When his enemies saw his dragon countenance
Give them no more time, and do not tarry, for if
They raised their hands above their heads like
given time a viper will become a dragon 12
scorpions 7
Similar allegorical language is also used in the
In a dramatic double simile in the Iskandar-nāma,
History of the Saljuqs by Ibn Bībī (d after 684/
Niẓāmī brings together the heroic qualities of the
December 1285) who referred to rebel ious youths
dragon with those of the lion to describe:
as “young serpents that grow into dragons”13 and
an Alan knight, similar to a fierce lion, [who]
likened the victorious Saljuqs to “threatening
came forth like a black dragon, with a mace in
dragons ”14
his hand, hard to bear for less than seventy men
Rustam, the legendary prince of Sistān, is con-
and able to split Mt Alborz 8
spicuous for his role in the battles with his arch-
enemy Afrāsīyāb, the legendary king of Tūrān
The mythical creatures are thus invoked in order
in the Iranian epic In the “Book of Qay Qubād”
to endow the subject of eulogies, by association,
of Firdawsī’s Shāh-nāma, his father Zāl however
with praiseworthy superhuman qualities
warns him about going to war with the Tūrānian
In the Haft Paykar Niẓāmī again jointly invokes
who is identified as a Turk and as a powerful
the lion and the dragon in the allegorical descrip-
“male dragon”:
tion of king Bahrām seizing the crown from
between two lions:
Zāl told him, “Listen my son
Today, for once, think hard:
The golden crown in two black lions’ jaws as in
In war, this Turk is a male dragon
two dragons’ jaws a (lustrous) moon-
In skirmish and in combat he is a cloud of
A moon escaping with a basin’s noise the cloud,
calamity 15
but the basin eke a sword,
The two vindictive lions lashed their tails upon
In literary tradition the dragon is hence used to
the ground like dragons twain (in wrath);
emphasise the heroes’ and rulers’ superhuman
To say, Who’ll seize from us this golden crown?
qualities by allegorically transforming them
Who’ll dare a lion or a dragon rob?
into dragons whose likeness was often singled
They knew not of that man of iron heart, who
out as apt symbol of royalty and superiority 16
captured lions, dragons hunted too 9
This is also noticeable in the visual language,
Firdawsī evokes related heroic imagery in the
for instance on a large marble slab relief-carved
Shāh-nāma in the story of the demon Akwān
with addorsed regardant “Saljuq-style” dragons
who at royal command was slain by Rustam who
in rampant posture with forelegs and unfolded
himself is repeated likened to a dragon 10 The hero
wings Significant are their long interlaced tails
assures the king that “whether demon, lion or
Their open mouths reveal enormous fangs with
male dragon, it will not escape my sharp sword,”
long bifid tongues thrust out, their forelegs with
and is himself described as arriving at the battle
separated talon-toed paws rest on their long
scene “like a male lion riding a dragon ”11
upward-curving sinuous tails The plaque carries
The court poet Masʿūd-i Rāzī was exiled to India
an epigraphic band inscribed with the formula
by the Ghaznawid sulṭān Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd for
al-sulṭān al-muʿaẓẓam (“the exalted sultan”), a
daring to admonish the sulṭān during the festival
title held by the Saljuqs (fig 112) It comes from
of Mihragān in Dhu ’l-Ḥij ah 430/September 1039
the cenotaph of the Mamlūk ruler al-Muʾayyad
with the lines:
Sayf al-Dīn Shaykh (d 1421/824) in Cairo, which
Max van Berchem has identified as (much ear-
your enemies were ants, but now they have
lier) spoils from the sulṭān’s Mesopotamian
become vipers; hasten to destroy these ants
turned vipers
campaigns17 and for which Rogers suggests an
Anatolian Saljuq provenance 18 The inscription
7 Ed Bīnish, T , Tehran, 1958, p 43, as cited in Danesh-
12 Meisami, 1990, p 41
vari, 1993, p 16, n 7
13 Al-Awāmir al-ʿalāʾiyya, tr Duda, 1959, p 309
8 Muḥammad Ilyās ibn yūsuf Niẓāmī, ed and French
14 Idem, p 212
tr of the Russian episode by Spitznagel, L , Expédition
15 Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, p 467, ll 34–9
d’Alexandre le Grand contre les russes, extrait de l’Alexandréide
16 Cf Melikian-Chiravani, 1984, p 323
ou Iskèndèr-Namé de Nizâmy, St Petersburg, 1828, cited after
17 Van Berchem, 1910, p 81, fig 34
Alemany, 2000, pp 264–6 and n 57
18 Rogers, J M , Islamic Art in Egypt 969–1517, exhibi-
9 Tr Wilson, p 73
tion catalogue, Cairo, 1969, pp 203–4, no 194, as cited in
10 Tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 3, p 187, l 566
Ibrāhīm, 1976, p 11 Cf Rogers, 1969, p 154, n 14
11 Idem, vol 3, p 275, ll 63–5
the dragon in relation to royal or heroic figures
113
explicitly identifies the iconography of the paired
able beyond the caliphal court According to
dragons as a royal ensign of a now anonymous
the tenth-century philosopher Miskawayh, the
sulṭān It is interesting to note the analogy of this
ambitious Ziyārid ruler Mardāwīj ibn Ziyār
type of imagery to the stone reliefs at the türbe of
(d 323/935) was imitating Sasanian custom when
Emir Saltuq at Erzurum (fig 10) and at the church
he sat on a golden throne and wore a crown 21
of Saint Gregory in Ani (fig 11) Closely related
The historian Abu ’l-Faḍl Bayhaqī (d 470/1077),
interlaced dragons are depicted on portable items
recorded in his Taʾrīkh-i Masʿūdī (“History of
such as the twelfth-century gold finger ring from
Masʿūd”) that the Ghaznawid sulṭān Masʿūd
the greater Khurasan region (fig 30) where they
ibn Maḥmūd held court sitting on a dais and in
served to strengthen the protective function
429/1038 had his throne, original y made of wood,
of the objects, and were chosen as emblematic
replaced by a golden, jewel-studded throne, three
motifs west of Iran for the coinage of twelfth- or
years in the making, that he placed on a dais in
thirteenth-century rulers in the Jazīra (figs 32a
his new palace 22 In the manner of the Sasanian
and b) This spolium is evidence that not only
kings he had a seventy- man crown suspended
did the motif of the interlaced dragons prove to
from golden chains 23 The grandeur of the house
be meaningful beyond the Central Asian realm
of the Ghaznawids was, in the words of Bayhaqī,
but that the iconography could be re-contex-
“resplendent as the sun ”24 The twelfth-century
tualised in a fifteenth-century Mamlūk setting
Khurasani poet Awḥad al-Dīn Muḥammad
where it was distinguished as an emblem that
Anwarī ( c 520/1126–583/1187–8 or 585/1189–
was deemed suitable for inclusion in a royal funer-
90), who was born near Abīward, had served
ary setting
sulṭān Sanjar ibn Malik Shāh and survived the
collapse of the Great Saljuqs, expresses similar
metaphorical notions for the enthroned sover-
b Paired dragons with a central
eign:
anthropomorphic figure
May the world be your servant and destiny your
Dragon symbolism and cosmic rulership
page
The sky your throne and the sun your crown 25
Artistic representations developed during the
His words aptly express the celestial and solar
ʿAbbasid period projected an idealised vision of
associations of royal ideology, areas in which the
rulership which included the creation of physi-
dragon theme played an important role The con-
cal manifestations of their imperial pursuits,
ventional medieval Islamic depiction of rulership
in particular with respect to court ritual Ira-
shows a frontal y rendered human figure, the head
nian influence on court ceremonial (marasīm)
in three-quarter view, seated cross-legged on a
became noticable reflecting “the profound ira-
raised platform between two poles, which serve
nisation of customs and society ”19 Considerable
as the arms of the “chair,” and which are topped
importance was attached to the throne (sarīr,
by dragon heads, their wide-open jaws revealing
kursī) The caliph sat on a throne placed on a
tongues commonly oriented towards the head of
dais (ṣuffa) when he presided over court cer-
the human figure The figure is often shown with
emonies Iranian features in these ceremonies
arms extended at either side, grasping the staffs
sometimes included the caliph’s elevation on a
just below the dragon heads At times he holds a
raised platform or throne (Pers takht), rather
staff in one hand and what looks like a cup in the
than just a dais 20 These influences were notice-
other, imagery suggestive of cosmic kingship 26
19 Sourdel, 1960, pp 121–48; cf Spuler, 1976, p 346
crown” in the throne hall of the Sasanian kings at Ctesi-
20 Sourdel, 1960, p 131
phon which perhaps was used by the Umayyad owner of
21 Tajārib al-umam, tr and ed Margoliouth, 1921,
the desert residence Khirbat al-Mafjar (in this case in the
vol 5, p 489 Firdawsī similarly speaks, for example, of the
form of a qalansuwa) and later also entered Byzantine court
golden throne of Ẓaḥḥāk ( Shāh-nāma, tr and ed Mohl,
ceremonial; cf Ettinghausen, 1972, pp 28–30 See also the
1838–1878, vol 1, p 109, ll 449, 590), the golden throne
crown suspended above the throne of Manuchehr; Shāh-
given by Farīdūn to his successor Manūchihr ( idem, vol 1,
nāma, tr and ed Mohl, 1838–1878, vol 1, pp 211, ll 1142–
p 167, l 627) or the golden throne of Kay Kāwūs ( idem,
143
vol 2, p 49, l 526)
24 Meisami, 1999, p 296
22 Ed Ghanī and Fayyūḍ, Tehran, 1324/1945, p 438, as
25 Dīwān, vol 1, p 200 Cf Melikian-Chirvani, 1984,
cited in Lambton, “Marasīm,” EI² VI, 518a
p 327
23 Op. cit. Cf Meisami, 1999, p 77 For the “hanging
26 Cf Baer, 1983, pp 258–66
114