Serial Killers: the Mise-En-Page of Firdausi's
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Persica 23, 73-107. doi: 10.2143/PERS.23.0.2050509 © 2009-2010 by Persica. All rights reserved. SERIAL KILLERS: THE MISE-EN-PAGE OF FIRDAUSI’S ‘DAVAZDAH RUKH’ Charles Melville University of Cambridge ‘What is the use of a book’, thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’ (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland) In discussing Persian painting, we must not lose sight of the fact in its formative period — notwithstanding the decoration of ceramics or the creation of mural paintings, now mainly lost — it was essentially a book art. That is, the paintings form part of a book and they illustrate a text, whether literally or not. This is hardly a novel observation;1 neverthe- less, in the numerous studies devoted to the ‘arts of the book’, considerably more attention is paid to the arts than to the book. The relationship raises many interesting questions, which do not always receive sufficient attention when the pictures themselves are studied.2 In this paper, I want to concentrate on one particular question, namely the relationship between the calligrapher and the painter in the design and layout of the page: that is, a contextual analysis of the paintings. I will try to show how several different elements have to be balanced and coordinated to achieve a satisfactory relationship between the text and the image. To pursue this topic, I will take the Shahnama episode of the ‘Davazdah rukh’ (twelve knights) to serve as an example, for reasons that will become apparent shortly. The episode of the Davazdah rukh is one of the most popular sections of the Shahnama, at least in terms of the choice of the story as a subject for illustration.3 1 See recently, Jerome C. Clinton, “Ferdowsi and the illustration of the Shahnameh”, in Islamic art and literature, ed. by Oleg Grabar & Cynthia Robinson, Princeton, 2001, pp. 57-78. 2 The subject is also addressed by Oleg Grabar, “Persian miniatures: illustrations or paintings”, in The Persian presence in the Islamic world, ed. by Richard G. Hovannisian & Georges Sabagh, Cambridge, 1998, pp. 199-217, esp. 208. For a suggestive and attractive treatment in a primarily European context, see L’aventure des écritures. La page, ed. by Anne Zali, Paris, 1999. 3 The Preliminary index of Shah-Nameh illustrations, by Jill Norgren & Edward Davis, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1969, identified altogether 224 paintings from this episode (Mohl chapter 13f, cf. Fritz Wolff, Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname, Berlin, 1935, pp. vi-vii); see the helpful enumeration of the scenes by Farhad Mehran, “Frequency distribution of illustrated scenes in Persian manuscripts”, in Student, 2/i, 1998, pp. 351-79 (esp. 371-8). Since then, the work of the Shahnama Project in Cambridge & Edinburgh has been able to increase this number to over 800, and no doubt many more remain to be identified and catalogued. 993239_PersicaXXIII.indd3239_PersicaXXIII.indd 7733 99/08/10/08/10 111:211:21 74 C. MELVILLE However, literary scholarship has rather neglected this central story in the cycle of wars between Iran and Turan, at least in the West.4 Indeed, we should see this episode as the turning point, with the overall superiority of the Iranians demonstrated by the victory of their champion in each of the single combats.5 The following episode, “The Great War”, narrates Afrasiyab’s final defeat and execution, and the occultation of Kay Khusrau, his revenge complete. In addition, Firdausi uses the episode of the Davazdah rukh to highlight the disastrous results of greed (az), as his preamble to the story explains; one of many such passages in the Shahnama that contain the essence of the poet’s philosophy.6 چو بستی کمر بر در راه آز شود کار گیتیت یکسر دراز پرستنده آز و جویای کین به گیتی ز کس نشنود آفرین بخور آنچه داری و بیشی مجوی که از آز کاهد همی آبروی “When you gird your loins to enter the path of greed, the toils of the world will stretch out far ahead of you… The slave of greed and seeker of revenge hears no praise from anyone in the world… Enjoy what you have and do not look for more; for greed leads only to a loss of honour”. Here, the greed is Afrasiyab’s desire for conquest and revenge for the humiliating night raid on his palace, carried out by Rustam after rescuing Bizhan from the pit.7 Unlike Rustam, who is left on the margins of the episode, Bizhan continues to play an important 4 The translation by James Atkinson, The Sháh Námeh of the Persian poet Firdausí, London, 1832, rev. ed. J.A. Atkinson, London, 1886, pp. 235-6, is itself based on an abbreviation of the text; the story is ignored entirely in the summary English translations by Reuben Levy, The epic of the kings, London, 1967, and Dick Davis, Fathers and sons. Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, vol. II, Washington, D.C., 2000. The late Iraj Vameqi, Bizhan-name. Dar bara-yi Shahname, Tehran, 1380/2001, p. 61, however, called it one of the most interesting stories in the Shahnama. 5 The importance of single combat in Iranian warfare has recently been recalled by Prof. Josef Wiesehöfer, “From Achaemenid imperial order to Sasanian diplomacy: War, peace and reconciliation in pre- Islamic Iran”, in War and peace in the ancient world, edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub, Oxford 2007, pp. 121-40 (esp. 130-32). The Iranian ideals of the heroic champion, pahlavan, were also prevalent in Georgia, where the hero, who could also be the king, was called bumberazi; for details, see Stephen H. Rapp, Jnr. “Images of royal authority in early Christian Georgia: the impact of monotheism?”, in Monotheistic kingship. The medieval variants, edited by Aziz al-Azmeh & János M. Bak, Budapest, 2004, pp. 155-72 (esp. 158-60). Single combats are frequent throughout the Shahnama, one instance among many being the series of challenges against Farud son of Siyavush; for an example from a more recent historical context, see Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi}l-ta}rikh, ed. by C.J. Tornberg, repr. Beirut, 1968, vol. X, p. 329, sub anno 495 AH; thanks to David Durand- Guédy for this reference. 6 See Dabir-Siyaqi’s text and commentary, Dastan-i yazdah rukh, Tehran, 1381/2002; Firdausi, Shahnama, ed. by Jules Mohl, Le livre des rois, 7 vols., Paris, 1838-78; Persian text, repr. with intro. by Muhammad Amin Riyahi, 3 vols., Tehran, 1374/1995, vol. II, p. 845 (hereafter cited as Mohl, verse no.); ed. by Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh, Ferdowsi: The Shahnameh, vol. IV, Costa Mesa & New York, 1994, pp. 3-4 (does not include the third verse quoted; hereafter cited as KM, verse no.). For az, see J.P. Amussen in Encyclo- paedia Iranica, III/fasc. 2, 1987, pp. 168-9, and recently Abbas Amanat, “Divided patrimony, tree of royal power, and fruit of vengeance: Political paradigms and Iranian self-image in the story of Faridun in the Shahnama”, in Shahnama Studies I, Pembroke Papers, 5, ed. by C. Melville, Cambridge, 2006, pp. 49-70, esp. 58, 61. 7 For an analysis of this story, see my “Text and image in the story of Bizhan and Manizha: I”, in Shahnama Studies I, pp. 71-96, with F. Abdullaeva. 993239_PersicaXXIII.indd3239_PersicaXXIII.indd 7744 99/08/10/08/10 111:211:21 SERIAL KILLERS: THE MISE-EN-PAGE OF FIRDAUSI’S ‘DAVAZDAH RUKH’ 75 role in the Davazdah rukh, but beyond the initial reference to the night raid, the story essentially refers back to the previous set of encounters in the cycle of warfare following the execution of Siyavush, that is, the defeat of Kamus-i Kashani and the Khaqan-i Chin. The results of Afrasiyab’s greed are the disastrous defeat of his armies and the destruction of the family of his chief counsellor, Piran son of Visa, who had been such a force for good throughout the Shahnama. His removal, crushed between the implacable will of the Turanian and Iranian Shahs, paves the way for the final dénouement.8 The Davazdah rukh is in fact a long and rather rambling story of over 2,500 verses (baits), with much exchange of letters and embassies, challenges and discussions and one or two set battles. It is perhaps such episodes that H.H. Wilson had in mind when he wrote, ‘The great length, and in many respects tediousness, of the entire Sháh Námeh, renders it little likely that a translation of the whole poem would ever be acceptable to an English public..’, a view more infamously echoed by E.G. Browne.9 Nevertheless, within this story, full of speeches that penetrate into the core of the world of the Shahnama (but do not lend themselves to pictorial representation), there are two particular moments of heightened interest, namely the fight between Bizhan and Human, and secondly the sequence of eleven single combats between the Iranian and Turanian champions, in particular the final contest between Gudarz and Piran. This explains why the episode is often called, more correctly, the Dastan-i yazdah rukh (eleven knights), or Jang-i gudarz ba piran (the war of Gudarz and Piran), and similar titles. In this paper, I shall continue to refer to the whole episode by its common name, the Davazdah rukh, while concentrating on the series of single combats of the eleven champions, using for each one the title appropriate to the context. The two framing battles are both longer and more complex in their structure than the other combats. The first, between Bizhan son of Giv and Human brother of Piran, occurs quite early in the episode.10 It is separated from the rest by nearly 1,000 verses and a variety of other actions, whereas the final duel between Gudarz and Piran follows imme- diately the previous single combat.