with dragons appears thus to combine the royal
and was used in the Mevlevī Dergāhı in the Rūm
symbolism accorded to the elephant with that of
Saljuq capital of Konya 94 The front face features
the dragon
double doors with a lobed arch that allow for the
The expression Zanda-pīl, “the furious ele-
insertion of a candle into the cuboid body of the
phant” is, moreover, a common metaphor used
lantern This small lamp, which could serve as a
in Persian epic poetry for a pahlavān (hero),90
miniature architectural model, shows two up right
such as the well-known epithet of Rustam being
addorsed “Saljuq-style” dragons crowned with
pīltan, “elephant-bodied ”91 In Wīs u Rāmīn Fakhr
pointed ears with gaping mouths and looped
al-Dīn Gurgānī praises Wīs’ brothers, the trusted
bodies that flank a large, six-petalled star-rosette
champions of Rāmīn, as “two elephants, two lions
The dragons face towards open-mouthed lions,
like no others,” thereby putting both creatures
each with a raised foreleg and tail that arches over
on a par with each other 92 A proverb from an
the back ending in a dragon head with closed
Afghan manuscript which states that “only Zāl
jaws The composition is set just above the double
can manage the elephant” (Zāl most likely rep-
doors, which are flanked by double-headed birds
resenting the nephew of Ẓaḥḥāk, the historicised
of prey with looped necks, outspread wings and
hominoid dragon, in the late eleventh-century
legs whose tail feathers terminate in the form of
epic Kūsh-nāma), might furthermore point to the
a large, inverted palmette bud A cursive inscrip-
possibility that the elephant was, as Gianroberto
tion at the lower edge of the front face reveals the
Scarcia has shown, a significant component of the
name of the maker, Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Mawlawī
ancient legends of the eastern frontier province
The sides, back and cover of the lamp are cov-
of Zābulistan 93
ered with floral and stellar ornaments The com-
***
position of the rosette flanked by dragons and inturn by dragon-tailed lions surmounting double-
Aspects of the dragon’s association with other
headed eagles can be assumed to epitomise the
animals are encapsulated in a figural scheme
power of the sulṭān 95 The fact that the scheme is
por trayed on a gilded copper alloy lantern with
portrayed on a lamp connects it, moreover, with
a pyramidal cover in openwork which has been
the theme of light and hence also with the sym-
dated to the second half of the thirteenth century,
bolism of the luminaries
90 Cf Scarcia, 1967, p 42
93 Scarcia, 1967, pp 44–5
91 Steingass, 1892, repr 1981, p 269 See also Shāh-nāma,
94 Erginsoy, 1978, pp 413–4, figs 196 a and b (dragon-
vol 3, tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, p 157, l 202; Kowalski,
tailed lion); The Anatolian Civilisations, vol 3, 1983, p 75,
1939–49, p 94
cat no D 138
92 Tr and ed Davis, 2008, p 388 In a eulogy the twelfth-
95 Konya Müze Müdürlüǧü, inv no 400 Erginsoy, 1978,
century poet Rashīd-i Waṭwāṭ similarly associates the
pp 412–9, figs 196 a–e; Kalter and Schönberger, 2003, p 74;
strength of both animals when he speaks of “lion-hearted
Turks, 2005, p 394, cat no 70
and elephant-bodied warriors”; see p 39
the dragon in scenes of combat
85