Nimrud, Kay Kavus, Alexander, Or Why the Angel Has the Fish1

KINGLY FLIGHT: NIMRUD, KAY KAVUS, ALEXANDER, OR WHY THE ANGEL HAS THE FISH1

Firuza Abdullaeva University of Oxford

Darius sent Iskandar a ball and a polo stick to say that Iskandar was still a child and was not ready for a serious battle with him. Iskandar interpreted the ball as the Earth, and thanked Darius for giving him the sign that he would rule the world. Nizami, Iskandarnama2

It is sometimes difficult to get an adequate interpretation of a visual or literary image that has survived many centuries in different cultural traditions, inevitably being influenced by them. Sometimes the illustration of a text influences later versions. Sometimes the interpretation starts dominating the original text or its illustration. This paper will attempt to decipher the visual illustration of several versions of a story, an image that has gone through several cultural interpretations, and to explain its possible origins. The story taken as an example is a reflection of the phenomenon, which could be called the wandering iconography of wandering stories, whereby the literary images and their visual representation are borrowed, exchanged, influenced and emulated in different cultural traditions over the centuries, creating a unified image with many variations. This makes it difficult, or even impossible, to distinguish the sequence of such influences and emulations on the level of both the text and the image.

1 I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mikhail Piotrovskiy, Olga Novoseltseva, Father Grazio Gianfreda, Matteo Compareti, Olga Vasilyeva, Olga Yastrebova, Muhammad Isa Waley, Robert Skelton, Adeela Qoreshi, Bilha Moor, Teresa Fitzherbert and many others for their help in providing the images for this article from the Hermitage museum, the Otranto Cathedral, the National Library of Russia, the London National Gallery, the Guimet museum, The Paul J. Getty museum, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Heidelberg University, the British Library, the Berlin State Library, and the Museum of Israel. My special thanks go to Charles Melville and Oleg Grabar for reading the draft of my article and making valuable suggestions. I am grateful to Christian Gruber for letting me have the electronic version of her yet unpublished book on the Mi{rajnama and Julia Rubanovich for sharing her ideas on the subject. 2 Nizami Ganjavi, Kulliyat, Tihran, 1378/1999, 2, pp. 980-2.

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Quite often the absence of the text adds more confusion. A typical example of such a product of the melting pot of the multicultural literary and artistic milieu is the famous image of Bahram Gur and his slave girl, depicted not only in numerous manuscripts, but on many different artefacts. It is not always clear whose version of the story the artist is depicting (Firdawsi’s or Nizami’s), and so who is the girl (Azada or Fitna) accompanying the prince on his hunt.3 However, an even better example is the Innsbruck plate, with badly-written inscriptions in Arabic and Persian, depicting a king’s apotheosis, where it is not possible to say which king is ascending the sky: the Greek Alexander, the Semitic Nimrud or the Iranian Kay Kavus4. The tradition of imitation or rather emulation of the work of a predecessor in Islamic art caused the phenomenon that can be characterized as the exchange of imagery between the borrowed and the borrowing work and the mutual influence of their subject matter. Here ‘Islamic art’ is understood not only as visual (painting, mostly miniature book painting), but artistic creativity in general, including its imaginative aspect, i.e. literary work, which in most cases inspired artists to create their paintings and patrons to commission them. It is worth mentioning that in both systems, literature and painting, the tradition of emulation was adopted as the most appreciated. In comparison with the European attitude towards the allowed and prohibited in art, where the whole idea of plagiarism was articulated, criticized and condemned at an early stage, in the Muslim East the whole tradition of visual and imaginative art is based on 1) repeating a piece of work, adopted by society as exemplary and 2) surpassing it, demonstrating and proving the superiority of the new creation5. Its purpose is extremely clear: if one can produce something better than the work adopted in society as a masterpiece, it means that its author can be automatically considered as a new genius, superior to the well-known master who has been surpassed. In the history of art there are many examples of similar iconographic schemes being used to illustrate different folk and literary subjects. Sometimes the same compo- sitional models can be transferred from one cultural tradition into another6. The strongest example is the first illustrations of the Bible, where the subjects popular in Classical antiquity, Homer’s poems and Euripedes’ tragedies were chosen as the models for religious illustrations7.

3 One of the paintings at the exhibition “Coffee House Painting" at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tehran, 14 March-5 May 2010) uses the image of Bahram Gur's hunt to illustrate the Khayyam's ruba}i, featuring the famous king. 4 It has been assumed that the king ascending the sky is Alexander the Great, even if the artefact was produced in the Muslim world (S. Redford, How Islamic is it? The Innsbruck plate and its setting, in Muqarnas VII: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, Oleg Grabar (ed.), Leiden, 1990, pp. 119-135). 5 About tazmin/tadhmin as a serious shortcoming in poetry and unacceptable plagiarism, see Shams-i Qays, Al-Mu{jam, ss. 166-173, especially the fragment from Anvari, which Shams-i Qays uses to warn about using someone else’s verses inappropriately: Dar in muqabila yak bayt-i {Azraqi beshnaw Na az tariq-i tanahhul ba vajh-i istidlal In relation to this listen to this bayt from {Azraqi Not plagiarized but brought as a witness… (ibid., 171). On husn-i tazmin (“beauty of imitation”) as a trope see J. Meisami, Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry. Orient Pearls, New York, 2003, pp. 271-280. 6 Sh. Shukurov, Shahnama, Moscow, 1983, p. 37. 7 K. Weitzmann, Ancient book illumination, Cambridge, 1959.

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However, later in the Western tradition the process of direct copying was accepted as appropriate only for student work. In the case of Muslim art this stage is the obligatory start, the main aim of which is to demonstrate the brilliant education of a new comer: in literature a poet, working in the tadhmin/tazmin form (“insertion”, “quotation” > “imitation”; or nazira “example, pattern” > “following the example, imitating”, “imitation”, Persian javab – “answer”), uses not only the theme, style or metre of the emulated poem, but very often he would use a direct quotation from his predecessor, adding his own verses to it, naturally continuing the poem, developing the subject8. In painting an artist can be even more conservative, or maybe less imaginative: he uses for his own images already existing clichés and whole compositions, varying the palette, adding or omitting some apparently minor details. All the above applies mostly to the ‘mature period’ of Persian art, when a wide spectrum of iconographically-fixed scenes was adopted for several subjects to be depicted in the most popular books, like the Shahnama by Firdawsi or Khamsa by Nizami. However, such double emulation of literary images and their visual representation caused a great mixture (not to say diversity!) of depicted subjects and scenes, which in turn created the mentioned above phenomenon of the wandering iconography of wandering subjects. To illustrate this idea, a scene concerning Royal flight was chosen, in which three kings are flying to the sky, using a flying machine of similar construction. These three kings are Nimrud, Kay Kavus and Alexander the Great. Some of the images of this scene are furnished with some enigmatic accessories, which are absent in the text. This paper aims to solve this riddle.

KAY KAVUS ASCENDING THE SKY (ACCORDING TO FIRDAWSI)

We shall start with the story of the king Kay Kavus ascending the heavens in his flying machine, mentioned in the Shahnama by Firdawsi (ca. 940 - ca. 1030).9 The image of this king is reproduced in many different variants in numerous manuscripts all over the world. Some of the illustrations of this episode betray an astonishing discrepancy between the text and its illustration. Some of the paintings contain an angel and a fish, which are not mentioned by Firdawsi. This was the starting point of this detective investigation, trying to identify who they are, and what they are doing in the picture. This episode in the Shahnama is of special interest: it allows the author to describe the character of the king as not only an ideal legitimate ruler, good in his thoughts, words and deeds, patronized by farr (divine charisma), but also as a king with a very live, contradictory and human nature, revealing him as an adventurous and curious person, sometimes brave, tender, grateful, clever and just, sometimes stubborn, cruel and silly.

8 On one of the best examples of such work, Hafiz’s ghazal (incipit: Ala ya ayyuha-s-saqi…) see J. Meisami, “Life in Poetry: Hafiz’s first ghazal”, in F. Lewis and S. Sharma (eds.) The Necklace of the Pleiades, Iranian Studies Series, Amsterdam and West Lafayette, 2007, pp. 163-181. Cf. the ghazal by khomeini with the same incipit (Divan-i Imam, Tehran, 1378/1999, p. 46). 9 Firdawsi, Shahnama, matn-i kamil bar asas-i nuskha-yi chapi moskaw, Tihran, 1386/2008, s. 179.

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Kay Kavus, the suzerain of the greatest hero Rustam, is one of the most interesting figures in the whole lineage of Iranian kings depicted by Firdawsi, according to whom he is a representative of the mythological Kayanid dynasty. In this mythological part of the poem, obviously influenced by the pre-Shahnama sources, humans constantly battle with supernatural characters but only a few win. Kay Kavus’s nature is not very easy to interpret: he is the one who together with Jamshid and like Sulayman was given by God the power over demonic creatures. His Avestan proto- type was even granted immortality but lost this quality because of his inappropriate behavior. His flight in Firdawsi’s story can be a reminder of his seventy five years (half of his reign), which he spent in the heavens to rule the angels10. In the episode under discussion he is still pious and just, which irritates Satan so that he decides to ruin his mind by a great temptation. The temptation appeared in the shape of a handsome young boy, who met the king while leaving the palace for the hunt. He presented him with a bunch of roses, saying: “You’ve reached the peak of earthly glory, you are the one who possesses everything, who is aware of everything on earth. The only thing that is still unknown to you is the heaven, which holds a lot of fascinating secrets. Why don’t you try to reveal them?” The devil was right; his words poisoned the mind of the pious king. Kay Kavus spent a long time thinking of flying to the sky, enquiring from his astrologers about the possibilities. Finally he ordered many newborn eagles to be collected and put into a place where they should be fed with meat to become strong like lions. When they became big and mighty, he ordered a throne to be constructed from aloeswood and strengthened with gold plates. On the four corners of the throne four long poles were fixed with four pieces of meat bound on top of each of them. When the four strongest eagles were bound at the bottom of each of the sticks, he seated himself on the throne. The starving birds, striving to get the meal, flew up, carrying Kay Kavus in his throne into the sky. Firdawsi does not mention how long the king was flying on his throne, but in the end the hungry and tired eagles became weak and fell down to the ground together with the stubborn king, somewhere in the forests of Amul11. Fortunately, he survived this fall, but had to spend quite a long time in the woods until he was found by his faithful knights: Rustam, Giv, Tus and Gudarz. When they saw him, wounded and miserable, the eldest of them, Gudarz, started to rebuke him in a sur- prisingly bold manner: “An asylum is a more appropriate place for you than the royal throne! It is already the third time that we are rescuing you from the deathly danger! What will people say about you after your death! You must serve God, but not disobey Him!” The poor king was pouring out endless tears, repenting of his sin and crime… When he was brought home, he prayed for forty days on his knees without leaving his palace, giving a lot of alms until God forgave him.

10 Bundahishn, 74 (West, 1892); Denkart, IX, 22.5 (Chunakova, 1997), Chunakova, 2004, p. 125. 11 Literally it is said that they landed “in the Chinese forests nearby Amul”, which witnesses quite a vague use of geography by Firdawsi: Amul is situated on the Caspian seashore, where it was really known as a huge forest called Narvan.

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This episode was one of the most popular among artists. According to the list by J. Norgren and E. Davis12, extended and published by F. Mehran13, the subject takes the 10th place in the list of 645 scene titles, being depicted in 45 manuscripts out of 100, behind only “Rustam kills the White Div” (74), “Rustam kills Suhrab” and the “Fire ordeal of Siyavush” (both 67), “Rustam shoots Isfandiyar” (66), “Rustam, slaying Ashkabus and his horse” (59), and several others.14 The iconography of the painting became more or less fixed by the 15th century. Most of the paintings depicting this story represent the king, flying on his throne, but some painters preferred to illustrate the end of the story, which is, of course, more didactic. One of the earliest representations of this subject from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum shows Kay Kavus falling down from sky somewhere in the Amul forests15. A later manuscript containing the illustration of this episode, from the collection of the State Library in Berlin, faithfully shows the king after his inglorious fiasco, repenting in the presence of his knights16.

Fig. 1. Kay Kavus repenting after his fall, State Library, Berlin, Ms. or. fol. 4251, f. 219r, 1605, Iran

12 J. Norgren and E. Davis. Preliminary index of Shahnameh illustrations. Ann Arbor, 1969. 13 F. Mehran. “Frequency Distribution of Illustrated Scenes in Persian Manuscripts”. Student. October 1998, Neufchatel, vol.2, no. 4, 351-379, esp. p. 371. More complete statistics are available at the website of the Cambridge Shahnama Project at: shahnama.caret.cam.ac.uk. This project is interactive and is constantly updated. 14 Mehran, 1998, pp. 372 and 373 respectively. These numbers have been at least doubled by the results of the Cambridge Shahnama Project; the place of this scene is still approximately the same. 15 1974.290.1-42 fol.9v; 1335, Isfahan, reproduced in M.L. Swietochowski and S. Carboni, Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian painting in the 1330s and 1340s, New York, 1993, fig. 15, p. 91. 16 Berlin, State Library, Ms. or. fol. 4251, f. 219r, 1605.

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The majority of the miniatures depicting Kay Kavus airborne show the king, sitting on his throne, holding a bow and sometimes an arrow, or more often, shooting an arrow into the sky. Some of them contain a figure of an angel flying over the head of the king. Some of the paintings depict the angel with a fish in his hands.

Fig. 2. Kay Kavus pierces the fish in the hands of the Angel, National Library of Russia, Dorn 331, f. 186r, 16th century, Iran

However, the text of the Shahnama does not explain the existence either of the weapons in the hands of Kay Kavus, or the angel, let alone the fish! Sometimes the king appears not to be alone, but with his companion, who is not mentioned by Firdawsi as well. One should admit that some hints can be extracted from the following bayts:

Shinidam ki Kavus shud bar falak Ba-d-an ta bidanad raz az malak Digar guft az an raft bar asman Ki ta jang sazad ba tir-u kaman17 I heard that Kavus ascended to the sky To learn the secrets from the angels The other says that he went to heavens To fight with his bow and arrow (FA).

17 Firdawsi, Shahnama, s. 179, bayts 607-8.

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Fig. 3. Kay Kavus and Companion shoot the arrow into the Angel holding the Fish, National Library of Russia, Dorn 64, f. 94r, 18th century, Iran

Firdawsi gives no explanation why the king needed his bow and arrow, nor whom he was going to fight in the sky. If it were the angels, it is difficult to understand why he suddenly wanted to fight and kill them. Everything the reader can learn only comes afterwards, when, infuriated by the behaviour of his suzerain, Gudarz starts to reproach him. This gap in the logical introduction of the scene appears to be the main reason why the Russian translators of the poem offered to understand tir-u kaman not literally but as metaphors of Kay Kavus’s fight with heavens in general:

Another one says that he went to heavens For to fight with the Tir (Mercury) and [the constellation] of Kaman (Sagittarius)18.

Evidently, according to Firdawsi’s version, Kay Kavus suddenly wanted to reach the sky and force angels to reveal the heavenly secrets to him. The bow and arrow were taken for that purpose. But what is the fish doing there, and who is his companion? One solution to this enigma can be qualified as a typical “folk etymology”. Firdawsi himself several times mentions in his poem the combination of two images, playing with two words: mahi (fish) and mah (Moon > heaven):

18 Also by means of arrow and bow: Firdawsi. Shahnama, Transl. into Russian by C. Banu-Lahuti, A. Lahuti, and A. Starikov. Moscow, 1993, vol.1, p.438, 642.

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Yak-i-ra zi mahi ba mah avarad Yak-i-ra zi mah zir-i chah avarad19 He brings one from the Fish to the Moon He brings one from the Moon to the pit

The Fish and the Moon here are the two ends of the universe between the sky and the ocean, where the gigantic fish floats, on which a gigantic bull stands, who holds the Earth on its horns. This is a reflection of the ancient model of the world, which is transferred now to a New Year legend: until now on the day of Nawruz relatives in Iran gather at the family table at the time of the change of the year and watch the level of the water with a goldfish in it. They wait for a slight movement of the water in the fish bowl, almost invis- ible. Some believe that this movement indicates the moment when the bull moves the globe from one horn to the other to hold it for the next year.

Fig. 4. Structure of the Universe, {Aja}ib al-Makhluqat, British Library, Add. 7894, f.167r, ca. 17th c., Iran

As seen in the painting from the {Aja}ib al-Makhluqat, now preserved in the Brit- ish Library, the Earth is replaced by an angel, holding the heavens on his arms. This representation could be a very good illustration of the ancient Iranian description of the universe by Theodore, mentioned by A.Christensen, where Zoroastrian Kikoaouz is depicted as a bull holding the sky on its horns20.

19 Dehkhoda (mim-maliyat), p. 165. 20 A. Christensen. L’Iran sous les Sassanides. Copenhagen, 1944, p. 156. This might be a link between Kay Kavus of the Shahnama and Iskandar-i Dhu-l-Qarnayn, who was also sometimes depicted not only with two horns but as a bull.

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NIMRUD ASCENDING THE SKY (ACCORDING TO TARIKH-I BAL{AMI)

However, there is another more reasonable interpretation of the image of the rebellious king and the angel with the fish in his hands. At least three different versions of the history of the prophets describe the sky flight of the sinful king of Babylon, Nimrud. The painting from the collection of the Freer Gal- lery of the illustrated copy of Tabari’s Tarikh ar-Rusul wa-l-Muluk, translated and adapted for a Persian reader by Bal{ami, seems to be the earliest representation of this subject21.

Fig. 5. Nimrud and his companion ascend the sky; Ibrahim goes through the fire, Tabari-Bal{ami, Tarikh ar-Rusul wa-l-Muluk, The Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 57.16, ca. 1300, Shiraz (?)

The picture is divided into two parts; in the upper right one can see a king sitting in a transparent cube shaped construction together with another person, both mercilessly defaced. The construction is taken up by four22 big birds and supported by a demon from below. The text to its left, however, describes the second part of the scene, which is placed in the lower left of the painting: Ibrahim in the fire, safe from deadly burns, surrounded by birds, flowers and angels. It is very characteristic that the painting illustrates two

21 Washington, D.C., The Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art 57.16, ca. 1300, Shiraz (?). 22 Texts usually mention four birds used to power this flying machine. Illustrations could contain two, either schematically meaning four, or following the earlier version of the story (see p. 16). R. Zipoli tells the story of Nimrud’s expedition to heaven on three vultures, although the absence of references to his sources leaves the question open (R. Zipoli, “Poetic imagery”, in: E. Yarshater (gen. ed.), General Introduction to Persian Literature, v. 1, J.P.T. de Bruijn (ed.), A History of Persian Literature, London-New York, 2009, p. 223).

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contrasting subjects, which became inseparable in Muslim prophetic tradition: Ibrahim as one of the best examples of the true convert, persecuted for his passionate faith by Nimrud, the most sinful human, who dared to fight with God. Even the more famous episode in Western culture, the construction of the Tower of Babylon, was overshadowed in Muslim literature by the sky invasion of Nimrud. According to the text of Tabari-Bal{ami’s Chronicle,23 Nimrud recognized the God of Ibrahim as his rival in conquering of the universe. After his failure to burn Ibrahim in the fire, he realized that the only opportunity for him to get rid of him was to do away with his God. His flight to the sky was his second attempt to reach the heavens after his enterprise with the construction of the gigantic tower collapsed. He was preparing for his flight for ten years, waiting until four little eagles or vultures (karkas), taken from their mothers and fed with the best meat, became big and strong. Then he ordered a box or a cage (qafas), closed on all sides, except for two small windows, one facing up, another facing down, which could be opened during the flight to observe the position. Four eagles were used as an engine. For three days they were given no food, after which they were bound to the box on its four corners. As an impetus for movement — four pieces of raw meat, tied up on tops of the poles, were fixed over their heads. Then the king together with a companion from his entourage (yak tan az khassagan-i khvad) seated themselves in the box. The starving birds moved towards the meal, pulled the box up, and flew higher and higher — the whole day and the whole night…. The companion was watching the direction and was trying to keep the right orientation. They were flying for three days, checking the view from the windows. But however often they opened the windows, they only lost sight of the earth, but the heavenly mansions of God did not appear. They flew for another day and for one more. Once having opened the window they saw only water, then — only darkness. Nimrud got frightened of seeing nothing around him in any direction but black mist and fog, and decided to go home. He ordered his companion to put the poles with the meat upside down, so the birds flew down and soon landed. The miniature illustrating this episode of Bal{ami’s chronicle from the Baghdad collection (B. 282) of the Topkapi Museum, which can be dated to 141624, literally follows the description mentioned above. This much is quite similar to the Shahnama, but still there is no explanation of the existence of either angel or fish. This can be extracted from the description of the same kingly expedition, but in another version. It is worth mentioning first that in the same chronicle we have the stories of both royal flights, performed by Nimrud and Kay Kavus. The latter is told as follows.25 The reason why Kay Kavus decided to fly is not clearly articulated here either. First Bal{ami tells the story about Kay Kavus’s great project to construct a town, which would cover eight square farsangs and would be called after him. But the town had to be built not of bricks and stones but of metal — iron, bronze, copper, silver and gold. Of course the

23 Bal{ami, Tarikh-i Bal{ami. Takmila va tarjuma-yi Tarikh-i Tabari, eds. M. Bahar and M. Gunabadi, I, Tihran, s.a., pp. 201-202. 24 E. Sims, T. Stanley. The illustrations of Baghdad 282 in the Topkapi Sarayi library in Istanbul: from Cairo to Kabul. London, 2002, p. 227. 25 Bal{ami, p. 600.

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builders of such an unusual town also had to be unusual. For this reason he borrowed builders from Sulayman, and they were demons. When they finished the construction Kay Kavus brought all his treasures and possessions there and ordered the demons to guard it. God, however, disliked this idea. He sent an angel who ruined the town and carried away everything that was there. When Kay Kavus saw this he got so angry that he killed the demonic chiefs. After that he said: “I’ve got nothing else to do but to go to the sky and to see the Moon and the stars”. This development does not seem to be very logical: it would have been easier to imagine that Kay Kavus wanted to go to the sky to find God and punish Him for destroy- ing his town without reason. But according to Bal{ami, Kay Kavus goes for a sightseeing trip, probably to cheer himself up. What is interesting is that Kay Kavus goes to the sky without any special equipment; he takes only some magical device, or talisman (tilism), by means of which together with power and knowledge he possessed (quvvat-u danish ki u-ra bud) he ascends the heavens. He does not go alone, but takes several people to accompany him. However, when they reach a dark cloud, Kay Kavus gets frightened or depressed, he breaks the talisman, and descends to earth. His companions fall down and crash. Oddly enough Bal{ami concludes: all died, only Kay Kavus remained alive. This story seems to be the least coherent that we have seen so far.

NIMRUD ASCENDS THE SKY (ACCORDING TO THE PERSIAN TRANSLATION OF TABARI’S TAFSIR)

The story of Nimrud’s flight has more details in the Persian version of Tabari’s Tafsir, completed by a group of scholars of Mawarannahr by A.D. 95726. The reason for his intention to fly is the same as in Bal{ami’s chronicle: Nimrud was annoyed by the prophetic activities of Ibrahim, seducing his people to convert to monotheism, especially after Ibrahim’s public success. When Nimrud failed to execute him, he decided to destroy the root of this ‘evil’: the God of Ibrahim. In the Tafsir his flying expedition comes right after the fire ordeal of Ibrahim, and before the episode with the Tower of Babylon. In the text Nimrud, after having seated himself and his minister in the flying machine (sanduq), reveals his intention, saying: biravam va ba khuda-yi Ibrahim harb kunam — “I shall go and fight with the God of Ibrahim!” After three days of flying and seeing nothing in the sky, Nimrud got frightened, but in this version, nerve-wracked, he starts shooting his arrows before going home. One of those arrows was caught by Jabra}il, covered with blood and thrown back to Nimrud. The king having no idea about the manipulations of Jabra}il, believes that he had achieved his goal and killed the God of Ibrahim. He exclaims: Khuda-yi asman-ra halak kardam! Khak-ash bar dahan-i an kafir-i palid-i mal{un — “I killed the God of heavens! Let the mouth of this damned dirty unbeliever be full of ash! (adds the author)”. Obviously this variant provides more motivation and is enriched with the details about the arrow and the angel; however, still there is nothing about the fish! Moreover, the logical explanation of the events seems quite unsatisfactory because the episode of the

26 Tarjuma-yi Tafsir-i Tabari, 1339/1960, H. Yaghmayi (ed.), Tihran, v. 2, ss. 481-3.

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Tower of Babylon is put in the wrong order. It is not clear why the whole story with the angel and the bleeding arrow was introduced — to make Nimrud think that he really reached his aim, and there is no need to persecute Ibrahim any more? Yet, it is in this story that Nimrud constructs the tower to see God (again?) after he has supposedly already killed Him during his flight!

NIMRUD ASCENDS THE SKY (ACCORDING TO THE CHRONICLES AND HISTORY OF PROPHETS)

Two other sources, containing variants of the story, were created later and became extremely popular, being richly illustrated. One belonged to Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Naysaburi Tha{alabi (11th c.), who wrote one of the best-known Persian versions of Qisas al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets)27. Another belonged to Muhammad b. Khwandshah b. Mahmud Mirkhwand (1433-1498), written in the late 15th century under the title Rawzat as-Safa (The Resting place of the Pure)28. In Tha{alabi’s Qisas al-Anbiya, after the minister’s29 report that there was nothing visible from the small windows of their tabut, Nimrud said: “Now it’s time to put an end to the God of Ibrahim, he won’t cheat us anymore”, and shot an arrow. At the same moment the arrow, covered with blood, came back to him and fell down in their tabut. Furthermore, Tha{alabi refers to two authorities concerning the source of the blood. According to Kalbi, God sent Jabra}il to pierce a fish in the sea with the arrow and having covered it with its blood throw it into Nimrud’s flying box. According to “some other sources” — as Tha{alabi says — it was God himself who covered the arrow with blood and returned it to Nimrud, as the innocent fish was not guilty of anything to be killed for, especially for the sake of an infidel. Tha{alabi mentions also one more opinion: the fish was killed, and since then killing fish has been prohibited (kushtan-i mahi haram shud). After that Nimrud came back to the earth and showed his people the bleeding arrow, saying that he had killed God. That was the reason why 500,000 people in his country who had already accepted the God of Ibrahim abandoned their new religion and became infidels again. Thus in this interpretation, the result of Nimrud’s adventure was successful, and it is not quite clear what God wanted to say by sending the bleeding arrow to Nimrud. That Nimrud had finally reached his goal and could go home and leave God in peace? Or that the blood was supposed to predict the tragic end of Nimrud? In Mirkhwand’s variant Nimrud’s flight is placed after the Tower episode. The Tower fell apart the day after Nimrud had safely reached the top of it and had seen nothing in the sky. The tower fell down with a horrible noise, so that the people lost their consciousness and when they recovered they could speak in 72 languages but not in their native one… May be it was the loss of the State language that made Nimrud so desperate in his desire to see God.

27 Tha{alabi, Qisas al-Anbiya, Tihran, 1961, see pp. 84. 28 Mirkhwand, Mir Muhammad b. Seyyid Burhan ad-Din, Tarikh-i Rawzat as-Safa, N. Sabuhi (ed.), Tihran, 1338/1959, v. 1, pp. 108-9. 29 In this story the person who accompanies the king in his flying expedition is named vazir, compared in with Bal{ami’s “one of the courtiers” (see above).

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So he ordered four eagle chicks to be caught and fed with meat and wine for two years. Then he ordered the construction of a container in a shape of a coffin/ark (qafas-i ba shikl-i tabut), seated himself and someone from his entourage (yak-i az khavass) and flew into the sky for three days. On the third day Nimrud ordered his companion to change the position of the meat for the eagles go down because of the “formidableness/ fear of [the view] and the height they reached”. The end of the flying experiment is different: in some sources Nimrud was killed, in others he returned home safely and continued to persuade Ibrahim to stop believing in one God. In comparison with Kay Kavus, Nimrud never repented his sins. The iconography of the airborne king quickly became more or less fixed. From the 15th century onwards, the cube box was replaced by a throne. According to R. Milstein, the angel with a fish was added after the 16th century, and later disappeared from the whole cycle of the Qisas manuscripts30, being borrowed by the Shahnama illustrators. This is therefore a good example, showing on one hand how flexible a painter could be in the depiction of different popular subjects and on the other, borrow iconographically fixed models of similar images. Such images, travelling from one work to another, were enriched by the details of the new source, or replaced by the previous one. This phenomenon may have originated not only in the painter’s neglect of the particular text he was illustrating, but paradoxically enough in the extreme popularity and similarity of the subjects, especially concerning the stories of prophets and ancient kings. This was compounded by the unstable literary tradition and the canonized imagery in visual art. The original contradiction between the authorized stories of the prophets (Qisas) and their supplementary oral variants (qussas) was useful for both groups of the genre. Qussas, popular storytellers and traveling preachers, from the first years of Islam served the new Muslim society, performing in the market places, around the mosques, or in the military camps, instilling courage into the warriors before battles. To create a more impressive and artistically perfect performance they used not only the official versions of the Qur}anic stories and their interpretations in Tafsir and Hadith but relied mostly on their imagination and the reaction of the public. Needless to say, later scholarly authors used those most famous and crystallized versions in their treatises as the most reliable. Coming back to the episode of Kay Kavus in the Shahnama, one can easily recognize in the imagery of its depiction the whole cycle of Nimrud struggling with Ibrahim, his fire ordeal, which could be associated with the representation of the fire ordeal of Kay Kavus’s son Siyavush, whom his stepmother Sudaba tried so Zulaykha- like and unsuccessfully to seduce as in the story of Joseph. Sudaba as an evil temptation of virtue, sometimes becomes Nimrud’s wife, and the companion of Nimrud-Kay Kavus in his flying expedition becomes Satan himself, who inspires him to fight with God.

30 R. Milstein, K. Ruhrdanz, and B. Schmitz. Stories of the prophets. Illustrated manuscripts of Qisas al-Anbiya. Costa Mesa, 1999, p. 120.

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Fig. 6. Nimrud is flying in the sky with his Companion and shooting the arrow. Rawzat as-Safa, 539.69, f. 31v, 1600, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Hence Nimrud can be depicted with no angel and a fish, as in the Baghdad painting of 1600 in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, formerly belonging to the manuscript of Rawzat as-Safa, the main part of which is now in the British library. His companion is severely effaced (the hand responsible for that was probably struggling with Satan himself). Europeans as infidels watch the flight, among whom the most remarkable figure is a large European woman with a semi-naked servant, who can be associated with queen Sudaba. And the ancient Iranian king Kay Kavus, despite Firdawsi’s silence on this point, can be shown shooting his arrows into Jabra}il, holding an innocent fish, who sacrifices itself for the God of Ibrahim. We thus found the explanation of the fish in the hands of the angel: this happened when Kay Kavus became Nimrud, shooting the fish in the hands of Jabra}il. But what if we decide to check if this result is correct and try to go back following the same steps, as in a mathematical equation? Should we call the angel with the fish, but without a king in his flying machine, Jabra}il/Gabriel?

However, it seems that the name of this angel should be Rafa}il, and the story would have traveled from Semitic lore through Medieval Christian Europe and Iran to India and then back to Persian art. The angel depicted in this painting31 can originate in the Biblical

31 The image was reproduced in Ivan Stchoukine, Les Miniatures Indiennes de l’Époque des Grands Moghols au Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1929, pp. 18-19, No. 15 (when the painting belonged to the Louvre Museum). As a part of the collection of the Musée Guimet it was published by Amina Okada in the exhibition catalogue Miniatures de l’Inde impériale, Paris, 1989, No. 64. Okada also reproduced it in colour in her book, Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court, New York, 1992, p. 25.

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Fig. 7. Angel Rafa}il (?) with the fish, Husayn naqqash (?), 1590 (?), Guimet Museum, Paris

narrative of pious Tobias, who cured his Median bride of the curse of the demon Ash- modey on the night of their wedding. Ashmodey had killed seven of her previous husbands even before the marriage was consummated. Tobias’s medicament was prepared according to the instructions of the angel Raphael from the liver of a gigantic fish. Painters always had their own interpretations of the subject, and a legendary gigantic whale could be turned to a tiny little fish, given to Tobias by Verocchio:

Fig. 8. Andrea del Verocchio, Tobias and the Angel, egg tempera on poplar, 1470-80, National Gallery, London

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Attractive as these coincidences might be, however, the illustration tradition of depicting Nimrud and Kay Kavus obviously has a completely different literary origin. The iconography of the royal flight in Islamic painting became established during the 14th century, with the throne instead of the transparent cage-like box or sack, by the 15th century, and with the angel and the fish by the 16th century, when the image enters poetic works from the popular religious treatises. But where did these images come from?

ALEXANDER THE GREAT ASCENDS THE SKY

It seems that the story of the kingly flight, known from times immemorial32, reaches its semantic apogee in the story of Alexander the Great. The earliest description of it in the western tradition can be found in the 8th-century manuscript of the Greek version of the Romance of Alexander, where the story was borrowed from the Talmud (4th century AD) by routes obscure, as Richard Stoneman concludes33. Victor Schmidt dedicated a whole book to the theme of Alexander’s Flight in the Western tradition34, and Stoneman has a chapter on this subject in his new publication on Alexander, so I refer the reader for the details of this story in European versions and full bibliography on them to these brilliant studies35. The earliest description of Alexander’s flight could be quoted from the Greek manuscript of the 8th century. Its paraphrased description recalls in many details the one performed by Kay Kavus in Firdawsi’s interpretation:

…When [Alexander] began to ask himself if that place was really the end of the world, he wanted to discover the truth (FA)36. So he gave orders to the soldiers to capture two of the birds that lived there. They were big and tame and did not fly away, attracted to the camp by the dead horses. Some of the soldiers climbed on their backs, hung on tightly and flew off. The two birds (FA), which were captured by Alexander, were not fed for three days. On the third day a construction like a yoke was built of wood and tied to their throats. A large bag was made of an ox-skin and fixed to a yoke. Alexander got into it, holding two spears, each about ten feet long and with a horse’s liver fixed to the point. At once the birds soared up to seize the livers and carried Alexander into the air 37.

32 On Sumerian and Babylonian origins of the story of the flying king (Gilgamesh and Etana) see S. Dalley, Poems from Mesopotamia, Oxford, 1989, p. 198; R. Stoneman, Alexander the Great. A life in legend, New Haven and London, 2008, p. 117. Muslim tradition seems to borrow it via the translations of the Pseudo-Callisthenes version into Syriac (Wallis, 1889), Coptic (Lemm, 1903), Ethiopian (Weymann, 1901), and Armenian (1842). The Middle Persian translation, which is mentioned in some sources has not survived. For more detailed bibliography see Stoneman, 2008 and Bertels, 1948. 33 Stoneman, 2008, p. 116. 34 V. Schmidt, A legend and its image, the aerial flight of Alexander the Great in Medieval Art, Groningen, 1995. 35 Stoneman, 2008, pp. 114-121. Of special interest are the opinions of Ch. Settis-Frugoni (1973) and Father G. Gianfreda (1994 and 2005). 36 The original text was written in the first person. 37 Stoneman, 2008, p.116

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Fig. 9. Alexander descending the sky on the griffins, British Library, Rouen, ca. 13 century.

There are differences in the iconography of Kay Kavus/Nimrud’s and Alexander’s flying machines (in the number of birds carrying the king38, an ox-skin bag on the yoke instead of an aloe-wood and gold throne), but the idea is the same. Furthermore there is another striking detail, which gives more resemblance to the three stories if not a logical explanation of the episode. This is a brief version of the text, surrounding a very interesting illustration of this scene in an Armenian manuscript, now in the John Rylands Library:

“Alexander flies higher and sees a flying creature (an angel?) in the form of a man who approaches him and reproaches him for his temerity, inviting him to look down. Alexander sees “a great snake, curled up, and in the middle of the snake a tiny circle like a threshing floor” — these are the ocean and the inhabited earth. Having seen this he goes down39.”

The flying creatures are depicted exactly as they were described in the Greek text, sphinx- like, or birds with human faces; however, the Armenian author calls them birds40. Obviously

38 Usually the number of the birds in Alexander’s carriage is reduced from four to two; sometimes they are replaced by griffins, like, for example, in the bas relief on the frieze of San Marco in Venice (12th century), or the Byzantine silver plate of 12-13th centuries found in Priobye, now in the Muzhi museum (Treasures from the Ob} Basin, ed. B. Marshak and M. Kramarovsky, St Petersburg, 1996, pp. 149-161 — Alexander is flying on two griffins), or the late 13th century pencase from the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar (J. Allan with a contribution by F. Maddison, Metalwork Treasures from the Islamic Courts, Doha, 2002, p. 27 — Alexander is flying on two big peacock-like birds), or the Byzantine guilt silver plate (12th century) from the Hermitage museum, or stylized into a man, sitting on two birds (Fig. 14), as on the German ivory checker (12th century) from the Hermitage collection, or the Russian lubok picture (17th century) from the National Library of Russia (Alexander the Great. The Road to the East, St Petersburg, 2007, pp. 49, 366, 432). 39 R. Stoneman, 2008, p. 116. 40 I thank Theo van Lint for translating the Armenian text around the image.

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the illustrator was also familiar with the original. However, Alexander does not seem to be flying, or at least using any obvious aviation equipment (maybe he is hiding a talisman under his cloak?).

Fig. 10. Alexander rebuked by the flying creatures and persuaded to go back to the earth, Manchester, John Rylands Library, Arm. 3 f. 108v

This story in the Alexander Romance is paired with the story of Alexander investigating the seabed in another scientific apparatus — ‘a diving bell’, or glass jar, also specially constructed for this purpose and with a much more exciting finale. Both episodes from the legendary life of Alexander became extremely popular in the European literary tradition and are met in manuscripts in Latin, French and German from the 11th century onwards. Their main idea is obviously to show him as an adventurer and a curious discoverer, a philosopher, trying to find the Truth and the Source of Life and in most of them — to demonstrate with his example the vanity and limitations of humans before God. Despite being a perfect pair, however, these two stories were sometimes divided so that one part could be abandoned. It is most interesting that not only do some authors/ scribes prefer one tale to the other, but more generally that the Christian world41 gave priority to Alexander’s investigation of the heavens (though very often coupled with the

41 About a hundred images of various illustrations of Alexander’s flight not only in manuscripts but in the European architectural art, especially in monumental church decoration, used all over Medieval Europe from Italy and France to Germany and England, was published by Schmidt (1995). See also Ch. Jounanno, 2002, pp. 273-6.

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sea episode), while in the Muslim literature Alexander is never mentioned as an aviator, but only as a diver and then only in very few sources42. The extreme popularity of the motif of Alexander’s flight in church architectural decoration suggests that this image was not only actively used in didactic purposes to demonstrate human vanity and misery before God, but had some totemic functions of protecting the holy place from demonic evil43. However, whichever story was preferred in any of the versions of Alexander Romance44, the purpose of their use is similar: to show that the king who had conquered the whole inhabited world was unable to conquer nature, was unable to make himself immortal45, and was unable to understand the Truth of Life. The finale of Alexander’s expeditions to the sky and to the bottom of the ocean thus becomes the peak and concentra- tion of the philosophical idea of the Romance: Alexander dies having finally understood the limitations of his power as a human before God. This is the reason why this episode in some of the stories leads to a complete metamorphosis of Alexander’s nature — he is enlightened with divine knowledge and becomes a prophet46. The extraordinary popularity of Alexander’s flight in the western tradition made scholars consider it the most famous and recognizable story in the whole Alexander cycle47. The best and still the most enigmatic illustration of this tale is the mosaic floor in the 12th-century Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunciata in Otranto. The scene of Alexander ascending the heaven is depicted there side by side (as sitting on the branches of the gigantic Tree of Life, which covers the whole floor in the church) with Adam and Eve, king Arthur, Caen and Abel, and the construction of the Tower of Babylon (!) among many others48. But again the company surrounding Alexander on the branches of the Tree, and the fact that it is placed on the floor but not on the ceiling or the wall, vividly shows the main idea of the architect: to warn against committing the deadly human sins of Pride and Vanity.

42 This can be connected with the Muslim tradition of associating the celestial journey with the Prophet Muhammad (Ch. Gruber, The Timurid Book of Ascension (Mi{rajnama): A Study of text and image in a pan-Asian context, Valencia, 2008, p. 289. 43 The image can be found in decoration of the monumental interior of church walls and floors, outside walls and friezes, carved wooden misericordes, church vessels, etc. 44 For the full bibliography on Alexander Romance in the East see W. Hanaway’s article ‘Eskandar- nama’ in the EIr, VIII, 1998, pp. 609-12, and the updated one by M. Sh. Simpson “From Tourist to Pilgrim: Iskandar at the Ka{ba in Illustrated Shahnama Manuscripts” in: Special Issue: Millennium of the Shahnama of Firdausi, Iranian Studies, Volume 43 Issue 1, 2010, pp. 127 – 146. 45 One interesting point of comparison between stories of Alexander and Iskandar is that it was not Alexander but his cook (not Khizr) who happened to find and drink the water from the Spring of Immortality. In the Western tradition the cook found but did not let Alexander know that he’d discovered that a dried fish revived and leapt out of his hands when the cook dipped it in the stream to wash. Alexander, enraged, ordered the cook to be drowned with a millstone round his neck to become a pure immortal spirit, and sent his daughter, who happened to drink the water offered by the cook, to remain in the mountains forever alone (Stoneman, 1991, pp. 94-5). In the Persian tradition, Iskandar sends Khizr (sometimes with Ilyas) for a reconnaissance mission, supplying him with his best horse and a special jewel, which like a torch indicates the way. A dried fish again helps them to identify the Water of Life. Having drunk the water, they leave the stream in different directions with no intention to find Iskandar, who manages to get out of the Land of Darkness only after forty days (Nizami, Iskandarnama, 1378/1999, 2, pp. 1157-62). 46 The development of the image of a flying prophet is represented in several cultural traditions, like the Mi{raj of Muhammad and his celestial travels in the night and the flight of Elias in Christianity. 47 Stoneman, 2008, p. 120. 48 See the detailed description and analysis of this mosaic in Schmidt, A legend and its image, p. 65; G. Gianfreda, Otrando e il primate dell’umanesimo Occidentale, Lecce, 1995.

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Fig. 11. Alexander ascending the heaven, fragment of the mosaic floor, Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunciata, Otranto, 1163-95

It is worth mentioning that in almost each case the reasons given why the king decides to fly or to dive are different. Some authors were probably unsure themselves what was the real quest of the greatest world conqueror and the meaning of his conquests. Others were using the episodes of Alexander’s cycle to prove their own ideas, interpreting its different episodes respectively. However, still in some cases it is not clear, what is the logical motivation of such an extraordinary king’s behaviour. Lack of explanation is a common feature of the early chronicles, in which the authors are probably deliberately trying to be objective in describing events, avoiding to provide their own opinion. This paradoxical approach was transferred into pure literary genres, like epic poetry, where the author does not bother the reader with the depiction of his feelings and attitude towards the events described. He is just naming them. For example, Firdawsi’s description of Kay Kavus’s flight has even fewer details of how and why the king suddenly decided to ascend the heavens, than the story told by Bal{ami (for a fuller version of the story see above). Both God and Kay Kavus behave oddly, leaving the reader with so many questions: Why did Kay Kavus want to build a town of gold and copper? Why did he hire the demons? Why did God not like it? Why did Kay Kavus decide to go to the sky? Why does he not care about his companions, whom he killed without any reason… Unless these stories do not have to give an explanation. They could be popular enough among the qussas and their audience, for it to be enough for Bal{ami just mention them? He gives a sketch of a skeleton, which the reader is invited to cover with some flesh and beautiful details from his memory or own imagination and naturally placing his own accents wherever he wants. As later authors suggest their own interpretation, their style becomes more and more didactic49.

49 This fulfils the same function as pardas in the shahnamakhani and ta{ziya performances for the sentence “He gives a sketch of a skeleton, which the reader is invited to cover with some flesh and beautiful details from his memory or own imagination and naturally placing his own accents wherever he wants".

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FLYING OR DIVING?

The reasons why the Muslim tradition not only divided the story of Alexander’s discover- ies of earth and ocean, but in many cases ignored it completely, could be explained by the fact that this story was already told about Kay Kavus, or Nimrud. However, this explanation appears to be rather feeble as Firdawsi, for example, does not mind telling very similar stories about his different heroes, like Rustam and Isfandiyar, and Bal{ami about Kay Kavus and Nimrud, as shown above. Nizami, who replaces the scientific wanderings of Alexander by the discovery of the ideal society, does not mention Kay Kavus or Nimrud in his Iskandarnama at all. So the fear of being repetitive cannot be the reason. Different authors used this episode to express their own philosophical ideas, and it seems that its place is intended to indicate its primary importance. In the Greek version mentioned above the purpose is articulated clearly in one phrase: Alexander wanted to “discover the Truth”. This seems to be the reason for intro- ducing this episode, or even for its absence. What is the situation regarding this episode in the literary Persian versions of the Alexander Romance50. This story is usually placed at the very end of the Alexander Romance, before his death. Firdawsi’s Alexander is neither flying nor diving51; he is seeking the Fountain of Life but with no success. Both these episodes are also absent in the last part of Nizami’s (1141-1203, or 1213) Khamsa, Iskandarnama52, where instead of discovering the Fountain of Life, Alexander finds the ideal human society. According to Amir Khusraw’s (1253- 1325) version53, Alexander/Iskandar’s exploration of the bottom of the sea causes his death: Iskandar orders a glass container to be constructed and put on a big ship. Then he together with several chosen prophets and philosophers, like Khizr and Ilyas, Aristotle, Plato and others, depart for a long sea journey, asking his son and his courtiers to wait for him twenty years54. After many years of travelling they survived a severe storm but were rescued by the angel Surush. After that Iskandar goes in his glass box into the sea and stays there for one hundred days, during which he watches the sea life and many sea monsters. One of them was so enormous that it was passing by his box for fourteen days. Having seen this monster Iskandar gets so scared that he is about to die. Surush confirms that these are his last minutes, but brings him out of the water and helps Iskandar’s companions to reach home in one day and bury Iskandar.

50 For a wider comparison see E.E. Bertels, Roman ob Aleksandre, Moscow-Leningrad, 1948. 51 To be fair we should note that Firdawsi might not have had the sources that contained the description of Alexander’s deeds, exploring Nature. 52 This consists of two parts, which are usually called Sharafnama (Book of Glory) and Khiradnama (Book of Knowledge), or Iqbalnama (Book of Fortune), completed in 1203 or 1213. 53 The poem is called Ayina-yi Iskandari — Mirror for Iskandar, finished in 1299-1300 (edited by J. Mirsaidov, Moscow, 1977). 54 Sunil Sharma gives rather a variable opinion of Iskandar’s quest for the Water of Life and exploration of the seabed in his bathyscaphe, calling it partly a scientifically expedition and partly a spiritual journey, stating that Amir Khusraw’s Iskandar is more like a prophet and philosopher, even compared with Nizami ’s version (S. Sharma, Amir Khusraw. The Poet of Sultans and Sufis, Oxford, 2005, p. 57).

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Fig. 12. Alexander is rebuked by the Angel during his flight, Heidel- berg, University Library, cpg 336, f. 155r, Bavaria, ca. 1410.

This story of Alexander’s descent in the European tradition also has a rather strong negative message. In the German poem The Annolied, written about 1080-112055, it is described as follows: Alexander lowered himself into the sea in a glass vessel. His faith- less men56 threw the chains away into the sea, wishing him to stay on the seabed forever. There he saw through the glass many marvels and monsters, like half-fish and half-man. When he reached the bottom “he addressed the dreadful sea with blood. When the water felt the blood it cast the lord ashore”57. After Amir Khusraw’s version the next in chronological order is the Khiradnama-yi Iskandari (‘Book of Wisdom of Iskandar’) by {Abd ar-Rahman Jami (1414-1492). Jami’s Iskandar does not have any intention to dive into the sea. Jami repeats (borrows) Nizami’s story of the ideal society, after which he introduces a couple of parables borrowed from other adab sources and then very briefly mentions the expedition of Iskandar across the sea to mount Kaf, where he encounters a gigantic angel. This angel is not named but he, almost like Amir Khusraw’s Surush, warns Iskandar about his future. Soon after that Iskandar dies.

55 This poem about the life of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne is the earliest vernacular account of Alexander in Europe. 56 In some versions it was even his wife or a concubine who was betraying him in such an unexpected manner. 57 In the 13th-century Latin text it is explained that the blood came from the dog, which together with a cat and a cock was taken by Alexander in his expedition. The cock was there to indicate the arrival of the new day, the cat had to function as an air-purifier (?), and the dog had to be killed to provide the blood which would automatically eject the diving bell from the sea (Stoneman, 2008, p. 113).

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Fig. 13. Angel talks to Alexander flying over the sea, Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms 33, f. 221r, Bavaria, early 15th century.

It is hardly possible to neglect in this comparison the story of Iskandar’s adventures presented by Jami’s pupil and friend {Ali Shir Nava}i (1441-1501) in his Sadd-i Iskandari (‘The Wall of Iskandar’). This is one of the most extraordinary examples of emulation of the work of the master, and of the most friendly and positive rivalry. It seems that Jami and Nava}i started writing their poems almost simultaneously: Jami in Persian, Nava}i in Chaghatay. Iskandar’s expedition according to Nava}i is the most splendid: he starts the exploration of the sea in Rum. He declares that he has investigated the land with Khizr, now he wants to investigate the ocean with Ilyas. Despite the resistance of his scholarly advisers he orders three thousand ships to be built, each of them as big as a whole city with houses and streets! All the country’s elite (court, army and tradesmen) are invited to join the journey. After three and half years of preparations they take with them provisions for eight years and set off. Socrates is appointed as the head of the expedition. When they had investigated all seven seas Iskandar intended to study the centre of the world ocean. He selects three hundred ships to accompany him, sends the rest back to Rum and continues the journey. After about two years of travels, when they reach the centre of the ocean, announced by the angel Surush, Iskandar descends into the sea, where he sees magic marvels. It is worth mentioning that Nava}i refers here to Amir Khusraw as the source of his inspiration for this story. Having survived his descent to the seabed Iskandar returns in a different state of enlightenment: he is not an ordinary human being anymore — he is now a vali (saint) and a nabi (prophet). Having reached this state he gives his last orders, writes a letter to his mother (as in all other descriptions of his coming death) and happily dies.

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Having analyzed above the different versions of the coupled, and later separated story about the last and seemingly the most important journey of Iskandar in the Medieval Muslim (namely Persian and Chaghatay) poetic tradition, it is possible to draw the following conclusions. The importance of the episode of Alexander/Iskandar’s travels, investigating Nature, the heavens and the abyss, is difficult to overestimate, especially the journey to the abyss. The most curious interpretation of this story belongs to M. Piemontese, who thinks that “the king’s secret purpose was to search for a tunnel under the sea, a passage permitting circumnavigation and the way to come out of the abyss, the escape from death”58. Hence the image of the Ocean as a symbol of the enigmatic and fearful Kingdom of the Dark and Death (equivalent of the Styx) compared with the Kingdom of Light and Eternal Life, inhabited by angels and immortal humans. Iskandar is rescued by the Angel both times from the Land of darkness, where he failed to find the Water of Life, and from the Ocean abyss, where he failed to find the universal Truth and the exit from this world. Obviously the same image of the stormy and scary Ocean in the dark can be vividly seen in many brilliant poetic examples, one of the best being Hafiz’s most famous first ghazal:

…The dark night, fear of the waves, the dreadful whirlpool: What do they know of our state, who pass lightly on the shore?..

J. Meisami shows that Hafiz’s image, which can be traced through mystical poetry, was previously used by {Attar in his ghazal (starting with: “I was cast into the sea, no limit to which can I see…”), where he explains what a human seeks there in the black abyss: a unique pearl [of Knowledge, Truth and Love], and by Sana}i, who gives his interpretation of the Pearl:

I died; I drowned; how wondrous? I became alive. And gained a pearl whose price is both the worlds… 59

Going back to Alexander, how shall we decide: did he ever get his Pearl of Truth? At first glance — not. He goes down in his glass ball, he gets scared by a gigantic sea monster, rises up and dies. But all the little details, scattered in different versions — the thoroughness of his preparations, the help of philosophers, and most important the fact that before going on his expedition he dictates his testament — all indicate that Alexander himself considers this as an extremely important and dangerous trial, which he sees as his mission. Having gone through it, however, he dies. It seems that the Eastern authors were not satisfied with the idea that Iskandar dies as an ordinary human, proving the vanity of the world’s glory and success. One of the most idealistic images of Iskandar is painted by Nizami: his Iskandar, after having passed through the Land of Darkness and seeing the Land of Light (a utopian ideal society, where

58 Angelo Michele Piemontese, “Sources and Art of Amir Khosrou’s “The Alexandrine Mirror””, The Necklace of the Pleiades, Amsterdam and West Lafayette, 2007, pp. 42-43. 59 Meisami, J., “A Life in Poetry: Hafiz’s First Ghazal”, The Necklace of the Pleiades, Amsterdam and West Lafayette, 2007, pp. 170, 173-4.

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people live for a thousand years having no old age, diseases, and wars) is enlightened by prophetic knowledge — the new Iskandar starts another circle of his journey now trying to conquer the world with his word not with his sword. This is the truth, how Nizami understood it:

In places where I found untruth60 I wove into it the ornament of truth Poetry that does not march on the way of truth Is abject, even if it carries its fundament up to the Moon61

Fig. 14. Alexander ascending the sky. State Hermitage museum. No 1501. Silver gilt plate. Byzantium. 12th century.

CONCLUSION

It is difficult to say which of the three kings we have considered was the first to be sent by their folk traditions up into the sky and/or down to the seabed. Certainly this episode of the universal conquest, or investigation of Nature, by the strongest and the most power- ful of human beings was understood as the final stage of the main conquest possible — higher can be only God, lower can be only Hell — and is one of the most ancient in the literary history of mankind. Obviously the version most equipped with logic, details and philosophic motivation was developed for the image of Alexander/Iskandar, where

60 Nizami obviously means here the object of his emulation, Firdawsi’s Shahnama, to be corrected from the errors its author made. 61 I quote this passage according Ch. Bürgel, 2008, pp. 25-6.

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the double episode of investigating Nature happened to be split between Western/Christian traditions (sometimes keeping both, but preferring the ascent to the sky,) and Eastern/ Muslim ones (with an obvious preference for the descent to the bottom of the Ocean). We can suggest that the ancient Mesopotamian idea of a flying monarch, which was kept for centuries in the collective memory of several cultural milieus, managed to break into many later traditions. The story of Iskandar acquired the most complete form, which absorbed other earlier traditions. The earliest European manuscript containing the description of the flight belongs to the 8th century, which could be the time when the Legend of Alexander was enriched with this significant episode. It is possible to suppose that the episode was borrowed by the Muslim tradition from the Christian one, with a deliberate preference for the part that was less favoured in the Christian West. When this separation occurred, the details of the flying machine, the attributes of the sea travels, the fish and the angels that appear in the different narratives of the stories had already got mixed up at the textual level. Once they started to appear in the illustrated manuscripts of different versions of the stories of Alexander/Iskandar, the painters being confused themselves made the situation even more complicated, as they were using familiar images for producing and establishing the habit of using visual clichés. It is possible to imagine that the iconography of Alexander’s flight (textual and visual, or may be in the opposite order) came from the European manuscript tradition, enriched by the details from the second half of the episode (marvels of the ocean), and was then adopted by different literary genres that narrated the stories of Alexander: Hadith, Tafsir, Qisas and Tarikh. All these genres were using the same imagery; sometimes the stories of prophets and kings were so similar that they could be repeated without significant changes. The repetitions did not create confusion among the authors or their audience, and the same story would be recycled for another character. The mixture of different cultural and literary traditions, which fed the multicultural Muslim milieu of the early centuries, later developed at a more elevated level of epic narrative by Persian poets, who followed already the established tradition of multi-emulation. Thus Nimrud, Kay Kavus and Alexander performed the same deed but with a different purpose, so that the same act could be interpreted as sinfully fighting God, or a prophetic search for Truth or the divine secret (…Kavus shud bar falak Ba-d-an ta bidanad raz az malak). In the historical compilation Mujmal at-Tawarikh wa-l-Qisas, finished by 1126, its anonymous author stops his narrative, saying that he was dealing only with reliable genea- logical traditions and did not include others, for example, that Faridun, or Kay Kavus, was Nimrud; that Siyavush was Ibrahim; Jamshid was Sulayman; that Rustam had an Arab lineage,.. because they are remote from the truth, and impossible62. It seems that we should start again — trying to identify the relationship between Nimrud, Kay Kavus and… Faridun! But now we should stop pulling the threads of associations, on which different literary traditions pinned their similar personages, hidden in the disorder of mixed cultures in a magic box of the past centuries. Faridun can stay in the box — he has never gone to the sky…

62 Meisami, 1999, p. 192.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexander the Great, The Road to the East, St Petersburg, 2007. Amir Khusraw Dihlavi, Ayina-yi Iskandari, ed. by J.Mirsaidov, Moscow, 1977. E.E. Bertels, Roman ob Aleksandre i ego osnovnye versii na Vostoke, Moscow-Leningrad, 1948. C.J. Bürgel, “On Some sources of Nizami’s Iskandarnama”, in F. Lewis and S. Sharma (eds), The Necklace of the Pleiades, Iranian Studies Series, Amsterdam and West Lafayette, 2007, pp. 21-30. O. Chunakova, Zoroastriyskie texty, Moscow, 1997, pp. 265-311 (Bundahishn). O. Chunakova, Pehleviyskie slovar zoroastriyskih terminov, mificheskih personazhey I mifologicheskih simvolov, Moscow, 2004. A. Christensen, L’Iran sous les Sassanides, Copenhagen, 1944. Deyaniya tsarya Aleksandra. Unikalnyi pamyatnik srednevekovoy torevtiki iz sela Muzhi Yamalo- Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga, Byzantinorossica, 2, St Petersburg, 2003. S. Dalley, Poems from Mesopotamia, Oxford, 1989. A.-A. Dehkhoda, Lughatnama (mim), Tihran, 1352. Divan-i imam. Surudaha-yi hazrat-i imam Khomeini, Tehran, 1378 (26th edition). Firdawsi. Shahnama, transl. into Russian by C. Banu-Lahuti, A. Lahuti, and A. Starikov, 6 vols., Moscow, 1993. Abu }l-Qasim Firdawsi, Shahnama, matn-i kamil bar asas-i nuskha-yi chapi moskaw, Tihran, 1386/2008. G. Gianfreda, Iconografia di Otranto tra oriente ed occidente, Lecce, 1994 G. Gianfreda, Otranto e il primate dell’umanesimo Occidentale, Lecce, 2005. Ch. Gruber, The Timurid Book of Ascension (Mi{rajnama): A Study of text and image in a pan- Asian context, Valencia, 2008. C. Jouanno, Naissance et métamorphose du roman d’Alexandre. Domaine grec, Paris, 2002. The Legendary Adventures of Alexander the Great, transl. by R. Stoneman, London, 2006. O. Lemm, Der Alexanderroman bei den Kopten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Alexanderroman im Orient, St Petersburg, 1903. J. Meisami, Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry. Orient Pearls, New York, 2003. J. Meisami, “Life in Poetry: Hafiz’s first ghazal”, in: F. Lewis and S. Sharma (eds.), The Necklace of the Pleiades, Iranian Studies Series, Amsterdam and West Lafayette, 2007, pp. 163-181. F. Mehran, “Frequency Distribution of Illustrated Scenes in Persian Manuscripts”. Student. Octo- ber 1998, Neufchatel, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 351-379. R. Milstein, K. Ruhrdanz, and B. Schmitz, Stories of the prophets. Illustrated manuscripts of Qisas al-Anbiya, Costa Mesa, 1999. Muhammad b. Khwandshah Mirkhwand, Tarikh-i Rawzat as-Safa, Tihran, 1297-1310/1919-32. Nizami Ganjavi, Kulliyat, 2 jild, Tihran, 1378/1999. J. Norgren and E. Davis, Preliminary index of Shahnameh illustrations, Ann Arbor, 1969. Padmuthiun Aghaksandri Makedoaswi, I Venedig i dparani s. Ghazaru, 1842. A.M. Piemontese, “Sources and Art of Amir Khosrou’s “The Alexandrine Mirror”” in: F. Lewis and S. Sharma (eds.), The Necklace of the Pleiades, Iranian Studies Series, Amsterdam and West Lafayette, 2007, pp. 31-45. S. Redford, How Islamic is it? The Innsbruck plate and its setting, in: O. Grabar (ed.) Muqarnas VII: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, Leiden, 1990, pp. 119-135. Schmidt, V. A legend and its image, the aerial flight of Alexander the Great in Medieval Art, Gröningen, 1995.

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C. Settis-Frugoni, Historia Alexandri elevate per griphos as aerem. Origine, iconografi e fortuna di un tema, Studi storici, fasc. 80-82, Rome, 1973. Shams ad-Din Muhammad b. Qays ar-Razi, Al-Mu{jam fi Ma{ayyir Ash{ar al-{Ajam, II, transl. and comment. by N. Chalisova, Moscow, 1997. S. Sharma, Amir Khusraw. The Poet of Sultans and Sufis, Oxford, 2005. Sh. Shukurov, Shahnama, Moscow, 1983. E. Sims with contribution from Tim Stanley. “The Illustrations of Baghdad 282 in the Topkapi Sarayi Library in Istanbul." In Cairo to Kabul, Afghan and Islamic Studies Presented to Ralph Pinder-Wilson. W. Ball and L. Harrow (eds.), pp. 222-27. London, 2002. M.Sh. Simpson “From Tourist to Pilgrim: Iskandar at the Ka{ba in Illustrated Shahnama Manuscripts” in: Special Issue: Millennium of the Shahnama of Firdausi, Iranian Studies, Volume 43 Issue 1, 2010, pp. 127-146. R. Stoneman, The Greek Alexander Romance, Harmondsworth, 1991. R. Stoneman, Alexander the Great. A life in legend, New Haven and London, 2008. M.L. Swietochowski, “The Small Shahnama” in: S. Carboni (ed.), Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian painting in the 1330s and 1340s, New York, 1994. Tarjuma-yi Tafsir-i Tabari, 1339/1960, H. Yaghmayi (ed.), Tihran. Tarikh-i Bal{ami. Takmila va tarjuma-yi Tarikh-i Tabari, M. Bahar and M. Gunabadi (eds.), I, Tihran, s.a. Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Naysaburi Tha{alabi, Qisas al-Anbiya, Tihran, 1339/1961. E.A. Wallis Budge, The History of Alexander the Great being the Syriac Version of the Pseudo- Callisthenes, Cambridge, 1889. K. Weitzmann, Ancient Book Illumination, Cambridge, 1959. E.W. West, Pahlavi texts, p. IV, in: M. Muller (ed.) Contents of the Nasks, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXXVII, Oxford, 1892. K.F. Weymann, Die aethiopische und arabische Übersetzung des “Pseudokallisthenes”, Kirchhein, 1901. R. Zipoli, “Poetic imagery”, in: E. Yarshater (gen. ed.), General Introduction to Persian Litera- ture, v. 1, J.P.T. de Bruijn (ed.), A History of Persian Literature, London-New York, 2009, pp. 172-232.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. Kay Kavus repenting after his fall, State Library, Berlin, Ms. or. fol. 4251, f. 219r, 1605, Iran. Fig 2. Kay Kavus pierces the fish in the hands of the Angel, National Library of Russia, Dorn 331, f. 186r, 16th century, Iran. Fig. 3. Kay Kavus and Companion shoot the arrow into the Angel holding the Fish, National Library of Russia, PNS 64, f. 75v, 18th century, Iran. Fig. 4. Structure of the Universe, {Aja}ib al-Makhluqat, British Library, Add. 7894, f. 167r, 17th century (?), Iran. Fig. 5. Nimrud and his companion ascend the sky; Ibrahim goes through the fire, Tabari- Bal{ami, Tarikh ar-Rusul wa-l-Muluk, The Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 57.16, ca. 1300, Shiraz (?). Fig. 6. Nimrud is flying in the sky with his Companion and shooting the arrow. Rawzat as-Safa, f. 31v, 1600, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Fig. 7. Angel Rafa}il (?) with the fish, Husayn naqqash (?), ca. 1590, Guimet Museum, Paris.

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Fig. 8. Andrea del Verocchio, Tobias and the Angel, egg tempera on poplar, 1470-80, National Gallery, London. Fig. 9. Alexander descending the sky on the griffins, British Library, Ms Royal 15 VI f. 20v, Rouen, 1443-5. Fig. 10. Alexander rebuked by the flying creatures and persuaded to go back to the earth, Man- chester, John Rylands Library, Arm 3, f. 108v. Fig. 11. Alexander ascending the heaven, fragment of the mosaic floor, Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunciata, Otranto, 1163-95. Fig. 12. Alexander is rebuked by the Angel during his flight, Heidelberg, University Library, cpg 336, f. 155r, Bavaria, ca. 1410. Fig. 13. Angel talks to Alexander flying over the sea, Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms 33, f. 221r, Bavaria, early 15th century. Fig. 14. Alexander ascending the sky. State Hermitage museum. No 1501. Silver gilt plate. Byzantium. 12th century.

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