tains in southern Armenia The mythical creature
of the zodiac, as discussed below It may be sur-
has a powerful, perhaps bovine, quadruped body
mised that these depictions, other than those in
structure, topped by a slender neck which sup-
an astronomical or astrological context, do not
ports the frontally depicted human head whose
have a special astrological connection,20 but reflect
features are no longer identifiable on account of
a general eastern spirit of ʿajāʾ ib, akin to that of
the weathered condition with a prominent three-
the western merveil e, at the mythical creatures of
pronged crown-like headdress The creature’s tail
God’s Creation (al-makhlūqāt) that are thought
curves upward to form a pretzel-like knot termi-
to exist beyond the limits of the known world
nating above the slender wings with curled tip in a
This is expressed in visual hybridisations that
dragon head whose open jaws reveal the protrud-
were particularly pervasive during the twelfth
ing tongue According to the Persian inscription
and thirteenth century in the medieval Central
on the outside lintel the caravanserai was built in
Asian world and beyond
727/1326–7 whereas the Armenian inscription
on the right inside the portal states that it was
constructed six or seven years later by Chesar
c The dragon and the bird
Ōrbēlian and his brothers (fig 67); just like the
türbe of Hüdavend Hatun, the caravanserai was
From ancient times the bird and the serpent
erected during the reign of the last Ilkhanid ruler
represented two of the mightiest cosmic enti-
Abū Saʿīd Baḥādur Khān (r 717/1316–736/1335)
ties Their interaction harks back to well-known
Hence in contrast to the animal combat in
mythic themes recorded from ancient Mesopo-
which the victorious antagonist would assimilate
tamia,21 Greece22 and India 23 In these archaic
some of the essential attributes of the defeated
accounts a bird is identified with the theft of the
animal, the hybrid examples referred to above
elixir of eternal life, whose custodian the serpent
amalgamated not only the form but presum-
would once have been
ably also the nature of the disparate elements,
Early Islamic histories, such as Balʿamī’s
in other words their innate characteristics and
Tarjumat-i tārīkh-i Ṭabarī, record several stories
attributes This fusion was a conspicuous feature
in which the rooster is considered apotropaic In
perhaps intended not only to reinforce the visual
a passage of the chapter on Gayūmart (Av gaya
impact but also to augment the intended effect
marətan “mortal life”), the mythical First Man of
of a potent symbol It has been shown that one
the Mazdean myth of creation, Balʿamī describes
of the most commonly depicted themes is that
him witnessing the scene of a white rooster victo-
of dragon heads issuing from the tails or wing
riously attacking a serpent in the middle of the day
tips of real or imaginary creatures some of which
and then crowing gleeful y Gayūmart thence pro-
may sometimes be identified as one of the con-
nounces the rooster to be an auspicious portent
stellations visualised as one of the twelve signs
The same chapter notes that contrarily a rooster’s
20 Cf Rogers, 1969, pp 154–5 and ns 15 and 16; Badiee,
who held it between chest and neck, twisting backward
1978, pp 255–6
And he dropped it to the ground, hurting with pain,
21 The Babylonian myth of Etana (surviving in Old Baby-
and it fell in the midst of the army while he gave a cry
lonian, Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian recensions) that
and flew off down the wind The Trojans shivered to
contains the fable of the serpent and the Zu bird relates how
see the shining snake (ophis) which lay among them,
both lived in peaceful coexistence, “in the shade of the styrax
a portent from Zeus of the aegis
tree begets the serpent; on its crown begets the eagle” until
one day the eagle treacherously devoured the young of the
Tr after Redfield, 1975, repr 1994, p 144 The motif similarly
serpent and the serpent, in revenge, broke the eagle’s wings
appears in Aristophanes’ Equites 218–22 and in Plutarch’s
and threw him into a deep pit where he was doomed to
Vita Themistocles 26
perish Etana found and healed the eagle who to show his
23 In the Vedic myth recorded in the Rigveda (4 26–7) it
gratitude took him to heaven to bring from there the “plant
is Indra mounted on an eagle or falcon who steals the elixir
of birth” without which Etana could have no offspring See
(Av haoma, Ved sóma) from the atmospheric gandharva s
Knipe, 1967, pp 340–5; also Küster, 1913, pp 52–3, 127–31,
The antagonism between the mythical bird or bird-like crea-
Astour, 1965, p 235, and Reiner, 1991, repr 2003, p 301
ture (often an eagle-like predatory bird), garuḍa, and the
It is of note that the Zu bird represents the evil protagonist
nāga s is a favourite theme in Indian literature which finds
against the the serpent as victim
its origin in the ancient fable of the rival sisters, Kadrū,
22 Homer ( Iliad XII 202–9; see also verse 220) describes
the mother of the nāga s, and Vinatā, the mother of garuḍa,
the battle between eagle and serpent with the words:
recorded in the Mahābhārata ( Ādi-parvan 25–34); Vogel,
1926, pp 51–3 Cf Denis, E , La Lokapaññati et les idées cos-
and a bird came a high-flying eagle holding a
mologiques du Bouddhisme ancien, Paris, 1977, vol 1, 170–1,
huge scarlet snake (drakōn) in its talons, alive still,
as cited by Strong, 1992, pp 200–1, with further examples on
twitching Nor did it give up the fight It struck the one
pp 29, 188–9, 200–8
dragons and animals of the natural and the mythical realms
77
crowing at night was considered an inauspicious
dragon heads, which flank elaborately rendered
sign Its crowing at such an unusual hour served
palmette trees (fig 68) 29
as a warning that saved Siyāmak, Gayūmart’s
Islamic textiles largely survive in relatively
grandson (according to the Bundahishn), from
good condition because they were included in
being attacked by a serpent 24
medieval church treasuries 30 The bird and dragon
Cosmological concepts associating the bird
motif can be found on one such fragment which
with the serpent are recorded in the Meccan tra-
was preserved in the shrine of Saint Apollinaris at
dition, according to which Allāh sent:
the church of Saint Servatius in Siegburg Dragon
from the cupola of heaven a bird in the form of
heads project from spiralling volutes that emerge
an ʿuqāb, a bird with a black back, a white breast
from the outer wing tips of a double-headed bird
and yellow claws While the serpent on the wall
(probably an eagle) with “ears” set within shield-
of the Kaʿba opened its mouth in order to repel
shaped medal ions The expressive crested dragon
the bird, the latter came, caught it by its head
heads are rendered with large, circular eyes and
and took it to the mountain Ajjād 25
particularly wide-open snouts tapering to pointed
Wensinck interprets this tradition as a reference
tips and revealing the tongue (figs 69a and b) 31
to the three cosmological powers, “the sun [sym-
The silk has been attributed by Friedrich Sarre to
bolised] by the bird, the ocean by the serpent, and
an Anatolian manufactory, where it might have
the earth by its navel, the sanctuary [the Kaʿba] ”
served as a Saljuq coronation robe,32 and has been
26
He further notes that the age-old symbolism of:
dated to the first quarter of the thirteenth cen-
tury 33
the eagle with the serpent in its mouth or
Comparable imagery of the double-headed bird
between its talons is a striking illustration of
of prey is preserved in architectural ornamenta-
the idea of cosmic victory … Eagle and serpent
tion at the confines of the same cultural sphere
are the representatives of two of the mightiest
The same bird with “dragon-wings” can also be
cosmic entities, the sun and the ocean 27
found on either side of the western gateway of
yet although birds and (serpent-)dragons are
the thirteenth-century Great Mosque of Divriği
depicted as opposing symbols, the sky and water/
(Diwrīgī), situated on the borders of Armenia
earth, above and below, they are often conjoined
and Cappadocia The dragon heads are rendered
into a composite generated from the same stock
with elongated wide-open mouths emitting curv-
of concepts and images 28 This visual conflation
ing, tongue-like foliage, which in turn extends
of the bird with the dragon can be seen in par-
to the outspread wing tips of the double-headed
ticular on textiles, which due to their portability
birds (figs 70a and b) 34 The mosque was built
and high status, were a prime luxury medium
in 626/1228–9 (or later) by native craftsmen of
for the transmission of a visual vocabulary The
Akhlāt (northwest of Lake Van) for the Türk-
motif is exemplified, for instance, on a twelfth-
men Mengüjükid ruler Aḥmad Shāh and his
or thirteenth-century silk samite fragment from
wife, Tūrān Malik, who were under Saljuq suze -
Samangan province in Afghanistan, of elongated
rainty 35 The epigraphic band above the main
rectangular form, featuring pairs of large and
portal of the mosque mentions the name and
stately confronting birds, probably roosters, with
title of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Kay Qubādh, presumably in
prominent combs and florid tails terminating in
recognition of his overlordship 36
24 Recorded in Balʿamī’s Persian translation of Ṭabarī’s
Museum of Art, inv no 1990 2 Watts and Wardwell, 1997,
History; tr and ed Lazard, 1956, pp 206–7, 211
cat no 43
25 Ibn Hishām’s edition of the Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīra, ed Wüsten-
30 Cf Shalem, 2004, pp 125–30
feld, 1857, p 125; al-Diyārbakrī, Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad,
31 Cf Jacques and Wencker, 1967, pp 472–527 and
Taʾrīkh al-khamīs, vol 1, Cairo, 1283, p 112, cited after Wen-
487–90 A smaller fragment (length 22 5 cm, width 21 cm)
sinck, 1921, repr 1978, p 47 Cf Atallah, 1975, p 164
is preserved in Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
26 Wensinck, 1921, repr 1978, p 47
Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, inv no 81 745 The Arts of
27 Idem, p 46
Islam, 1976, p 79, cat no 14; von Wilckens, 1992, p 43, fig
28 The theme of the transformation of a serpent into
66, colour pl on p 48; Gierlichs, 1993, p 30, pl 10, cat no 84
an eagle occurs for instance in the Alexander Romance;
32 Otto-Dorn, 1978–9, p 119
Pseudo-Callisthenes I, ch 10, tr and ed Stoneman, 1991,
33 von Wilckens, 1992, p 43, cat no 66
p 42
34 Otto-Dorn, 1978–9, p 120, fig 18; Enderlein, 1990,
29 Related imagery occurs on a mid-thirteenth-century
p 88; Firat, 1996, no pagination Gierlichs, 1996, pl 3, 1–4
lampas weave which carries addorsed felines and double-
35 Sourdel-Thomine, “Diwrīgī,” EI 2 II, 320a
headed eagles in the interstices grasping curled outer tail
36 Van Berchem, 1910, pp 97–8; Otto-Dorn, 1978–9,
feathers that end in dragon heads; preserved in the Cleveland
p 121
78