Gūr’s (Wāhram V, r 420–38)
designed to support a sabre 35 Quillon blocks
army, and its arrows to the serpents of Ẓaḥḥāk,
extending into downward-curving prongs that
the tyrannical foreign ruler of Iran in the Shāh-
terminate in dragon heads are a common fea-
nāma from whose shoulders sprouted the noto-
ture on twelfth- or thirteenth-century sabres or
rious serpents 42 Similarly, the panegyrist and
daggers, as for instance on a gilded copper alloy
epistolographer Rashīd-i Waṭwāṭ (508–9/1114–
sword guard fragment, or a nielloed silver scab-
5–573/1177–8 or 578/1182–3), who was born
bard, both thought to be from Syria or Palestine
in Balkh, and spent most of his life as poet at
and now preserved in the Furusiyya Art Collec-
the court of Khwārazm-shāh Atsїz, writes in his
tion, Vaduz (fig 111) 36 Literary sources such as
dīwān:
the Shāh-nāma similarly use the image of the (ser-
Thousands of lion-hearted and elephant-bodied
pent-)dragon to describe swords, as for instance,
warriors
those belonging to the dragon-fighting Kayanian
Are eaten by dogs [after being slain] by your
king Gushtāsp,37 to Iskandar38 or to Fūr (Porus),
dragon-lance 43
king of India, who stopped Alexander’s advance
in India 39
A thirteenth-century silver chape is completely
The Turks attributed magical properties to jade
covered with the depiction of a pair of upright
(nephrite) and called it the “stone of victory ”
dragons that are addorsed along a central verti-
They used it extensively for fittings of weapons
cal ridge The chape was found together with its
such as handles and quillon blocks, as well as for
long knife in Herat, in present-day Afghanistan,
objects of adornment such as belt fittings and
and is now in the al-Sabāh Collection in Kuwait
32 Jeffers, 1996, p 95
the fourteenth century, is preserved in the Metropolitan
33 Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, tr Thackston, 1978, p 223
Museum of Art, inv no 64 133 3 See Melikian-Chirvani,
34 Cf the description of a celebration at the Ghaznawid
1997a, p 159, fig 27
37
sulṭān Masʿūd’s court in 429/1038 by Abu ’l-Faḍl Bayhaqī,
Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 4, p 341, l 728
38
( Taʾrīkh-i Masʿūdī, ed Ghanī and Fayyūḍ, Tehran, 1324/1945,
Idem, vol 4, pp 153, l 628
39
pp 539–41) Cf Bosworth, 1963, pp 135–7
Idem, vol 5, pp 151–5
35
40
The wall painting is now preserved in the National
Melikian-Chirvani, 1997a, pp 131–3
41
Museum of Iran, Tehran Hakimov, 2000, p 445, fig 30
Ed ‘Abbās Zariyāb, Tehran, 1370/1991, p 203, as cited
36 L’art des chevaliers, 2007, p 154, cat no 147 and
in Melikian-Chirvani, 1997a, p 131
42
pp 155–7, cat no 148; Chevaux et cavaliers arabes, 2002,
Tr Meisami, 1993, p 91
43
pp 118–9, cat no 57 An Iranian jade (nephrite) quillon
Ed Nafīsī, S , Tehran, 1960, p 53, cited after Danesh-
block from the hilt of a sword, dated to the first half of
vari, 1993, pp 16–7, n 7
40