to a sacred building where they served to protect
It is interesting to note that the representation of
the building In their function as “guardians” of
the serpent body coiled around the central pole
entrances to sacred places or to “treasures” they
also has an analogy in ancient Hindu mythology,
were endowed with an apotropaic function
in which the body of the great cosmic dragon
Vāsuki (“Possessor of Treasures”) serves as giant
churning rope to rotate Mount Mandara in the
e The dragon and the elephant
wel -known myth of the “Churning of the Ocean”
(Samudramanthana) which produces the nectar
The ingenuity of al-Jazarī was further proven
(amṛta) of divine immortality 73 In the course of
when later in his career he entered the service of
the story, the demons Rāhu and Ketu become
Qutb al-Dīn Suqmān (581/1185–597/1201) and
involved, an episode which is discussed below
began inventing mechanical devices, such as the
in chapter 8
so-cal ed “elephant water-clock ” This water-clock
The motif of the serpent that appears to
was amongst the devices originally compiled and
threaten the birds is based on a related design by
illustrated by al-Jazarī, and is shown on a leaf
an earlier craftsman, acknowledged by al-Jazarī,74
from the Kitāb fī maʿrifat al-ḥiyāl al-handasiyya
the late eighth-century Pseudo-Archimedes,75
which was copied by Muḥammad ibn yūsuf ibn
whose work included frequent representations
ʿUthmān al-Ḥaṣkafī at Diyārbakr, and dated to
of the dragon on clocks, knockers or as spouts
the end of Shaʿbān 602/about 10 April 1206, now
of ewers From this it appears that motifs ulti-
preserved in the Topkapı Sarayı Library in Istan-
mately derived from Hellenistic sources enjoyed
bul (fig 84) “The passage of constant hours,”70
widespread popularity in the medieval Islamic
the concept of the ebb and flow of time and the
world And although he has suggested no sym-
seasons, is indicated by a scale adjusted by a small
bolic meaning for his creations, al-Jazarī may well
person seated atop an elephant passant within a
have taken for granted that his audience was well
tall tower that supports the device Perched on
aware of the overall symbolism, in which case
top of the tall domed tower, a bird spins around
the omission is inconclusive The depictions may
every half an hour, whereupon the elephant driver
therefore have well been part of an apotropaic
strikes his elephant and another figure causes the
and, perhaps, talismanic tradition
falcon to release a pebble In his description of
On textiles of the early medieval period the
the central mechanism al-Jazarī states:
imagery of the elephant, the giant among ani-
transversely between the centres of the pillars
mals, was fairly frequent It has been preserved
is an axle on which are two serpents, the claws
on several Umayyad76 and Byzantine textiles77
of each one grasping the axle, its tail around the
made in imitation of late Sasanian examples 78
axle like a ring, its head tilted backwards, the
In the medieval Islamic period elephants had
mouth open as if to swallow the falcon,71 the
great value and regal status and as such were
edge of the lower lip is touching the front of the
often richly caparisoned 79 Such noble pachy-
castle [the tower], and the upper lip is spread,
derms are shown together with disproportionately
with the two fangs bared 72
diminutive quadruped dragons on a saddle cloth,
provenance and a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century
77 Grabar, 1951, p 35 Cf the “Elephant Silk” from
date ( L’Etrange et le Merveilleux en terres d’Islam, 2001,
the tomb of Charlemagne, Treasury of Aachen Cathedral
p 232, cat no 160) Paris, Musée du Louvre, Département
(Grabar, 1951, p 35, fig 3); or, an eleventh-century Arme-
des Antiquités orientales, Section Islamique, inv no MOA
nian painting showing king Gagik-Abas of Kars (1029–
97 Rouault and Masetti-Rouault, eds , 1993, cat no 471
1064), sitting in state with his wife and daughter on a low
(colour photograph)
throne covered with a textile decorated with pearl roundels
70 Tr Hill, 1974, p 48
containing elephants (illustration from the Gospel book of
71 Idem, p 59 and 1984, p 238
Gagik-Abas of Kars, perhaps painted in Kars, c 1050 Jeru-
72 Idem, p 68
salem, Armenian cathedral of Saint James, Ms 2556, fol
73 Cf Long, 1976, pp 177–81
135bis Der Nersessian, 1945, p 119, pl XXIII 2; Glory of
74 Kitāb fī maʿrifat al-ḥiyāl al-handasiyya, tr Hill, 1974,
Byzantium, 1997, p 353, photograph to the left); king Gagik
pp 272, 279 and idem, 1998, ch XII, “The Banū Mūsà and
himself is shown to wear a garment with a comparable pat-
their “Book of Ingenious Devices,” p 73; Meinecke, 1996,
tern and a tiraz with Kufic letters at the upper arms, indi-
p 63 and n 27
cating an Islamic origin This led André Grabar to suggest
75 Possibly the work of a late eighth-century Muslim
that the garment may have been a gift by a Muslim sovereign
inventor who based his work on several earlier sources
It moreover shows that this pattern was evidently linked to
including probably Philon and Heron Cf Kitāb fī maʿrifat
both Armenian and Islamic contexts
al-ḥiyāl al-handasiyya, tr Hill, 1974, p 10
78 Grabar, 1951, pp 40–2
76 Jerusalimskaja, 2000, p 114 and n 13
79 Bosworth, 1963, p 117
dragons and animals of the natural and the mythical realms
83
known as the celebrated Khurasanian “Elephant
authors suggest that the dynamic representation
Silk,” which was preserved as the shroud of Saint
of dragons and elephants on the Varakhsha wall
Jodokus (Saint Josse) (fig 85a) 80 The silk samite
paintings may be a translation of the same theme
survives as a group of fragments which show two
onto a textile in a more static manner and without
superimposed pairs of large, confronted ele phants
any apparent connection to the combat theme
in the central field The great beasts are lavishly
portrayed at the Varakhsha wall paintings 84
caparisoned with saddle blankets, their heavy feet
The name of the pachyderm certainly appears
with articulated toes being singled out for empha-
as title and opening verse of the early Meccan sūra
sis These potent symbols of power are each paired
105 of the Qurʾān alluding to the failed expedi-
with a disproportionately tiny quadruped dragon
tion of the yemenite king Abraha against Mecca
with a very long sinuous neck almost disappearing
His troops had been accompanied by an elephant
between its legs The four-legged dragons rest on
which on arriving at the frontier of Meccan ter-
feet with separated toes and long, needle-pointed
ritory, knelt down and refused to advance fur-
talons, their stiffly raised wings terminating in a
ther towards the city The episode is related to
small curled tip following post-Sasanian conven-
the tradition according to which the birth of the
tions, and their raised undulant tails terminating
Prophet is said to have taken place at this time,
in a pointed tuft of hair (fig 85b) 81 The depiction
in the “year of the Elephant ”85
is framed above and below by a Kufic inscrip-
These majestic quadrupeds had a special status
tion in mirror image which includes glory and
and were covetously guarded by the sulṭān s Rulers
good wishes to the owner, Qāʾid Abu ’l-Manṣūr
bestowed elephants only as a great favour or when
Bākh-tigīn, the Turkish āmir of Khurasan, whose
a commander was appointed to a particularly
execution in 349/960–1 by order of his Samanid
responsible post 86 Among the Būyids, ʿAḍud al-
sovereign ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Nūh presents a ter-
Dawla had war elephants (fuyūl muqātila) which
he used against his cousin Bakhtiar ibn Muʿizz
minus ante quem for dating the textile 82 The silk
al-Dawla in 366/977 87 It was also the Ghaznawid
is framed in the style of a carpet by a procession
sulṭān Masʿūd’s favourite mount for hunting 88 On
of camels with flying scarves and roosters with
formal occasions involving solemn processions
beaded neckbands in each of the corners It thus
(mawākeb) the sulṭān rode on an elephant, as in
provides a combination of Sasanian style elements
September 422/1031, when Masʿūd proceeded to
with Central Asian aspects such as the dragons
the plain of Shābahār outside Ghazna to preside
and the camels Belenitskii and Bentowitsch note
over a session of the maẓālim court held for the
analogies in the motifs to Sogdian art, in particu-
redress of wrongs 89 The representation of lav -
lar with the eighth-century wall painting frieze of
ishly caparisoned elephants must therefore have
the Red Hall at the Sogdian palace at Varakhsha,
served as a proclamation of power and authority
northwest of Bukhara, featuring elephants being
for the Turkish āmir Qāʾid Abu ’l-Manṣūr Bākh-
attacked by long-necked mythical creatures 83 The
tigīn The unusual depiction of elephants together
80 The saint whose seventh-century tomb is in Runiacum,
to the second half of the eleventh century and probably exe-
present-day Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, near Pas-de-Calais, Musée
cuted somewhere in the Ani region (yerevan, Matenada-
de Louvre, Paris, inv no 7502; Pope and Ackerman, eds ,
ran Ms 7736, fol 9r); see Gevorkian and Abgarian, eds ,
1938–9, repr 1964–81, vol 6, pl 981; text, vol 3, pp 1928–
1996, pl 54
39 and 2002; Ettinghausen, Grabar and Jenkins-Medina,
82 Combe, Sauvaget and Wiet, eds , 1933, vol 4, no 1507,
1987, repr 2001, p 244, fig 260; von Wilckens, 1991, p 48,
with bibliographical data Cf Ettinghausen, Grabar and
fig 43, and p 347, n 47; technical analysis in Bul etin de liai-
Jenkins-Medina, 1987, repr 2001, p 401, n 66
son du CIETA 33, 1971, pp 22–57 A silk fragment of uncer-
83 Belenitskii, 1980, p 228; Belenitskii and Bentowitsch,
tain date featuring a related elephant pattern is found at
2000, pp 44–5
Siegburg; cf Meredith-Owens, “Fīl,” EI² V, 690b Étienne de
84 Eidem, 2000, p 45
Blois, count of Bologne and commander of the first Crusade,
85 See al-Azraqī, Kitāb Akhbār Makkah, ed Wüstenfeld,
is said to have procured the precious textile together with his
1861, vol 4, German tr , pp 48–9
two brothers Godefroy de Blois and Baudoin, and to have
86 Bosworth, 1963, p 117
offered it to the Abbaye Saint-Josse of which the counts
87 See Christensen, 1944, p 208 Anon , Taʾrīkh-i Sīstān,
were benefactors Cf La France romane, 2005, p 177, cat
ed Bahār, M S , Tehran, 1314/1935, p 206; Miskawayh,
no 124
Tajārib al-umam, tr and ed Margoliouth, 1921, vol 5, p 402
81 It is interesting to note that closely related depictions
88 Bosworth, 1963, p 118
of these unusual, extremely long-necked quadruped dragons
89 Bayhaqī, Taʾrīkh-i Masʿūdī, ed Ghani and Fayyāz,
with their uplifted feathery wings and vertically raised tails are
Tehran, 1324/1945, pp 372–3, as cited in Bosworth, “Court
prominently portrayed flanking a tree-like composition in a
and courtiers: In the Islamic Period to the Mongol Con-
headpiece of the Armenian Gospel book of Mughni, datable
quest,” EIr
84