in the arts of Western Central Asia, particularly
tainly reflects the immediacy of mythic animal
from the eleventh to the thirteenth century Often
combat Used as architectural ornament, the
however compositions represent a physically
dragon is portrayed as a predatory and voracious
strong animal attacking a weaker one The inter-
creature, mauling another quadruped, presum-
esting depiction of an apparent contest between
ably a cervid, shown with backward turned head,
two dragons, hence two fabulous creatures of
on an archivolt fragment from Daghistan in the
equal strength, perhaps symbolises the perpetual
eastern Caucasus (fig 63) 10 The dragon’s head is
act of predation
crowned with slanted cusped ears that are folded
An animal combat also appears as part of a
to the back, the flame-like mane is composed of
bilaterally symmetrical foliate interlace which fills
four large, contiguous, cusped teardrop shapes
a headpiece in the Mush Homiliary illuminated at
that project from the sinuous necks; the slender
the monastery of Avagvankʿ near Erznga(n)
wing that springs from the haunches is stiffly
between 1200 and 1202 It terminates at one end
raised over the back ending in a small curl at the
in the protomes of two confronted winged drag-
tip The mythical creature is rendered with a pair
ons with forelegs and at the other in two goat
of muscular forelegs, the inner leg raised as if to
heads topped by long curved horns, the latter
attack its prey, while the other balances the weight
snapping at the dragon wings while the dragon
of the body; its elongated undulating serpentine
snouts clinch the goat necks (fig 61) 6
tail forms a central loop and terminates in a curl
The façades of Armenian churches are similarly
adorned with combatant animals, also featuring
the likeness of the dragon or giant serpent The
b The dragon and mythical creatures
bas-relief of a bird in combat with an ophidian
dragon is shown over the window on the south-
The visual y conflated dragons of the Konya reliefs
ern façade of the small twelfth- or thirteenth-
(fig 60) show that the body of the dragon was
century chapel behind the main church of Surb
itself seen to be subject to mutations Similarly,
Astvatsatsin, which forms part of the monastic
hybrids resulted from the dragon incorporating
complex Makaravankʿ in Tavush province, Arme-
parts of other animals and mythical creatures and
nia 7 Here the long serpentine body of the dragon
vice versa other animals and mythical creatures
is slung around the neck of the bird that in turn
merging with parts of the dragon Most com-
hacks with its large beak at the dragon’s neck
monly it was the head that was assimilated The
(fig 62) 8
multiplex creatures thus juxtapose two principles
A certain archaism of representation displayed
into a unified being creating a duality, an ambi-
in the vividly expressed animal nature of the crea-
guity which simultaneously contrasts and fuses
tures is preserved in the north Caucasus region
two metaphorical principles, as, for instance, the
– clearly featuring the dragon as antagonistic
well-known example of the bird and the serpent
force in animal combat The depiction echoes the
or dragon representing two eternal antagonists
theme of a lion killing a weaker animal which
which are discussed in the following The nature
had been current in the Near Eastern and Central
of such hybrid beings is frequently associated with
Asian world for millennia 9 The portrayal cer-
transitory or liminal states exemplified in such
6 This depiction may be an allusion to vishap-a-kagh, a
10 Bashkirov, 1931, pl 72; Baltrušaitis, 1929, pl LXVI,
term employed in Armenian legend (from vishap and kagh,
fig 107 Anatoli Ivanov (1976) has revised Bashkirov’s
the latter meaning “male goat,” hircus) It may be associated
twelfth- to fourteenth-century dating of most Daghistan
with the god Vahagn of the ancient Armeno-Parthian
sculpture preserved in the walls of the mosques of Kubachi,
pantheon who bears the epithet vishapakʿagh, “dragon-
on the basis of tombstones from Kubachi and a neighbouring
slayer ” I am grateful to Rev Dr Vrej Nersessian (personal
village as well as an inscribed archivolt (fig 133 in the
communication) for elucidating this point Cf Ishkol-
publication) datable to the fourteenth or early fifteenth
Kerovpian, “Vahagn,” WdM IV, 1, pp 149–52, esp p 150
century However, the archivolt fragment with the dragon
7 See Makaravankʿ, Documents of Armenian Architecture/
and cervid was not part of the group of pieces discussed and
Documenti Di Architettura Armena, vol 22, Venice, 1993
published by Ivanov, nor do the carvings of the published
8 The same motif is found frequently in marginal orna-
tombstones (figs 123, 126, 127, 130, 135, 136) bear any
mentation of Armenian manuscripts For instance, in a
stylistic resemblance to the carving on the fragment (on
Gospel book, vellum, 318 fols , dated 1290, copied in Drazark,
the basis of the photographs), which is why a twelfth- or
Cilician Armenia, by the scribe Tʿoros and illuminated
thirteenth-century dating still seems justified The conten-
by Tʿoros Roslin, Ms 5736, fol 10b Mnatsakanyan, 1955,
tion that most of the reliefs were not made in Kubachi
p 532, fig 1040
but elsewhere in Daghistan (p 203), is certainly worthy of
9 Cf Ettinghausen, 1972, pp 44–5
notice
dragons and animals of the natural and the mythical realms
75
tales as the Alexander Romance which recount
heads with open mouths that are oriented towards
Alexander’s journey to the outer reaches of the
the heads of the fantastic animals, are prominently
earth, the land of darkness, without Sun, Moon
rendered on a frieze which runs around the body
or stars, where he meets such mythical crea-
of a twelfth-century gilded and nielloed silver jug
tures Antecedents for dragon head motifs issuing
from Iran 17
from different zoomorphic junctures, for instance,
Anatolian examples include architectural man-
from the tips of the wings or the tail ends,11
ifestations such as the carved reliefs of two winged
may ultimately be found in the ancient “animal
quadrupeds with dragon-tails, possibly represent-
style ”12
ing a sphinx and a griffin, on the bastion (burç)
The synthesis with the dragon is portrayed on
in the southwest of the city wall of Diyārbakr
animals from the real and the imaginary realm
(Ulu Bandan tower no 31) which according to the
Among the theriomorphic examples, the dragon-
inscription was built in 604/1208–09 by the builder
tailed lion was one of the most common, as will
(bannāʾ) Ibrāhīm ibn Jaʿfar under the patron-
be shown in the following Predominant among
age of the Artuqid ruler Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd
the dragon-tailed fabulous creatures from the
ibn Muḥammad al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ (597/1201–
mythical realm are those usually defined as grif-
619/1222) 18 A star tile unearthed during the 1992
fins and unicorns 13 A thirteenth-century relief
excavations of the the now destroyed smal palace
from the now destroyed fortress in Konya por-
at Kubadabad (623/1226–634/1237) built by
trays a winged unicorn with prominent dragon
sulṭān ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Kay Qubādh I shows a grace-
tail in pursuit of a bovid (fig 64) 14
fully rendered sphinx marchant, the haloed head
Often however the creatures fusing with parts
in profile turned backwards and the tail ending in
of the dragon were therianthropomorphic beings
a dragon head capped by pointed ears, a wisp of
combining the form of a human with those of an
flowing hair at the back of the neck and open jaws
animal Human-headed mythical creatures, gen-
revealing the tongue (fig 65) A pair of confronted
erally identified as harpies, sphinxes15 or centaurs,
perched harpies whose upstretched wing tips
were portrayed with limbs transforming into
terminate in dragon heads are found on the
dragon heads on diverse objects of the Eastern
türbe of Hüdavend Hatun/Khudāwand Khātūn
Islamic world A harpy (a human-headed bird)
(712/1312) in Niğde, examined in more detail
whose florid tail terminates in a large upward-
below (fig 66) An example of a portable object,
curving dragon protome with forelegs and gaping
representing perhaps a fountain head, is the small
mouth serves as finial of an eleventh-century
twelfth- or thirteenth-century pierced copper
copper alloy incense burner typical of artistic
alloy figure of a recumbent lion-bodied sphinx
production from the greater Khurasan region 16
with a tall crown whose raised curving wings
A sphinx (a human-headed quadruped, often
as well as the upward-curling tail end in gaping
represented with a female head and the body of
dragon heads 19
a feline, frequently a lion(ess)) and a griffin (a
To this dragon-tailed menagerie may be added
hybrid of a bird and a quadruped), both with
a dragon-tailed sphinx portrayed to the left of
their upwardly curving tails terminating in dragon
the portal of a caravanserai in the Selim moun-
11 Body parts of natural and mythical animals could also
(with a further dragon-tailed example, pl 31, left)
transform into body parts, mostly the heads, of other animals
14 Cf Gierlichs, 1996, pl 37 2–3
of the natural world For instance, an eleventh- or twelfth-
15 For an in-depth study on sphinxes and harpies in
century copper alloy incense burner in openwork from pres-
medieval Islamic art, see Baer, 1965 For a more general
ent-day Afghanistan in the form of a standing lion has a tail
study which includes modern interpretations of the sphinx,
that terminates in a bird head (David Collection, Copenha-
see Regier, 2004
gen, inv no 48/1981; see von Folsach, 1991, p 44, cat no 30,
16 Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst; Pope and Acker-
ill on p 15) Birds whose heads transform into those of hares
man, eds , 1938–9, repr 1964–81, vol 13, p 1278 B; Ergin-
are found on the cavetto of a twelfth- or thirteenth-century
soy, 1978, p 158, fig 70
silver-inlaid dish with polylobed cavity from the Khurasan
17 Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, inv no I 2210;
region, in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, inv no OA 6479
Gierlichs, 1993, p 53, cat no 50
(Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités orien-
18 Cf Gabriel and Sauvaget, 1940, p 98, fig 72, pp 120,
tales, Section Islamique; Pope and Ackerman, eds , 1938–9,
171, fig 14, pls LVIII 2, LXVIII 1; Gierlichs, 1996, pl 51 5
repr 1964–81, p 1315; L’Etrange et le Merveil eux en terres
and 6
d’Islam, 2001, pp 50–2, cat no 32, (see detail of cat no 32))
19 Previously Diyārbakr Müzesi, Erginsoy, 1978,
12 Cf Otto-Dorn, 1978–9, pp 130, 136
pp 447–8, figs 222 a and b; Baer, 1965, fig 29 Now in
13 For a discussion of the unicorn-elephant fight, see
Copenhagen, the David Collection, inv no 5/1978; von
Ettinghausen’s monograph on the unicorn, 1950, pp 84–91
Folsach, 1990, p 197, cat no 326
76