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The Edinburgh Biruni Manuscript: a mirror of its time?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

ROBERT HILLENBRAND
ROBERT HILLENBRAND*
Affiliation:
University of [email protected]
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Abstract

The Chronology of Ancient Nations mirrors both al-Biruni the polymath and Mongol Iran in its wide calendrical, geographical and historical horizons. The pictorial programme highlights multi-ethnicity, Iranian national sentiment and religion: orthodox and heretical Islam, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Christianity (Annunciation and Baptism).1

Type
Part III: The Sources
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1-2 , January 2016 , pp. 171 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2016 

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References

2 Ambros, A. A., “Beobachtungen zu Aufbau und Funktionen der gereimten klassisch-arabischen Buchtitel”, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 80 (1990), pp. 13–57 Google Scholar.

3 Yarshater, E., “Introduction”, in Biruni Symposium. Iran Center Columbia University 1976 (Persian Studies Series No.7), (ed.) Yarshater, E. (New York, 1976), p. iiiGoogle Scholar.

4 B. B. Lawrence estimates that of his 146 works (a conservative estimate) only 22, that is some 15%, have survived (“Al-Biruni's Approach to the Comparative Study of Indian Culture”, in Yarshater [ed.], Biruni Symposium, p. 28). A higher estimate of around 180 is given by D. J. Boilot, “L'Oeuvre d'al-Beruni: Essai Bibliographique”, Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales du Caire II, (1956), pp. 161-256 and 391-396. For a figure of 27 surviving works see B. Gafurov, “Abu al-Rayhan Mohammed ibn Ahmad al-Biruni”, The Unesco Courier, 27th year (June 1974), p. 8.

5 For the text, see al-Biruni, Al-athar al-baqiya ‘an al-qurun al-khaliya, (ed.) P. Adhka'i (Tehran, 1380); for an English translation, see Sachau, C. E., The Chronology of Ancient Nations. An English version of the Arabic text of the Athar-ul-Bakiya of Albiruni, or “Vestiges of the Past”, collected and reduced to writing by the author in A.H. 390–1, A.D. 1000 (London, 1879)Google Scholar.

6 See for example the very varied contributions assembled in Chelkowski, P. J. (ed.), The Scholar and the Saint. Studies in Commemoration of Abu'l-Rayhan al-Biruni and Jalal al-Din al-Rumi (New York, 1975), pp. 1–168 Google Scholar.

7 M. Salim-Atchekzai, “A pioneer of scientific observation”, The Unesco Courier, 27th year (June 1974), p. 42.

8 Lawrence, “Al-Biruni's Approach”, pp. 27-47. For a brief survey of his work on India, see idem, “Indology”, Encyclopaedia Iranica IV (1990), cols. 285a-287a.

9 P. P. Soucek, “An Illustrated Manuscript of al-Bîrûnî’s Chronology of Ancient Nations”, in Chelkowski (ed.), Scholar, pp. 103-165.

10 One might ask the same question about the copy of the Edinburgh manuscript, including its images, made in Ottoman times; see Barrucand, M., “Kopie – Nachempfindung oder Umgestaltung: Am Beispiel arabischer mittelalterlicher Bilderhandschriften und ihrer osmanischen Kopien”, in Finster, B., Fragner, C. and Hafenrichter, H. (eds.), Bamberger Symposium: Rezeption in der Islamischen Kunst vom 26.6-28.6 1992 (Beirut, 1999), pp. 20–23 Google Scholar and pls.II/3-6 to IV/4. See also Gruber, C., “Questioning the ‘classical’ in Persian painting”, Journal of Art Historiography 6 (2012)Google Scholar, Fig. 4 (accessed 19 June 2012). The most richly illustrated version of al-Biruni's text, dated 1057/1647-8, is in the Sipahsalar Madrasa, Tehran; see ibid., pp. 18-21 and Fig. 5. See also Hattstein, M. and Delius, P. (eds.), Islam. Art and Architecture (Cologne, 2000), p. 28 Google Scholar.

11 It is a mistake to consider this manuscript purely in terms of its text and illustrations, for its diagrams and tables — in other words, its entire scientific apparatus — are an integral part of its purpose. See Kirk, T., “The Edinburgh al-Biruni manuscript. A Holistic Study of its Design and Images”, Persica xx (2005), pp. 43–47 Google Scholar.

12 S. Carboni, “The London Qazwini: an early 14th-century copy of the ‘Aja'ib al-Makhluqat”, Islamic Art III (1988-9), p. 17, suggests Mosul as a possible provenance.

13 In Ilkhanid painting this notion has been explored almost exclusively in the context of the Great Mongol Shahnama. The Biruni manuscript thus strengthens the case for the re-use in Ilkhanid Iran of an older text to carry contemporary messages – and, moreover, it was produced probably a generation or so before the Great Mongol Shahnama. The illustrated Bal‘ami manuscript may also have been intended to include themes of topical relevance; see T. Fitzherbert, “Bal‘ami's Tabari. An illustrated manuscript of Bal‘ami's Tarjama-yi Tarikh-i Tabari in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington (F59.16, 47.19 and 30.21)”, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2001, I, pp. 222-223, 291-294, and 304.

14 Haining, T., “The Mongols and Religion”, Asian Affairs XVII (Old Series) 73/I (1986), pp. 19–32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, brings this issue right into the present day.

15 The Mongol habit of deportation and relocation was especially relevant here. Allsen, T., “Ever Closer Encounters: The Appropriation of Culture and the Apportionment of Peoples in the Mongol Empire”, Journal of Modern History I/I (1997), p. 2 Google Scholar, notes that the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck, when visiting the Mongol capital of Qara Qorum, “met in quick succession a Hungarian servant, a French maid, a Greek soldier, a Nestorian interpreter, a Russian carpenter and a Parisian goldsmith. . .[and later,] Chinese physicians, Uighur scribes, Korean princes, and Armenian priests”.

16 Blair, S. S., “The Development of the Illustrated Book in Iran”, Muqarnas 10 (1993), pp. 266–274 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 But perhaps the manuscript was made for the market.

18 Lewis, B., The Muslim Discovery of Europe (London, 1982), pp. 59–64 Google Scholar.

19 Thus al-Ya‘qubi begins his geography with a description of Baghdad, which he unselfconsciously terms the centre of the world (Kitab al-Buldan, translated by Wiet, G. as Les Pays [Cairo, 1937], p. 4 Google Scholar).

20 Lewis, Discovery, p. 68.

21 Strickland, D. H., Saracens, Demons and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton, 2003)Google Scholar.

22 J. Boilot, “A long Odyssey”, The Unesco Courier, 27th year (June 1974), p.13, p.16.

23 The Edinburgh Rashid al-Din World History, f. 52a, depicts Ethiopians.

24 Such as King Kaid of Hind and the sage Mihran in the Great Mongol Shahnama; compare the Schefer Hariri's parturition scene, with its Indian dramatis personae ( Ettinghausen, R., Arab Painting [Geneva, 1962], p. 121 Google Scholar).

25 Lowry, G. D., with Nemazee, S., A Jeweler's Eye: Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection (Washington, D.C., 1988), p. 84 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Depicted in the Great Mongol Shahnama; see ibid., p. 87.

27 The work of the second artist, characterised inter alia not only by a dramatically different and richer palette but by a much finer graphic line and a different technique for depicting haloes, begins at fol. 129b; see Fig. 2.

28 For comments on al-Biruni's views on what might be termed “nationalism”, see F. Rosenthal, “Al-Biruni between Greece and India” in Biruni Symposium, (ed.) Yarshater, pp. 1-2.

29 See Lane, G., Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century Iran. A Persian Renaissance (London and New York, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pp. 177-212.

30 Melikian-Chirvani, A. S., “Conscience du passé et résistance culturelle dans l'Iran mongol’, in L'Iran face à la domination mongole, (ed.) Aigle, D. (Tehran, 1997), pp. 135–177 and 223–225Google Scholar.

31 Wilber, D. N., The Architecture of Islamic Iran. The Il Khanid Period (Princeton, 1955), pp. 4 and 105–118Google Scholar.

32 For a preliminary discussion confined to ninth-century evidence, but with much wider ramifications, see Stern, S. M., “Ya‘qub the Coppersmith and Persian national sentiment”, in Iran and Islam in memory of the late Vladimir Minorsky, (ed.) Bosworth, C. E. (Edinburgh, 1971), pp. 535–555 Google Scholar. See also Soucek, P. P., “The influence of Persepolis on Islamic art”, Actes du XXIX Congrès des Orientalistes (Paris, 1975), pp. 195–200 Google Scholar, and eadem, “Farhad and Taq-i Bustan: The Growth of a Legend”, in Studies in Art and Literature of the Near East in honor of Richard Ettinghausen, (ed.) P. J. Chelkowski (New York and Salt Lake City, 1973), pp. 27-52.

33 Melikian-Chirvani, A. S., “Le Shah-name, la gnose soufie et le pouvoir mongol”, Journal Asiatique 222 (1984), pp. 249–338 Google Scholar. These Shahnama quotations occur on large square tiles featuring a trilobed arch, so that the words of the epic undulate over the palace walls. But Shahnama quotations are also found on other kinds of tiles excavated on this site; they are listed in Ghouchani, A., Persian Poetry on the Tiles of Takht-i Sulayman (13th Century) (Tehran, 1992), p. 120 Google Scholar and are also discussed in detail by Melikian-Chirvani, A. S., “Le livre des rois, miroir du destin. II - Takht-e Soleyman et la symbolique du Shah-Name”, Studia Iranica 20/1 (1991), pp. 89 Google Scholar, 94 and 97.

34 Richard, F., Splendeurs persanes. Manuscrits du XIIe au XVIIe Siècle (Paris, 1997), p. 41 Google Scholar.

35 Such as the London Anthology of Divans dated 713-14/1314-15; see Robinson, B.W., Persian Paintings in the India Office Library (London, 1976), pp. 3–10 Google Scholar and colour pl. I. See too the Tehran University copy of the Khamsa of Nizami, dated 718/1318 ( Titley, N., “A 14th-century Nizami Manuscript in Tehran”, Kunst des Orients, VIII/1–2 [1972], pp. 120–125 Google Scholar).

36 As in an illustrated and as yet unpublished Ilkhanid (?) copy of al-Baidawi's Nizam al-Tawarikh (currently in Lahore) which received a preliminary airing in a paper delivered by Charles Melville at a conference on “Sasanian Historiography and Iranian Nationalism” held at St Andrews on 13-14 March 2009, or in the Freer al-Tabari, which features images of Ardashir (f.109a), Bahram Gur (ff.116a, 117b and 118b), Nushirwan (f.132b) and Khusrau Parwiz (f.146b) (Fitzherbert, “Bal‘ami's Tabari”, II, pls.15-18, 22 and 25).

37 Bahrami, M., Recherches sur les Carreaux de Revêtement Lustré dans la Céramique Persane du XIIIe au XVe Siècles (Étoiles et Croix) (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar, and Watson, O., Persian Lustre Wares (London, 1985), pp. 122–156 Google Scholar and 183-188.

38 Gray, B., “ Shahnama Illustrations from Firdausi to the Mongol Invasions”, in The Art of the Seljuqs in Iran and Anatolia, Proceedings of a Symposium held in Edinburgh in 1982, (ed.) Hillenbrand, R. (Costa Mesa, CA, 1994), pp. 96–105 Google Scholar.

39 Simpson, M. S., The Illustration of an Epic: The Earliest Shahnama Manuscripts (New York and London, 1979)Google Scholar; eadem, “Shahnama as Text and Shahnama as Image: A Brief Overview of Recent Studies, 1975-2000”, in ‘Shahnama’: The Visual Language of the Persian Book of Kings, (ed.) R. Hillenbrand (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 9-23.

40 Melikian-Chirvani, A. S., “Le Livre des Rois, miroir du destin”, Studia Iranica 17/1 (1988), pp. 43–45 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Cf. a group of large fifteenth-century paintings with little or no text preserved in the H.2152 album in the Topkapı Saray in Istanbul: Atasoy, N., “Illustrations prepared for display during Shahname recitations”, in The Memorial Volume of the Vth International Congress of Iranian Art & Archaeology Tehran – Isfahan – Shiraz 11th-18th April 1968, Volume 2, (eds) Kiani, M. Y. and Tajvidi, A. (Tehran, 1972), pp. 262–272 Google Scholar; see especially pp. 263 and 265, Fig. 5, which measures a gargantuan 62 x 35.5 cm. Cf. Gruber, C. J., “The Keir Mi‘raj: Islamic Storytelling and the Picturing of Tales”, Central Eurasian Studies Review 4/1 (2005), pp. 36 Google Scholar and 38 (accessed 27 June 2012).

42 The Shahnama of Firdausi, I, translated by A. G. and E. Warner (London, 1905), pp. 135-170.

43 Soucek, “Illustrations”, p. 139 and p. 165.

44 Shahnama, IV, translated by Warner (London, 1909), p. 313 and I (1905), pp. 123-124 respectively, and Soucek, “Illustrations”, pp. 125, 134, 136 and 164-165.

45 Note the idiosyncratic and ambiguous use of the halo in this image, which suggests that the painter was expressing a personal reaction.

46 Al-Biruni, translated by Sachau, p. 194.

47 The uneven rate of illustration provides supplementary evidence to this effect.

48 For al-Biruni's own attitudes to this subject see Watt, W. M., “Al-Biruni and the Study of non-Islamic Religions”, Report of al-Biruni International Congress (November-December 1973), (Rawalpindi, 1979), pp. 357–361 Google Scholar.

49 Besides the heretics depicted on pls. 8 and 9, the illustrations refer to the followers of Bihafarid b. Mahfurudhin (f. 92b) and of Ibn Abi Zakariyya (f. 95a); see Soucek, “Illustrations”, Figs. 8 and 11 respectively. Note that the accounts of Islamic heretics are bunched together pictorially.

50 Hillenbrand, “Images of Muhammad”, pp. 129-146. See also Soucek, “Illustrations”, pp. 151, 154-155 and 168; Soucek, P. P., “The Life of the Prophet: Illustrated Versions”, in Content and Context of Visual Arts in the Islamic World, (ed.) Soucek, P. P. (University Park, Pa., and London, 1988)Google Scholar, pp. 198-199 and 208.

51 For background information, see Arnold, Painting, pp. 1-40.

52 Ettinghausen, R., “Persian Ascension Miniatures of the Fourteenth Century”, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, XII Convegno “Volta”, promosso della classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche. Tema: Oriente e Occidente nel Medioevo (Rome, 1957), pp. 360–383 Google Scholar; Blair, S. S., “Ascending to Heaven: Fourteenth-century Illustrations of the Prophet's Mi‘rağ”, in Proceedings of the Colloquium on Paradise and Hell in Islam. Keszethely, 7-14 July 2002. Part One (The Arabist, Budapest Studies in Arabic), (ed.) Dévényi, K. and Fodor, A. (Budapest, 2008), pp. 19–35 Google Scholar; Gruber, C., The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension. A Persian-Sunni Devotional Tale (London and New York, 2010), pp. 24–31 Google Scholar and colour pls. 3-12.

53 Sachau, C. E. [translator], Alberuni's India (London, 1910), I, p. 111Google Scholar.

54 Al-Biruni himself is said by some to have had Shi‘ite sympathies (Sachau, Chronology, xiii) and he ends his book by invoking God's mercy and blessing on Muhammad “and upon his holy family” (ibid., p. 365). But his confessional affiliation is disputed by some scholars, but other passages in this very book – for example, when he discusses the death of al-Husain (Sachau, Chronology, 328) – betray his strong Shi'ite sympathies.

55 The original aspect of the painting can broadly be reconstructed by reference to the Ottoman copy (see n.xii above).

56 Bausani cites evidence that Öljeitü reverted to Sunnism before he died ( Bausani, A., “Religion under the Mongols”, in The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 5. The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, (ed.) Boyle, J. A. (Cambridge, 1968), p. 543 Google Scholar; and this chimes with the redecoration of the Sultaniyya mausoleum ( Blair, S. S., “The Epigraphic Program of the Tomb of Uljaytu at Sultaniyya: Meaning in Mongol Architecture”, Islamic Art 2 [1987], pp. 71–73 Google Scholar).

57 Bausani, “Religion under the Mongols”, pp. 543-544.

58 Spuler, B., Die Mongolen in Iran. Politik, Verwaltung und Kultur der Ilchanzeit 1220–1350 (4th revised and expanded edition, Berlin, 1968), pp. 201–202 Google Scholar.

59 Rashid al-Din, Jami‘u'l-Tawarikh: Compendium of Chronicles; A History of the Mongols. Sources of Oriental Languages & Literatures 45, translated W. M. Thackston (Cambridge, MA, 1998), p. 676. Cf. Broadbridge, A. F., Kingship and Ideology in the Islamic and Mongol Worlds (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 67–68 Google Scholar.

60 For this sequence of events, see J. A. Boyle, “Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khans”, in CHI 5, pp. 401-402 and Bausani, “Religion under the Mongols”, p. 544.

61 Blair, S. S., “The Coins of the Later Ilkhanids: Mint Organization, Regionalization and Urbanism”, American Numismatic Society Museum Notes 27 (1982), pp. 211–230 Google Scholar; eadem, “The Coins of the Later Ilkhanids: A Typological Analysis”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 26, no. 3 (1983), pp. 295-317.

62 Eadem, “The Inscription from the Tomb Tower at Bastam: An Analysis of Ilkhanid Epigraphy”, in Art et Société dans le Monde Iranien, (ed.) C. Adle (Paris, 1982), pp. 263-286.

63 See too Gruber, C., “Questioning the ‘classical’ in Persian painting”, Journal of Art Historiography 6 (2012), 18 Google Scholar (accessed 19 June 2012); Pfeiffer, J., “Conversion Versions: Öljeytü’s Conversion to Shi‘ism (709/1309) in Muslim Narrative Sources”, Mongolian Studies 22 (1999), pp. 35–67 Google Scholar; and J. Calmard, “Le Chiisme imamite sous les Ilkhans”, in Aigle (ed.), L'Iran, pp. 279-280 and 282-284.

64 The very tight time-frame of these inter-related events makes the calculation of cause and effect hazardous. There may indeed have been an element of gamble in the choice of Shi‘ite themes in these images; but the event proved almost immediately that the risk was worth taking. For Öljeitü’s switch in confessional allegiance of course had political implications; suddenly, an expression of solidarity with Shi‘ism became a politically correct stance, with obvious advantages for the person concerned.

65 Godard, A., “The Mausoleum of Öljeitü at Sultaniyya”, in A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, (ed.) Pope, A. U. and Ackerman, P. (London and New York, 1939), pp. 1103–1118 Google Scholar; Wilber, Architecture, pp. 139-145, Figs. 26-27 and pls. 89-102; Blair, “Epigraphic Program”, pp. 43-96; E. G. Sims, “The ‘Iconography’ of the Internal Decoration in the Mausoleum of Uljaytu at Sultaniyya”, in Soucek (eds), Content and Context, pp. 139-176.

66 Rashid al-Din, translated Thackston, p. 641.

67 Soucek, “Illustrations”, 113-4; Biruni, translated by Sachau, 210-11.

68 Spuler, Mongolen, pp. 160-161. Cf. too Vardjavand, P., “La découverte archéologique du complexe scientifique de l'observatoire de Maraqe”, in Akten des VII. Internationalen Kongresses für Iranische Kunst und Archäologie. München 7–10. September 1976, (ed.) Kleiss, W. (Berlin, 1979), pp. 527–536 Google Scholar, and E. S. Kennedy, “The exact sciences in Iran under the Saljuqs and Mongols”, in CHI 5, pp. 668–670, 672–673.

69 M. Carey, “Painting the Stars in a Century of Change: A Thirteenth-Century Copy of al-Sufi's Treatise on the Fixed Stars (British Library Or.5323)”, PhD thesis, University of London, 2001. See again Kirk, “Edinburgh al-Biruni”, pp. 43-47 and pls. 1, 3, 5b and 6a-c.

70 See ff.100a, 101a, 103a, 103b and 104b.