Mahābhārata, as well as episodes from the heroic
Correspondingly, Rustam is shown confronting
cycle, the dragon-fighter being identified by Alek-
the dragon as if it were a human adversary 95
sandr Belenitskii as the hero-champion Rustam 82
Igor P’yankov notes the archaic style of
The hero’s ancestors were Saka people who are
Firdawsī’s records of the Rustam cycle and has
part of the Scytho-Siberian cultural grouping and
demonstrated its close parallels with ancient
belong to the Indo-Iranian group that came to
Greek records, particularly Herodotus’ accounts
Sakastān/Sīstān and Zābulistān in the late second
of one of the genealogical myths of the Scyth-
century bc,83 lands far from Sogdia Saka heroic
ians ( Histories IV 8–9) 96 According to the father
tales were nevertheless very popular with the Sog-
of Greek historiography the hero, known by the
dians,84 although only a fragmentary Sogdian text
Greeks as Herakles, comes to an arid region at
survives85 and only in the tenth century was the
the Pontus Shore (Black Sea) later inhabited by
tale taken up by Firdawsī in his magnum opus The
the Scythians where he loses his horses and in
heroic cycle of Rustam’s Herculean seven feats
the search for them meets in a cave in the forest
(haft khwān) attains almost spiritual importance 86
a mythical creature described as a woman with
Before reaching his ultimate goal the hero has
the lower body of a serpent 97 With this anguipede
to undergo these trials,87 which represent a kind
woman he engenders three sons, the youngest and
of rite of passage 88 During his third feat, which
worthiest of whom, named Scythes, becomes the
is reminiscent of Herakles defeating the Hydra
first king of the Scythians In Firdawsī’s account
of Lerna,89 Rustam slays a magical dragon that
Rustam’s first feat is his victory over a lion whose
is guarding a watering place which the ram has
pelt he wears just like the Grecian Herakles after
shown90 and comes out of the forest at night and
the latter’s vanquishing of the Nemean lion 98
approaches the sleeping hero 91 Twice he is woken
The second exploit is the discovery of a spring
by his formidable mount Rakhsh,92 but each time
in the desert country 99 The third is the victory
the dragon vanishes On the third occasion the
over the dragon While there is no love theme in
monster fails to conceal itself in time and with the
the third trial, the fourth episode recorded in the
help of the faithful Rakhsh the hero succeeds in
Shāh-nāma mentions a sorceress in the form of a
killing the dragon Interestingly, the Shāh-nāma
beautiful girl who tries to seduce Rustam near a
portrays the dragon with human traits such as the
small river in the shade of some trees 100
power of reflection93 and speech: during the battle
Parts of the story are shown on a continuous
he declares himself master of the whole desert 94
frieze of the Sogdian wall paintings in Panjik-
82
88
Belenitskii, 1980, pp 103–5, 199 Cf Azarpay, 1981,
Cf Omidsalar, 2001, pp 262, 265–6
89
p 195 Guitty Azarpay (1981, pp 96–7) also points out that
For a discussion of the points of resemblance between
the “dramatis personae” were subject to change and not nec-
Hercules and Rustam, see Melikian-Chirvani, 1998, p 178
essarily connected to any specific hero
See also p 79, n 44
83
90
Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, p 101 and n 104; de Bruijn,
Shāh-nāma, tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, p 515,
“Rustam,” EI 2 VIII, 636b; P’yankov, 2006, p 505
ll 336–41
84
91
P’yankov, 2006, pp 505–6
A view of the entire scene is reproduced in Azarpay,
85 The Sogdian fragment from Dunhuang which records
1981, p 96, fig 42 Shāh-nāma, tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878,
part of the Rustam legend is fully quoted in Klíma, 1968,
vol 1, pp 517–21
92
p 53; Azarpay, 1981, pp 6–7 Cf Marshak, 2002, p 51
On the motif of the horse as helper of the hero, see
86 Cf Russell, 2004, p 543 and n 30 For a discussion of
Schirmunski, 1961, pp 25–6
93
the close parallels of the haft khwān (dragon slaying being
Shāh-nāma, tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, p 517,
one of the exploits) of Rustam and Isfandiyār, see yarshater,
ll 565–70
94
1983a, pp 469–70 and n 5
Idem, vol 1, pp 519–21, ll 396–400 This exploit is also
87 The number seven was specifically important to the
recorded by the eleventh-century Armenian scholar Grigor
“Avestan people,” and plays a significant role in the rites and
Magistros who moreover notes that the battle took place near
customs of the Zoroastrians, for whom seven is the number
Mount Damāwand; see Tchukasizian, 1964, pp 321–2 Cf
of the creations and of the Amahraspands (Aməsha Spəntas),
P’yankov, 2006, p 507
95
the positive creatures or “Bounteous Immortals,” who guard
Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, pp 519–21, ll
them The number seven gained even greater prominence in
393–5, 400–2
96
the Islamic period, when it acquired additional symbolism
P’yankov, 2006, pp 505–11, esp pp 506–7
97
Cf Hartmann-Schmitz, 1989, pp 12–20; Schimmel, 1994,
Cf Sulimirski, 1985, p 168
98
p 27 Moreover, seven often conveys ideas of perfection
It is notable that the Nemean lion was one of the off-
and periodicity (for a list of examples, see Shahbazi, “Haft
spring of the drakōn Typhon and Echidna, who had the face
(seven),” EIr) It is a favourite number in eastern Semitic
and torso of a woman and the body of a serpent (Hesiod,
civilisations with magico-religious features; among the
Theogony 306–8) See West, 1962, p 161
99
Israelites it was used in ritual incantations (2 Kings 13 and
Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, pp 513–7
100
Joshua 6); and in the Old Testament seven is the number of
Idem, vol 1, pp 521–3
completeness Cf Jeffers, 1996, p 87, n 286
the dragon in scenes of combat
95
ent The monster is depicted as a terrifying she-
preserved in the National Museum in Dushanbe
dragon who has coiled her elongated serpentine
in Tajikistan 106 In one of the roundels a mounted
tail around all four legs of the horse (proba-
horseman is seen taking aim at a twice-knotted
bly to be understood as Rakhsh),101 her female
dragon 107
upper body rises up, naked to the waist With
While there appear to be no surviving repre-
her long arms she is dragging the mounted Rus-
sentations of the dragon-slayer around the turn of
tam-like hero’s head towards her The hero has
the millennium in the Islamic realm of Western
succeeded in wounding the dragon twice with
Asia, the equestrian dragon-fighter can nonethe-
his axe (fig 88) 102 In the next scene the dragon,
less be seen as a leitmotif which links the pre-
its wounds gushing blood, is in its death-throes
Islamic Sasanian and the Sogdian times with the
In contrast to the preceding images, it now
Islamic period After an apparent lacuna in the
lies prostrate on the ground (fig 89) 103 Boris
tenth and perhaps the early part of the eleventh
Marshak explains the depiction of the serpentine
century (a period during which the motif occurs
she-dragon with human arms and lion’s mane
in the Christian art of the Caucasus, particularly
as a conflation of three trials mentioned in the
in Armenia and Georgia, as examined below), it is
Shāh-nāma, namely the fight with the dragon,
depicted with great regularity on Islamic works of
the lion and the sorceress 104 While the genealogi-
art from Central Asia to Anatolia and the Jazīra
cal aspect of the myth was apparently forgotten,
The Abū Muslim-nāma,108 which records the
some analogies with the original theme of the
life of the charismatic Abū Muslim Khurāsānī
mythical anguipede progenitrix appear to have
(d c 137/754–5) who led a popular movement
been retained 105
for the ʿAbbasid cause and became a legendary
An equestrian dragon-fighter is also portrayed
figure after his assassination, recounts the heroic
on a tympanum from the medieval city of Bunji-
exploits of the fourth caliph ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib
kat (20 kilometres south of the modern town of
(d 40/660), Muḥammad’s cousin who married
Shahristan in northern Tajikistan) in the Sog-
the Prophet’s daughter Fāṭima ʿAlī is portrayed
dian principality of Ustrushana, probably dating
as accomplishing the feat of vanquishing the
from the seventh to the ninth century A row of
dragon at a very early age and is eulogised as
pearl roundels frame the rim of the monumental
infant dragon-slayer with the words:
wooden arch-shaped tympanum (partly destroyed
by fire) that adorned the top of the portal leading
Bare-handed in the cradle with his mighty arms
to the throne hall of the Qalʿa-i Qahqaha, now
he tore apart the dragon’s jaws 109
101
107
Comparable imagery is represented on a Sasanian
The first fire is associated with the time of the ʿAbbasid
seal in the British Museum, London, which shows a dou-
conquest of the town in 206/822, the second with the annex-
ble-headed serpent coiled around each of the four legs of a
ation to the Samanid state by Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad I (279/892–
bovine and rearing up above its head and inscribed with the
295/907) providing a terminus ante quem for the dating of
name of the owner in Pahlawī Mordtmann, 1864, pl I, no 4,
the wooden panel
108
republished in Ettinghausen, 1955, p 282, pl XXXIX, no 8
The Abū Muslim-nāma was written by Abū Ṭāhir
Cf Bivar, 1969, p 8, pl 15 1; Marshak, 2002, p 43
Ṭarsūsī (Ṭūsī), who was part of the retinue of the Turkic
102 Azarpay, 1981, pl 6; Marshak, 2002, p 40, figs 17–20,
Ghaznawid sulṭān Maḥmūd (r 389/999–421/1030) The leg-
colour pl 3; Grube and Johns, 2005, p 233, cat no 78 5
ends of Abū Muslim are surveyed in Mélikoff, 1962 See also
103 Azarpay, 1981, pl 7; Marshak, 2002, p 43, fig 20
eadem, 1960, vol 1, p 43
104
109
Idem, 2002, p 51 An anachronical but perhaps not
The translation is based on the manuscript in Paris,
entirely irrelevant parallel exists in Kushāṇa-period chthonic
Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms Pers 843, dated 1145–6/1732–4;
creatures, sometimes referred to as vyāla, which were rep-
Mahdjoub, 1988, p 63 The motif of the infant dragon-slayer
resented as half-females, half-serpents, with a female upper
is repeatedly found in classical literature, for instance, in
body whose lower limbs transform into a long spiralling
the depiction of the infant hero Herakles struggling with
serpentine tail terminating in a fan-shaped caudal fin Cf
two serpents described by the classical Greek poet Pindar
Czuma, 1985, p 53, cat no 3
( c. 518–438 bc) in the Nemean Ode 1, 42–7 Another early
105 Igor P’yankov (2006, pp 508–10) notes that traces of
classical example is given by the infant Apollo who when
the ancient genealogical tales are still preserved in today’s
only a few days old shot arrows from the arms of his mother
folklore of southern Tajikistan where the Scythian people once
Leto at a multi-headed snake, the story being depicted on
lived and where he heard oral traditions from local people
a fifth-century bc lekythos (predating Euripides’ Iphigeneia
about a dangerous serpentine woman who lives in the river
in Tauris, 1239–1251); see Fontenrose, 1959, repr 1980,
106 Unfortunately, the panel remains unpublished; it
pp 16–7 and fig 1 For a discussion of the epic motif of
was not permitted to photograph it in the museum nor was
the supernatural power and acquisition of “wisdom” and
it possible to obtain a photograph from the museum For
certain magical abilities of infant heros from dragons, see
a description of the site, see Negmatov, 1996, repr 1999,
Schirmunski, 1961, pp 58–9
pp 259–74, and fig 41
96