Whenever one of you, he said, be bitten, let him
In the former, the uplifted serpent healed the
come to the serpent that is placed upon the tree,
bites of the serpents; in the latter, the crucified
and let him hope, in faith that it though dead
Jesus healed the wounds inflicted by the spiri-
is able to give life, and he shall straightway be
tual dragon In the former, there was the uplifted
saved
brass fashioned in the likeness of a serpent; in
the latter, the Lord’s body formed by the spirit 188
In the Armenian apocryphal tradition a promise
was made to Adam at the expulsion that he will
The tenth-century polymath al-Bīrūnī, one of
be restored as ruler of Paradise after the Second
the most eminent literary and scientific figures
Coming, an event which may be implied in the
of the medieval Islamic period, records a Chris-
carving with the giant serpents appearing to guard
tian source which also relates the brazen serpent
the gates of Paradise
to the cross:
At least from the beginning of the fifth century,
God ordered the Israelites to make a serpent of
the cross was regarded as a powerful amulet,186
brass and to hang it on a beam, which was to be
hence in the early Christian period crosses placed
erected, for the purpose of keeping off the injury
on or near entrances served primarily protective
done by the serpents when they had become very
and apotropaic functions 187 The Christian cross
numerous in the desert Now from this fact they
together with the dragons thus undeniably has
infer and maintain that it was a prophecy and a
a special function as an apotropaion guarding a
hint indicative of the Cross (of Christ) 189
threshold
Correspondingly, as Hans Leisegang asserts in
The association of the dragon with the cross
his discussion of the Epistle of Barnabas,190 the
may be related to the symbol of the serpent as it
serpent lifted up by Moses is characterised as
appears in the Gospel of John (3:14):
a representation of Jesus, an identification that
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder-
became an established motif in Christian symbol-
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up
ism, and the counterpart of the satanic serpent
In his homily on the Gospel of John, the fourth-
in Paradise 191
century archbishop of Constantinople, John
At the same time, the multivalent aspect of
Chrysostom ( c 347–407), similarly compares
the symbol of the cross, employed as metaphor
the “lifting up” of the serpent with the manner
for both the crucifixion and the resurrection192 of
of Jesus’ death and parallels the Christ himself
Christ, has to be taken into account In Armenian
with the likeness of the serpent:
exegetical works the khatchkʿar is often elaborated
as “Wood of Life” (pʿayt kenats) 193 The equation
of the “living” cross with vegetation194 provides an
186 Canaan, 1938, p 175, n 249
192 With regard to the Christian Feast of the Apparition of
187 Kitzinger, 1970, p 640
the Flaming Cross in Heaven, al-Bīrūnī records that, accord-
188 Tr Sr Thomas Aquinas Goggin, 1957–60, 1:262–3
ing to Christian scholars, Constantine’s mother, Helena, went
189 Although he derides this reference as indulgence in
to Jerusalem to find the cross of Christ which when placed
“tricks and hallucinations”; Kitāb al-Āthār, tr and ed Sachau,
upon a dead body could resurrect the dead He further notes
1876–8, pp 292–3
that the wood used for the cross is referred to as “the wood
190 XII 5–6, tr Kirsopp, L , The Apostolic Fathers, London
of Paeonia,” which is frequently “attached to a man who
and New york, 1914, vol 1, p 385, cited after Leisegang,
suffers from epilepsy, being considered as a symbol of the
1955, repr 1979, p 229 Cf Daniélou, 1964, pp 92, 271;
resurrection of the dead” ( Kitāb al-Āthār, tr and ed Sachau,
Thomson, 1970, ch 473, n 1
1876–8, pp 293–3) For related narratives on the associa-
191 Apocalypse of Moses 16–9; Justin, Dialogue 124;
tion of the Cross and the Tree of Life, see Wünsche, 1905,
Origen, De principiis 3 2 1 In this connection it is interest-
pp 15–7
ing to consider an eighth-century Armenian text in which
193 See the Homily by David Anyaghtʿ, cited in Russell,
the church is said to be “a paradise planted by God which
2004, pp 630 and 1194 In Agathangelos’ fifth-century
evil cannot enter; for from that first one we were expelled
theological teachings, Teaching of St. Gregory, the cross is
through the wiles of the serpent, but we enter this one
praised as a “Tree of Life rooted in the earth” (tr and ed
through Christ … In that other paradise was planted a tree of
Thomson, 1970, pp 7–9, 21–3, and chs 577–86, 618–31)
life, forbidden to the firstborn; while here we have the cross
On the cult of the Tree of Life in Armenia, see Russell, 1987,
of life, planted by the same planter, and which has taken
p 33 The Tree of Life as prefiguration of the Cross of Christ
root and has blossomed through His life-giving blood ”
is mentioned in the Christian Syriac Meʿārath gazzē (Cave of
Aucher, J B , Domini Johannis Ozniensis Philosophi Armeno-
Treasures, tr and ed Budge, 1927, p 34)
rum Catholici Opera, Venice, 1834, pp 290–2, as cited in
194 Cf Teaching of St. Gregory, tr and ed Thomson, 1970,
Der Nersessian, 1965, p 42 and n 96
pp 159–62, and chs 641–54
dragons and the powers of the earth
69
analogy to the dragon’s inherently close relation
The long-eared dragon heads are also a
with vegetation and the associated beneficial qual-
common feature on contemporaneously dated
ities of fertility/fecundity This in addition to the
press-moulds, most of which have a Khurasani
shared special apotropaic functions naturally
provenance Ralph Pinder-Wilson hence identifies
accords the dragon the preeminent position of a
these scrolls as having their origin in Khurasan,
vehicle that issues, thus perhaps wittingly emits
first occurring on marble reliefs, attributed to
or, by extension, one may hypothesise, delivers,
one of the Ghaznawid palaces (perhaps of Masʿūd
and henceforth protects the “living” cross
III (r 492/1099–508/1115) or Bahrām Shāh (r
***
511/1117–552/1153) or of a later date) excavatedyet another manifestation of symmetrical dragon
at Ghazna by the Italian Archaeological Mission
heads is found in an embroidery on cotton ground
to Afghanistan 198 Spiral ing tendrils transforming
from the greater Khurasan region, now in a pri-
into dragon- and other mythical heads are figured
vate collection Here the motif is takes the form
on a mould which bears a dedicatory inscription
of addorsed symmetrically arranged monster
to a Ghurid general and governor of Herat, ʿIzz
heads with tall floppy ears springing from a cen-
al-Dīn Ḥusayn ibn Kharmil (d 607/1210–1) 199
tral vegetal composition, probably representing a
Openwork gilded silver plaques found in the
conventionalised tree motif visualised as stylised
valley of Kotchkar in the Semirechye, now in
plant The necks of the creatures extend into the
the State Hermitage in St Petersburg, are fur-
“branches of the tree” in such as way that the
ther examples of vegetal scrolls inhabited with
bodies are fused with the scrolls The textile has
the monster and animal heads, among which the
been radiocarbon dated to the thirteenth or four-
dragon is prominently represented 200 Rinceaux
teenth century (fig 52) In his ground-breaking
with such heads also form the all-over decoration
article on “pseudo-planetary nodes” in Islamic
on the doublures of a Qurʾān from Anatolia or the
art, written in 1938, Hartner has identified these
Jazīra, datable to the mid-thirteenth or fourteenth
monster heads with long ears growing from scrol -
century 201 This ornamenting of the doublures
ing tendrils as “the dragon progeny threatening
of the sacred book of Islam with vegetal scrolls
the luminaries or, vicariously, their domicilia and
from which spring mythical and naturalistically
exaltations ”195 However, he qualifies the astro-
rendered zoomorphic heads offers an interest-
logical interpretation by suggesting that “in all
ing parallel to the practice, evidenced in Ilkha-
probability, various elements – astronomical,
nid Anatolia, of decorating the façades of sacred
astrological and mythological – were here fused in
architecture, such as mosques and madrasa s, with
one ”196 The iconography of the “inhabited scroll”
such “inhabited scrolls ” A more detailed discus-
which includes not only dragon heads, but other
sion of this can be found below in the Epilogue
animal as well as human heads is ubiquitously
The wide distribution of the motif is, more-
applied specifically on late eleventh- to early thir-
over, attested by its representation throughout
teenth-century works of art, in particular metal-
the Caucasus region, such as on an archivolt frag-
work, from Western Central Asia, especially the
ment from Daghistan in the eastern Caucasus
greater Khurasan region 197
It is carved with a vivid depiction of a mighty
winged dragon pursuing a slender cervid, the
195 Hartner, 1959, pp 237–9, and idem, 1973–4, p 112,
one of the panels includes a winged and horned quadruped
118 An anachronical but perhaps not completely irrelevant
with a long gaping snout which may be recognised as a
depiction exists on a late Parthian-period stucco capital (the
quadruped dragon (Bombaci and Scerrato, 1959, fig 12;
imagery is 24 cm square) from Qalʿa-i yazdigird On the
Baer, 1965, fig 83) The fabulous creature is rendered just
capital a pair of interlaced dragons with slender snouts and
below a similar such quadruped which however is distin-
long floppy ears, for which there appear to be no prototypes,
guished by a bird’s beak and small pointed ears and thus
is shown Keall, 1967, p 115, fig 6
clearly typifies as a griffin
196 Hartner, 1973–4, pp 112–3
199 Pinder-Wilson, 1997, pp 346–7, cat no 215
197 Cf Melikian-Chirvani, 1982, p 145, fig 51; Pinder-
200 See Strzygowski, 1916, p 214, fig 180 (outer verti-
Wilson, 1997, p 343
cally-oriented plaques)
198 Bombaci and Scerrato, 1959, pp 13–5 and figs 11,
201 Doublures of two sections of a 30-part Qurʾān
12; Baer, 1965, pp 15, 66, pl XLVII, figs 82, 83 Although
from Anatolia or the Jazīra, dated to the mid-thirteenth
on the two surviving marble panels no creatures that can
or fourteenth century The Nasser D Khalili Collection
be identified as dragons inhabit the scrolls, it is noteworthy
of Islamic Art, London, inv nos QUR433 and QUR132
that the hexagonal interlace enclosed within the border of
Pinder-Wilson, 1997, p 342, fig 11
70