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How Rustam Killed White Div: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
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1 For a preliminary report on this research project, see Jerome W. Clinton and Simpson, Marianna Shreve, “Word and Image in Illustrated Shahnama Manuscripts: A Project Report,” in Shahnama Studies 1 (Pembroke Papers, 5)Google Scholar, edited by Charles Melville (forthcoming). Our appreciation to the Getty Grant Program of the J. Paul Getty Trust for a Collaborative Research Grant in support of our work.
2 The source of such medieval representations may lie as much in oral heroic tales as in the written texts like the Shahnama, which, as is now generally recognized, itself incorporates a considerable amount of oral material. For the orality of Firdausi's epic, see Kumiko Yamamoto, The Oral Background of Persian Epics: Storytelling and Poetry (Leiden and Boston, 2003). Art historians have also touched on the probable oral origin of medieval epic imagery, although the subject certainly deserves further study. For some recent bibliography, including substantive studies by Assadullah Souren Melekian-Chirvani, see Simpson, Marianna Shreve, “Shahnama as Text and Shahnama as Image: A Brief Overview of Recent Studies, 1975–2000,” in Hillenbrand, R., ed., Shahnama: The Visual Language of the Persian Book of Kings [VARIE Occasional Papers II] (Aldershot, 2004): 20–21Google Scholar. See also Masuya, Tomoko, “Ilkhanid Courtly Life,” in Komaroff, Linda and Carboniy, Stefano, eds., The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353 (New York, New Haven and London, 2002): 99–102Google Scholar.
3 Piemontese, A. M., “Nouva luce su Firdawsi: uno Sahnama datato 614 A.H./1217 a Firenze,” Annali del Istituto Orientale di Napoli n.s. XXX (1980): 1–38Google Scholar, 189–242.
4 Norgren, Jill and Davis, Edward, eds., Preliminary Index of Shah-Nameh Illustrations (Ann Arbor, 1969)Google Scholar. Although unpaginated and distributed only in mimeographed form, this first systematic attempt to compile a corpus of illustrated Shahnama manuscripts remains an invaluable research tool. It now can be supplemented by the Shahnama Project, an on-line database of Shahnama illustrations, launched in fall 2004 under the direction of Charles Melville (Cambridge University) and in collaboration with Robert Hillenbrand (Edinburgh University). Website address: http://shahnama.caret.cam.ac.uk
5 Some Shahnama editions do use manuscripts that contain illustrations, but give the pictures little, if any, attention. For a consideration of recent Shahnama scholarship, see Simpson, “Shahnama as Text and Shahnama as Image,” (as in note 2).
6 MSS: The award of the Getty grant in June 2001, which marked the formal start of the project (its actual beginnings go back to fall 2000 when we began to prepare an application to the Getty), coincided with JWC's diagnosis of cancer. Notwithstanding his condition, he actively pursued research for this project and made many critical contributions to our collaborative undertaking through late summer 2003. JWC died on 7 November 2003, having already urged MSS to continue the work solo. Part of the explanation of the project's approach and structure that follows here also appears in the forthcoming article by Clinton and Simpson (as in note 1). Along with that publication, the present piece is intended as a preview of a more detailed presentation of the project's findings in monograph form, currently in preparation.
7 Parallel trajectories are followed in, for instance, Grabar, Oleg and Robinson, Cynthia, eds., Islamic Art and Literature (Princeton, 2001)Google Scholar. For a recent and notable instance of interdisciplinary collaboration in Iranian studies, see Babayan, K., Babaie, S. et al., Slaves of the Shah: New Elites in Safavid Iran (London and New York, 2004)Google Scholar.
8 Marlow, Louise, “A Persian Book of Kings: The Peck Shahnameh,” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 46 (winter 1985): 192–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Marlow, Louise, “The Peck Shahnameh: Manuscript Production in Late Sixteenth-Century Shiraz,” in Mazzaoui, Michel M. and Moreen, Vera B., eds., Intellectual Studies on Islam: Essays Written in Honor of Martin B. Dickson (Salt Lake City, 1990): 229–43Google Scholar; Uluç, Lale, “Arts of the Book in Sixteenth Century Shiraz,” Ph.D. dissertation (New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, 2000)Google Scholar, manuscript no. 67; Uluç, Lale, “Selling to the Court: Late-Sixteenth Century Manuscript Production in Shiraz,” Muqarnas 27 (2000): 85Google Scholar.
9 These circumstances included the fact that the Getty support, while generous, was only for a year instead of the two we had requested. Consideration of JWC's health also was a factor in our revision of the project's scope.
10 Our determination of the distribution or rate of illustration throughout the Shahnama, as well as the degree of frequency—or infrequency as the case may be—of a scene's illustration was informed by the listings in Norgren and Davis (as in note 3) and confirmed more recently by the expanded Shahnama Project database. A discussion of all the key set scenes will appear in the project's final publication.
11 Dabir-Siyaqi, Mohammad, Shahnamah Abu al-Qasim Firdawsi, 6 vols. (Tehran, 1335/1956)Google Scholar; Bertels, E. E., ed., Firdausi Shakh-Name: Kriticheskii Tekst, 9 vols. (Moscow, 1960–71)Google Scholar; Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal, Abu'l-Qasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh, 5 vols. to date (New York, 1988-)Google Scholar.
12 This is exactly the kind of work that the Shahnama Project database is intended to facilitate. In the absence of that resource (which only became available in preliminary form in October 2004), the initial identification of comparative manuscripts for this project relied primarily on the listings provided in Norgren and Davis, with the addition of Shahnama manuscripts identified in the past thirty or so years. Many of these have been published in exhibition, collection, and sale catalogues.
13 Some of what follows reprises Jerome W. Clinton, “Ferdowsi and the Illustration of the Shahnameh,” in Grabar and Robinson, pp. 58–59. A more complete exposition appears in Clinton and Simpson, “Word and Image” (forthcoming, as in note 1). In formulating our operating premise, we did try to take account of general, established theories about narrative, narration, narrativity, and text-image relations, as well as recent studies of certain works of western medieval, mostly secular, literature, such as the Roman de la Rose. See, for instance, Martin, Wallace, Recent Theories of Narrative (Ithaca and London, 1986)Google Scholar; Abbott, H. Porter, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (Cambridge, 2002)Google Scholar; Brownlee, Kevin and Huot, Sylvia, eds., Rethinking the “Romance of the Rose:” Text, Image, Reception (Philadelphia, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 This raises notions of authorship in medieval Iran, a complex issue that lies beyond the scope of this project. Sufficed it to say that they were essentially non-proprietary and that while Firdausi remained and remains the recognized author of the Shahnama, many of the epic's verses, and even entire tales, were altered over time—something that is very clear in comparing even the earliest known thirteenth century copies and that has been the bane of modern editors seeking to establish Firdausi's ur-text. On this issue see Khaleghi-Motlagh, Djalal, “Statistics of Omitted and Spurious Versions in Six Manuscripts of the Shahnama” Studia Iranica 26 (1997): 17–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 We have borrowed this felicitous phrase from Wright, Elaine J., “The Look of the Book: Manuscript Production in the Southern Iranian City of Shiraz from the Early-Fourteenth Century to 1452,” Ph.D. dissertation (Oxford University, 1997)Google Scholar.
16 For a succinct summary of the modus operandi of such an artistic team, see Robert Hillenbrand, “New Perspectives in Shahnama Iconography,” in Hillenbrand, ed., Shahnama, pp. 3–4 (as in note 2).
17 Preliminary discussions and reproductions of this illustration appear in Clinton, “Ferdowsi and the Illustration of the Shahnameh” (as in note 13) and Clinton and Simpson, “Word and Image” (forthcoming; as in note 1).
18 JWC based the following account primarily on the version of Rustam's fight with White Div in Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:313–318 and also with reference to Warner, A.G. and Warner, E., trans., The Shahnama of Firdausi done into English, 2 (London, 1906), 52–62Google Scholar. Overall, the Dabir-Siyaqi edition comprises many more verses—and thus more narrative detail—than those in Bertels, 2:106–110 and Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:41–45. MSS: Other editions and translations subsequently consulted for comparative purposes include Mohl, J., ed. and trans., Le Livre des Rois par Abou'l Kasim Firdausi 1 (Paris, 1838), 536–40Google Scholar; and Davis, Dick, trans., The Lion and the Throne: Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi 1 (Washington, D.C., 1998), 178–86Google Scholar.
19 Warner and Warner 2:59. MSS: The verse that corresponds to the English translation (Bertels 2: 107, verse 580, but without the word jadu) does not appear in the Peck manuscript nor in the Mohl, Dabir-Siyaqi or Khaleghi-Motlagh editions. Davis 1:184 describes the creature as a “ghoul.”
20 MSS: This moment appears in Mohl, 1:538, verse 616 and Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:314, verse 735. It is absent from the Bertels and Khaleghi-Motlagh editions, but present in the translations by Warner and Warner (1:60) and Davis (1:184).
21 MSS: The text here comprises some variants, found in both manuscript copies and published editions, to be discussed below in note 34.
22 The word jigar, used in the second hemistych of this bait and translated here as liver, can stand for either heart or liver. The understanding of the function of these two organs in Firdausi's time requires further investigation. Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:315, verse 754; Bertels, 2:108, verse 597; Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:43, verse, 581; Mohl, 1:538, verse 634; Warner and Warner, 2:60–61; Davis, 1:184.
23 Dibar-Sayiqi, 1:315, verses 756–768. MSS: These verses appear in none of the other Shahnama editions, nor in any of the manuscripts I studied for this project. In JWC's draft commentary on the haft khan, which forms the basis for the present account, he mentioned that, after removing White Div's liver, Rustam cuts off the creature's head and eventually presents it to Kai Kavus. This seems to be a misreading of Dabir-Siyaqi, 1:315, verse 760 in which Rustam's head is on the ground, during his lengthy prayers to Yazdan following his victory. I am grateful to Firoozeh Khazrai for reviewing these verses with me.
24 Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:313, verse 711; Bertels, 2:106, verse 563; Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:41, verse 552; Mohl, 1: 536, verse 594 (translated on p. 547 as “courageux”); Warner and Warner, 2:59 (where the divs are described as “valiant”).
25 Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:314, verses 731 and 734; Bertels, 2:107, verses 583–84; Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:42, verses 569–70; Mohl, 1:583, verses 612 and 615; Warner and Warner, 2:60.
26 See Clinton, “Ferdowsi and the Illustration of the Shahnameh,” 71–72. MSS: This discussion builds on a paper entitled “What Color is White Div?: Competing Esthetics in Illustrated Shahnamehs” that JWC presented at the Third Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, May 2000.
27 Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:314, verse 730; Bertels 2:102, verse 491 and 107, verse 582; Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:36, verse 479 and 42, verse 568; Mohl, 1:528, verse 516 and 538, verse 611; Warner and Warner 2:55 and 60.
28 Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:314, verse 734; Bertels 2:107, verse 584; Khaleghi-Motlagh: 2:42, verse 570; Mohl, 1:538, verse 615; Warner and Warner, 2:60.
29 Bertels 2:99, verse 433; Khaleghi-Motlagh 2:32, verse 425; Mohl, 1:524, verse 454; Warner and Warner, 2:52.
30 Bertels 2:53, verses 63 and 69, and 54, verses 73 and 89; Mohl, 1:448, verses 100, 108 and 116, and 450, verse 133; Warner and Warner, 1:379–380. These verses are in the cycle of Shah Garshasp, which is omitted from the Khaleghi-Motlagh edition.
31 MSS: The relevant verse (Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:315, verse 743; Bertels 2:107, verse 589; Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:575; Mohl, 1:538, verse 623; Warner and Warner, 2:60) is actually not in the Peck Shahnama and this detail is not included in any illustrations that I have seen.
32 Dabir-Siyaqi, 2:315–16, verses 756–98. MSS: Only the Dabir-Siyaqi edition includes this particular moment. In the Bertels and Khaleghi-Motlagh editions, along with most of the comparative manuscripts included in this study, the narrative moves directly from the cave floor flooded with gore to Rustam's exit from the cave and return to Aulad.
33 As of December 2002, MSS had studied some 45 illustrations; by November 2004, that number had more than doubled, thanks to the Shahnama Project database, which includes many images that have been identified by Dr. Farhad Mehran, who also has investigated this scene in “The Break-line Verse: Link Between Text and Image in the First Small Shahnama,” paper presented at the Shahnama conference, University of Edinburgh (March 2003).
34 I tried to correlate these shifts with the recto and verso placement of the illustrations, but this turned out to be a futile exercise.
35 A complete listing of all the comparative illustrations, and their iconographic particulars, will appear in the project's final publication. Many already may be found in the Shahnama Project database. Some of illustrations in which Rustam raises his knife before stabbing White Div belong to Turkman-style manuscripts, and it remains to be seen if iconographic variation can be correlated with style.
36 The various editions and translations used for this study share these variants. Mohl, 1:538, verse 619; Bertels 2:107, verse 587 and Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:42, verse 573 give yeki ran va yeki pay, while Dabir-Siyaqi 1:314, verse 738 and Bertels 2, 107, n. 19 give yeki dast va yeki pay. Warner and Warner 2:60 states “hand and foot,” and Davis 1:184 “one of his arms and one of his legs.”
37 The presence of the div guardians seems to ebb and flow over the centuries of this scene's representation. Although they are present at the start of the pictorial tradition during the first part of the fourteenth century, they largely drop out of the picture, as it were, during the fifteenth century. They return to the scene in the early part of the sixteenth century and remain there for the duration of its history.
38 Interestingly, the very verse (cited in note 29) describing the two adversaries wrestling is sometimes missing.
39 Dabir-Siyaqi 1:314, verse 735. Also Mohl, 1:538, verse 616.
40 Simpson, Marianna S., The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts (New York and London, 1979)Google Scholar, figs. 27–28. The climax re-appears once again in the beautiful Shahnama made in 1440 for the Timurid prince Muhammad Juki, one of Timur's grandsons. Here Rustam seems to be pulling out the White Div's entrails with both hands. Robinson, B.W., “Unpublished Paintings from the Fifteenth Century Book of Kings,” Apollo Miscelanny (1951)Google Scholar, color plate.
41 Bertels 2:107–08, verses 589, 590, 594, 595; Khaleghi-Motlagh 2:42–43, verses 575, 576, 578 n. 8; Dabir-Siyaqi, 1:315, verses 743, 744, 747, 749; Mohl, 1:538, verses 623, 624, 628 and 630.
42 Bertels 2:101, verse 466 and 102, verse 492; Khaleghi-Motlagh 2:34, verse 455 and 36, verse 480; Mohl, 1:526, verse 488 and 528, verse 517; Warner and Warner, 2:54, 55, 56.
43 Bertels 2:104, verses 517 and 525; Khaleghi-Motlagh 2:38, verses 507 and 515; Mohl, 1:552, verse 543 and 550; Warner and Warner, 2:57.
44 Most manuscripts read chun shir muy. The 1217 manuscript, however, substitutes barf for shir, which is even more explicit in terms of the div's hair color. This variant is given in Khaleghi-Motlagh 2:42, verse 569.
45 Interestingly, the early Shahnama illustrations of circa 1300 (see note 40) represent the cave's interior as light.
46 The splitting of White Div's skirt to expose his genitals, as in the Peck Shahnama, seems to be a sixteenth century development.
47 See Clinton and Simpson, “Word and Image” (forthcoming, as in note 1).
48 Bertels, 2:92–94; Khaleghi-Motlagh, 2:23–26; Mohl, 2:513–517; Warner and Warner, 2:46–47; Davis, 1:174.
49 This has been more than confirmed by the Shahnama Project database.
50 Norgren and Davis, see reference for Warner and Warner II:47.
51 MSS: This is probably the last substantive problem that JWC and I were able to discuss, in a telephone conversation of 22 September 2003. Soon thereafter, I mailed JWC my transcription of these “additional” verses and a list of some forty or so manuscripts in which they occur. Sadly, by the time the packet reached JWC, his condition has worsened and he never was able to tackle this material. The specific verse citations are given above in note 41.
52 I am grateful to the Institute for Advanced Study for a term appointment at the School of Historical Studies (fall 2004), to Priscilla Soucek and Charles Melville for their support of my application, and to IAS faculty and faculty emeriti Caroline Bynum, Giles Constable, Oleg Grabar, Irving Lavin, and Morton White and fellow members Robert Bjork, Indrani Chatterjee, Devin Stewart, and Julia Thomas for their interest, encouragement and advice. Special thanks go to Karl Morrison for suggesting that it would be of value to prepare at least a portion of this research in such a way as to document the methodology of an interdisciplinary project and the contributions—both separate and conjoined—of its two collaborators. This article is the result. Thanks too to Rudi Matthee for reading an early draft. My heartfelt appreciation also goes to Firoozeh Khazrai at Princeton University who, following Jerry Clinton's generous spirit, took precious time to help me work through various textual concerns. Finally, I am pleased to thank my graduate students at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (winter 2005) for their trenchant criticisms of this article in draft form, as well as colleagues at Michigan and Oberlin (where I gave related lectures) for their helpful comments and questions.
53 A Clarisse Herrenschmidt and Jean Kellens, “Daiva,”Encyclopedia Iranica 6:599a–602b; V. Williams, “Dew,” and Mahmoud Omidsalar, “Div,” Encyclopedia Iranica 7:333a–334b and 428b–431a. Francesca Leoni (Ph.D. candidate, Princeton University) is currently pursuing dissertation research on divs in the Shahnama.
54 This Peck verse does not appear, however, in all Shahnama manuscripts. It is absent, for instance, from the 1217 volume on which the Khaleghi-Motlagh edition primarily depends.
55 The use of blood and of animal liver to cure blindness and restore sight is a common trope in ancient oral folktales and doubtless was part of the familiar lore about mythical creatures such as divs that Firdausi drew on in compiling the Shahnama. Thompson, Stith, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature 2 (Bloomington, 1956): 254Google Scholar, entry D1505.8 and 255, entry D1505.14. For further insights derived from the study of blood in medieval Europe, see Bettina Bildhauer, “Blood,” Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs and Customs 1: 106–109; Roux, Jean-Paul, Le Sang: Mythes, symboles et realités (Paris, 1988)Google Scholar; Bynum, Caroline Walker, “The Blood of Christ in the Later Middle Ages,” Church History 71 (December 2002): 685–714CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Professor Morton White has directed my attention also to the essay “Is Life Worth Living?” in an anthology by James, Henry, The Will To Believe (New York, 1912), 32–62Google Scholar that answers the title's existential question at the outset with: “It depends on the liver.” As a life-long scholar of English, as well as Persian, literature, JWC surely would have appreciated this telling riposte.