Illustrations of Maqamat Al Hariri

8/15/2019 Illustrations of Maqamat Al Hariri

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that he wrote in response to this injunction are couchedin a sophisticated orm o Arabic. Notwithstandingincursions o Egyptian dialect, they seem primarilyaimed at an educated audience versed in poetry and lit-erature.12 Teir affinity with the Maqāmāt can be per-ceived at several levels.

Perhaps as a response to the expectation o changeexpressed by his audience, Ibn Daniyal gave each o histhree plays a different narrative ramework. Te title othe first one, Ṭay al-khayāl , can be literally translatedas “Te Spectrum o the Apparition.” It implies a parod-ical reerence to the eponymous moti o Arabic poetry,and is also the name o a central character in the play,a deormed hunchback who is summoned at the outset:“Oh ay al-Khayal, oh perection o symmetry!”13 Tepresenter then opens the east by reciting a poem inpraise o the beauty o ay and o all things “crooked.”ay greets the audience while perorming a dance andsinging verses. He recalls his sinul days in Mosul andhow he eventually repented o them. He has come toCairo, he tells us, to search or his old companion indebauchery, the Amir Wisal (here, literally, “PrinceIntercourse”). But what he finds looks to him like aspectacle o desolation, or the sultan has declared waron Iblis (Satan) and destroyed all places o enter-tainment—a reerence to the violent campaign launchedin 1267 by Baybars, the Mamluk ruler o Egypt(r. 1260–77), against wine, drugs, and prostitution.14

ay al-Khayal goes on to recite an elegy or “our

master Iblis” beore the Amir Wisal is called orth andmakes his entry, a soldier with a sharbūsh (a ur-lined,triangular hat) and ruffled moustache (sibāl manūsh).15 He introduces himsel in rhymed prose reminiscent othe Maqāmāt , in a parody o the heroic style, boastingthat, among other eats, he can “steal better than sleepand [is] more experienced in pederasty than AbuNuwas.” Te succession o roles he claims or himselrecalls Abu Zayd, though the main purpose here islaughter rather than deception and the Amir’s “roles”are simply stated, not enacted. “I can give better slapsthan a baker’s hand,” he says, “... I can croak better thana rog....”:

I give evening amusements, I gamble. I am a butter, aboxer, a slanderer, a blasphemer, a carper, an intruder,a disturber, a threatener, an ascetic, a murderer, a boor,a ine gentleman, a rough customer, a slippery one, a

HE SHADOW PLAY

Te shadow play is an art orm with ancient roots lead-ing back East, possibly to India or Central Asia.6 Tedate o its introduction in the Islamic world is unknown,but it appears to have been well established there by the

early eleventh century, when a detailed description oits workings was given in the Optics (Kitāb al-Manāẓir ) o Ibn al-Haytham (d. ca. 1039), who lived most o hislie between Iraq and Fatimid Egypt. In the ollowingdecades, it was commented on as an allegory o wordlyexistence in the writings o Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), theAndalusian man o letters and theologian, and o al-Ghazali (d. 1111), who was born in us, at the easternend o modern Iran, and spent his career between Bagh-dad, Nishapur, and Damascus.7 Te contrasting back-grounds o these writers suggest a wide geographicalspread, and several more accounts in texts confirm thecontinuous presence o this art orm in different partso the Islamic world between that period and the six-teenth century.8

Te principal extant playwright, Ibn Daniyal(d. 1310), was an ophthalmologist by proession. Bornand educated in Mosul, he moved to Cairo at the age onineteen, in the wake o the Mongol invasions, andremained there or the rest o his lie.9 Some o his pre-served verse implies that shadow plays could be per-ormed in public places, in the courtyards o houses, ininns and taverns, and in palaces.10 Other textual sources

also mention perormances in ront o Saladin in thetwelfh century, o different Mamluk rulers in the our-teenth and fifeenth centuries, and o the Ottoman sul-tan Selim I afer the latter conquered Cairo in 1517.11 Te shadow play had thus anchored certain types onarrative imagery at the heart o Muslim urban lie longbeore the explosion o similar themes in book illustra-tion.

While shadow plays may have originally been impro- vised or handed down rom master to pupil as oral com-positions, by the thirteenth century they could also besubstantial literary works, as is evident rom the threesurviving plays (sing. bāba) by Ibn Daniyal. In the intro-duction to the first one, he writes that he was driven totake up his pen by the puppet master (rayyis) ʿAli ibnMawlahum, ollowing complaints rom the public thatperormances had become dull and repetitive. Te plays


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He withdraws to be succeeded by a gallery o twenty-three different characters, starting with the ake preacherʿAjib and including an acrobat, an astrologer, a quackdoctor, a trader in amulets, a clown, a trainer o cats andmice, a rope dancer, and a camel driver. Each person-age introduces himsel and describes his proession

using specialized language.20 Te parallel with the Maqāmāt is immediate with regard to their shared rep-ertoire o tricks and impersonations. Tese three playsare characterized by an uninhibited sense o humortogether with a taste or satire and unadulteratedobscenity; they are couched in lively and elaborateprose, rhymed prose, and verse—a patchwork o stylesthat again echoes the Maqāmāt .21

Ibn Daniyal’s plays are the only ones to survive inwriting rom that era, but in his day they may have beenpart o a broader written repertoire, as suggested by

their introductory remarks and some additional rag-ments o evidence.22 Tese written works would haveexisted alongside a dominant oral tradition that was stillalive in Egypt, Syria, and urkey at the beginning o thetwentieth century. Te range o themes addressed in thegenre as a whole must have been wider than Ibn Dani-yal’s remaining output might suggest; their subject mat-ter may sometimes have been less crude, and gearedtowards the imaginary. One ascinating piece o evi-dence in this respect is the Naẓm al-sulūk (Poem o theWay), by the Sufi writer Ibn al-Farid (d. 1235), wholived in Cairo at the time o our oldest illustrated man-

uscripts.23 In this text about the path to illumination hewrites:

In illusion’s sleep the spectrum o the shadow theater(ṭay khayāl al-ẓill) brings to you what translucent cur-tains reveal. You see orms o things in every garb dis-played beore you rom behind the veil o ambiguity: theopposites in them united in every guise; silent, they utterspeech; though still, they move; themselves unluminous,they scatter light. You laugh gleeully, as the most merryo men rejoices; weep like the bereaved and sorrowingmother, in deepest grie; mourn, i they moan, the losso some great happiness; are jubilant, i they do sing, or

such sweet melody.24

Emotion, light, and animation emerge as the key ingre-dients o a poignant spectacle in which colored figuresbehind a screen move, speak, and sing, stirring up

pander, a man capable o anything. I play the dandy,the man about town; I play the lord, the juggler. I strutabout, I limp, I dance. So do not show ignorance o mystanding, now that I have disclosed my secrets to you!16

Te Amir Wisal recalls with intense nostalgia—butwithout a trace o prudery—his past encounters with

both sexes. He advises Satan to stay away rom Egyptor ear o its unyielding ruler. Wisal then proesses hisintention to abandon his old ways and the main intrigueo the play ensues: the search or a lawully wedded wiethrough the services o an old, depraved matchmaker,reaching its climax with the unveiling o the bride’sbreathtakingly ugly ace.

At the close o Ṭay al-khayāl , Wisal decides to go onpilgrimage to Mecca in order to seek orgiveness or hissins, in much the same way that in the Maqāmāt AbuZayd repents at the end o his lie and becomes a true

ascetic, capable o working miracles. Te third o IbnDaniyal’s plays, al-Mutayyam (Te Love-struck One),ends in a similar ashion. In the introduction, the nar-rator compares himsel to al-Harith (the witness o AbuZayd’s mischies in the Maqāmāt );17 the main part othe drama involves a parody o Arabic love poetry inwhich the main character recalls his sexual encounterswith young men, as well as his endless drinking bouts,orgies, and gambling parties. Al-Mutayyam’s sinulreminiscences are brought to an end by yet another acto repentance, as the Angel o Death awakens him tohis dissolute condition and prompts him to beg or

God’s orgiveness shortly beore he passes away.Te parallel with the Maqāmāt is most pronounced

in the second o Ibn Daniyal’s plays, ʿAjīb wa gharīb (lit-erally “Amazing and Strange,” here with the meaning“Te Amazing [Preacher] and the Stranger”). Afer abrie introduction by the puppet master, there entersthe hero, Gharib, who presents himsel as one o theBanū Sāsān (Brotherhood o ricksters), leading a lieo wandering and exile, surviving by their wits and abil-ity to deceive the gullible.18 As with the other two plays,Gharib begins by crudely reminiscing about his past

sexual adventures and goes on to enumerate some othe proessions he once pretended to have mastered,such as the training o bears, monkeys, and dogs; cockfighting; jurisprudence; poetry; astrology; medicine; eyesurgery; herbal medicine; philosophy; and preaching.19


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ing to a twoold vertical base, which clearly seems to bea water pipe.34 obacco did not appear in the Islamiclands until the discovery o the New World, and archae-ological excavations in the Middle East have onlyyielded smoking devices in strata datable to periodsafer the late sixteenth century.35 Smoking, urthermore,

is not mentioned in textual sources beore the earlymodern era: until then, hashish and other opiates wererather chewed or prepared as drinks.36 Tis puppetcould, in other words, be the Ottoman recreation o aMamluk prototype, which raises issues about the dateo the whole set. Do these puppets belong to the our-teenth century, the seventeenth century, or the inter- vening period? Should they be viewed as a unitarygroup, or were they produced at different times, witholder Mamluk puppets serving as models or newerones? Tese questions may not receive a definite answer

until the actual objects, their leather, and their tech-nique o manuacture have been studied again in depth.But whether we regard them as original or imitative,their Mamluk character remains undisputed. Even inthe figure o the ship, the man with a water pipe wearsthe headgear o a Mamluk official, the dawādār (bearero the royal inkwell).37 Tese objects can be regarded asthe earliest examples o their art orm, and as probableindicators o how puppets looked and unctioned in theMamluk era, in general i not in every detail. Tey con-stitute the material remains o the shadow theater thatare closest in time to illustrated manuscripts o the

thirteenth to ourteenth centuries.Te figures are large—typically over 60 centimeters

and, in many cases, hal the size o a man. Teir designwas articulated by cutting fine parallel strips and circlesout o leather sheets to create contrasting areas o geo-metrical patterning. Tinner sheets o colored leather,o which a ew traces remain, were stitched around themain armature to generate areas o coloring (fig. 1).38 Te complete figures were assembled at the joints sothat they could be moved with sticks by the puppet mas-ter. Te result o this consummate art was the projec-

tion o fine variegated figures onto a backlit screenbehind which he (or indeed she) brought them to lie.39 Candles and a dark atmosphere were required or theartifice to be effective, making night the preerred timeor perormances. In one recorded setup, the puppets

laughter and tears in the audience. Tis ormed the basiso a proound metaphor o existence that was alsoexploited by other writers. Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1240), tocite but one, wrote in his Futuḥāt al-Makkiyya (MeccanRevelations) , composed over a period o some threedecades spent between Mecca, Anatolia, and Damascus,

that the shadow theater is a parable o this world, movedby an invisible orce and marred by appearances, itsscreen acting as a veil between the beholder and theruth.25 Ibn al-Farid alone, however, has recourse to atantalizingly detailed list o themes to evoke these plays:birds singing in trees; camel races; ships tossed at sea;armies in huge battalions, clad in mail and steel withtheir swords and spears; flaming flares; catapults firedat ortresses; jinns; fishermen and their nets; owlerscatching birds; oceanic monsters; lions and their prey;beasts hunting other beasts.26 At the end o this passage,he reminds us that “you may glimpse at yet other shapes

that I have omitted to mention, having relied but on thebest exemplars.”27

HE OLDES EXAN PUPPES

By an extraordinary chance, it is possible to parallelthese descriptions with an extant set o figures. Eightyor so early shadow puppets were discovered by PaulKahle, a German Orientalist who purchased them romtwo puppeteers in Menzaleh (al-Manzala), nearDamietta, Egypt, in 1909.28 Tey had been bought roma pasha in Cairo in the eighteenth century and hadremained in the same amily thereafer.29 Many o theireatures, rom clothing to types o headgear, convergeto suggest a Mamluk origin, and one emblem thatadorns our o the puppets—a circle enclosing a centralstrip with a lozenge in its middle—stood or the officeo a jamdār or “master o the robes” at the Mamlukcourt.30 Te same symbol reappears on other objects ina variety o media dated 1287 to 1372,31 but is attestedwithin a tripartite division o the field only betweenabout 1339 and 1371.32 Te puppets, in sum, appear to

reflect a Mamluk context in the mid-ourteenth cen-tury.33

One detail in the figure o a ship with its passengers,however, contradicts this conclusion: its central char-acter is bringing to his mouth a thin, supple hose lead-


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and their elephants, camel riders, a man with a pea-cock); various kinds o ships, with their crews in action;architectural settings (a house on two floors with fig-ures in motion, a storage room or jars, an arched back-ground or three running archers); wild animals andantastic creatures (crocodiles, fish, eagles and birds, at

times with human heads); and so orth.

HE ICONOGRAPHY OF HE MAQĀMĀ AND HE SHADOW PLAY

Te shadow play thus presented its urban audienceswith a repertoire o scenes and orms ranging rom themundane to the antastic, ofen with a penchant or theerotic. In the same period, the demand or illustratedbooks appears to have exploded in the Islamic world,stemming rom an enlarged social base that wentbeyond courtly circles to include the higher echelons ourban society. Tis prompted a growing range o crafs-men to try their hand at pictorial art. In the process, visual reerences to the shadow play were introducedinto their work.

would be piled up in a box or basket in their order oappearance, taken out during the play, then placed in asecond box once their role had been perormed.40

Te puppets discovered by Kahle encompass a wide variety o themes. One can at times discern a broadaffinity o types with Ibn Daniyal’s characters: or exam-ple, the description o the Amir Wisal cited above findsan echo in the puppet o a alconer, with his hat andbristling moustache (fig. 2).41 Sexual themes are uncom-mon, though at least one extant character directly atteststo their existence (see pp. 23–24). On the whole, thesefigures resonate more closely with Ibn al-Farid’s poeticdescriptions: they include people rom different walkso lie, with their assorted accessories (soldiers, alcon-ers, riders, servants, prisoners, vendors, sailors, mahouts

Fig. 1. Shadow puppet o a man carrying a tray, with remain-ing areas o color. Egypt, ourteenth to eighteenth century;ca. 84 x 25 cm. Oenbach am Main, Ledermuseum. (Photo:courtesy o the Ledermuseum)

Fig. 2. Shadow puppet o a man with two alcons. Egypt,

ourteenth to eighteenth century; current height: 43 cm.Present location unknown. (Ater Paul Kahle, “IslamischeSchattenspieliguren aus Egypten I,” Der Islam 1 [1910]:ig. 11)


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trator (muṣawwir ) had put an image in the wrong place;this slightly irritated comment implies that they weretwo different persons.47 Whatever their exact range oskills, book illustrators o this period are likely to havesought inspiration in the world around them to createnarrative scenes or their books. Tis would have been

particularly true o the Maqāmāt , which, having beencomposed in the early twelfh century, required theinvention o illustrations involving characters in dia-logue, disguise, and shifing poses. Scribes and crafs-men working in cities such as Damascus, Baghdad, orCairo would naturally have been exposed to the shadowtheater in their daily lie, and several defining icono-graphic eatures derived rom this art orm can be dis-cerned in the illustrations o the Maqāmāt .

Completed in 734 (1334), the Vienna Maqāmāt canbe ascribed, on the basis o decoration and several icon-

ographic details, to Mamluk Egypt—a context close tothat o the earliest extant puppets.48 Here, as so ofen inthe corpus, scenes are enclosed within simple theatri-cal rames, with curtains tied on either side or at the top,and set against a gold background. Te figures arehighly stylized, their bodies represented as compactmasses with rigid inflexions o the hips or joints. Tisgenerates a stiff, almost mechanical sense o movement,ofen with unnatural contortions o the hips and necks.Te aces are large, broad, and slightly square, withexpressionless, rozen eyes that do not necessarily con- vey the direction o the gaze. All these eatures recall the

shadow play and extant puppets, where the limbs moveat the joints but the eyes remain immobile. Some par-ticular types also echo the Menzaleh corpus, as illus-trated, or example, by the comparison o a beardedguard with his robe and stick in manuscript and pup-pet alike (figs. 3 and 4).

Te most amous Maqāmāt illustrator, al-Wasiti,used a different visual language, but one in which theimprint o the shadow play is equally present. In thetwelfh maqāma, Abu Zayd passes himsel off as anascetic able to protect a caravan on its journey rom

Syria to Iraq through incantations he has received in adream. Te caravan arrives saely at the first townbeyond the desert, whereupon the travellers offer the“holy man” a generous reward. Al-Harith next discov-ers him in a tavern, as he recounts:

Te phenomenal success o al-Hariri’s work amongwealthy, literate audiences o the Arabic-speaking worldmust have provided a particular incentive to enhanceits material presentation with images. Te crafsmenwho ound themselves in the most avorable positionto respond to this demand were scribes. Te illustrator

o Paris Ms. Arabe 5847 (now in the Bibliothèque natio-nale de France), al-Wasiti, belonged to their ranks, asshown by another surviving work in his hand: a small,unadorned copy o the Rabīʿ al-abrār (Spring o theRighteous) , a work o literary edification by al-Zamakh-shari (d. 1144), which was probably produced or salein the market.42 Likewise the fine pictures o LondonMs. Or. 9718 (in the British Library) were the work oGhazi ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman (d. 1310), a renowned cal-ligrapher in his hometown o Damascus who had tiesto the world o theologians.43

Te images produced in this tradition were articu-lated, first by outlining figures and objects in a contin-uous solid line, typically drafed in red then partly orwholly finished in black, and by applying a uniormcolor fill to relevant suraces.44 A requent additionalingredient was the patterning o textile suraces witholds, scrolls, and geometrical orms. Te skills involvedfind a direct correspondence in the work o scribes. Cal-ligraphy was based on a mastery o the line, straight orcurved, that could naturally be transposed to outlines.45 raditionally, scribes were ofen also trained in the arto illumination, with its vibrant palettes o colors and

elaborate designs. Some mastered the whole process obook production and binding, a polyvalence somewhatimmodestly summed up by al-Rawandi, when he wroteat the beginning o the thirteenth century: “I havelearned seventy types o script and practised as a copy-ist o the Qurʾan, an illuminator and a binder—skills Ihave acquired to perection.”46 Te most elementalingredients o Arabic book illustration—its clarity oline and vivacity o color—were thus already present inthis craf, and only awaited to be given a new orm andspirit suited to narrative imagery.

Tere may also have been specialized illustrators,although evidence o their work is lacking or the Maqāmāt. In a Materia medica o Dioscorides kept atMashhad (Iran) that dates to the twelfh or thirteenthcentury, the copyist lef a note indicating that the illus-


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an articulated object; in others, such as Ms. Arabe 5847and Ms. Arabe 3929 (in the Bibliothèque nationale), thelimbs are more supple, but equally animated. Figuresand their aces are ofen depicted in profile, their sil-houette strongly in evidence; the legs and hands mark-edly extend out o the torso, as in the shadow play,where this eature is essential or the action to be clearlyunderstood by the audience.

In most scenes, the action is set in a flat plane, withcharacters acing each other on the same horizontallevel against a blank background, like puppets pressedagainst the white screen o the shadow theater.53 Tefigures are inordinately large in relation to their setting,again like shadow puppets on a screen: or example, theones shown in figures 1, 2, and 21 (see p. 24) are taller

extend out o the body in a way that once again recallsa shadow puppet: compare him, or instance, with thebearded man in figure 7. His clothes, on the other hand,are articulated with drapery olds specific to the realmo manuscripts. Al-Wasiti’s particular talent resides inhis smooth and refined rendering o aces, and most oall in his ability to integrate such disparate elements into vibrant, unified compositions.

Similar remarks can be extended to other illustrated versions o the Maqāmāt . Human figures tend to con- vey emotions or actions through amplified gesturesrather than acial expressions or naturalistic bodymovement. In some manuscripts—the Vienna Maqāmātare a good example—the body joints, particularly theelbows and knees, meet in a rigid way that calls to mind

Fig. 6. Shadow puppet o a two-story building. Egypt, our-teenth to eighteenth century; 70 x 47 cm. Oenbach amMain, Ledermuseum. (Photo: courtesy o the Ledermuseum)

Fig. 7. Shadow puppet o a man carrying a peacock. Egypt,ourteenth to eighteenth century; height: 88 cm. Oenbacham Main, Ledermuseum. (Photo: courtesy o the Ledermu-seum)


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architectural props; indeed, as already noted, the sametripartite composition occurs in the principal extantsuch arteact (fig. 6). A plethora o small characters isperorming different tasks on both levels o this uniden-tified building, as in al-Wasiti’s tavern (fig. 5) and inother scenes.56

Te curtains themselves evoke the shadow theaterstage, which in all but the simplest settings would haverequired a raming device to create a backstage and con-ceal the perormers and their accessories rom the pub-lic. As might be expected, such paraphernalia have notsurvived rom medieval times, but i later Ottoman andChinese examples are anything to go by, they may have

than the architectural prop o figure 6. In outdoorscenes, the groundline is either absent or representedby a thin patch o grass or ground that looks like a prop.Te protagonists ace each other along this line, seem-ingly placed there by an invisible hand.54 Indoor scenesare enclosed in a flat, schematic rame to which a cur-tain is ofen attached, as i to unveil a stage. Te rameis typically drawn as a simple rectangle; another com-mon orm is the tripartite house drawn in red andspread over one or two floors (fig. 8). Tese two generictypes can serve to represent just about any kind obuilding, rom a tavern to a palace, to an Indian house-hold, and so on.55 By their schematic nature, they recall

Fig. 8. Abu Zayd beore the governor o Merv (thirty-eighth maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , thirteenth century. SaintPetersburg, Russian Academy o Sciences, Ms. S.23, p. 256 (total page dimensions 25 x 19 cm). (Photo: courtesy o theRussian Academy o Sciences)


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a tentative impression o depth was ofen created bymaking them stand at different points within this reced-ing surace, or having them sit on an object withperspective lines.63 In the Maqāmāt, only a ew compo-sitions, notably in the Wasiti and Saint Petersburgmanuscripts, reach comparable spatial complexity by

expanding on these devices and inventing new ones.64

One such innovation is the depiction o an audienceseen rom behind—a detail particularly avored by theillustrator o the Saint Petersburg manuscript (fig. 8),but also used by others.65 Tis gives the reader holdingthe book a sense o involvement with the scene, as i heor she were seated behind a first row o spectators—the very kind o glimpse one may have caught at a shadowplay.

Nothwithstanding significant divergences, Christianiconography did also provide the basis o significant sty-listic elements in Maqāmāt illustration. Te composi-

tions with compact groups o standing listeners and themanner o drawing some aces shown in semi-profileseem dependent on this source.66 Te same can be saido the straight drapery olds ultimately rooted in theclassical tradition, although distinctive scroll olds alsoappear in Islamic manuscripts. Te haloes o Christiansaints became a standard fitting that could be used atwill, as in figure 17 (see p. 20), where the characters wereclearly not meant to radiate holiness. Te treatment othe sky in some Maqāmāt images—a thin blue slice oa circle hanging rom the upper rame—can also be

traced to Byzantine and other Christian iconography.67

As we shall see, the illustrative mode heralded by the Maqāmāt in turn lef its mark on some Christian man-uscripts produced in the Islamic lands in this period.

Some elements o Maqāmāt illustration do not findprotoypes in either Christian sources or the shadow the-ater. Te stylized trees ofen seen in backgrounds maybear a relationship to the semi-abstract vegetal motisthat were a staple o architectural and textile ornamentin the Islamic world, and had also entered the imageryo some Arabic versions o Dioscorides.68 A ew recur-rent human subjects—notably the enthroned ruler, gov-

ernor, or judge—can be linked to the traditionalimagery o kingship in Islam, a detail already noted inal-Wasiti’s tavern scene (fig. 5). Another example is theimage o a seated ruler drinking rom a cup in the ron-tispiece to the Vienna Maqāmāt (fig. 12). His static pos-

consisted o a solid rame covered with textiles and cur-tains.57 Indeed, at the beginning o each play, Ibn Dani-yal reers to the unveiling o the screen (jalā al-sitāra),although this could also have been achieved by simplylighting the candles.58

Ships and boats are, afer architecture, the most re-

quent background elements in Maqāmāt illustration.Tey are represented in a flat outline that makes themlook like objects placed by a hand, this time onto a patcho stylized water (fig. 9). Teir orm is schematic innature, again with disproportionately large human fig-ures that are ofen drawn in profile.59 On the decks olarger sea ships are rooms or small domed cabins thatrame passengers in the same manner that architecturalstructures do in other images. Tese eatures can onceagain be linked to the imperatives o visibility in theshadow theater, and to extant puppets o ships (fig. 10).

Te approach to the human silhouette, the picture

rame, and spatiality maniested in these manuscripts marks a break rom long-established Christian tradi-tions o iconography. In Byzantine and most Syriacmanuscripts, three-quarter and rontal views dominate,profiles are rare, and figures have solemn expressionsand restrained movements , usually with straight legs,upright bodies, and elbows close to the chest. Frames,when they exist, consist o decorative illuminationrather than schematic architecture.60 Architectural ele-ments are included within this rame and treated as parto the landscape, with figures standing beore and beside

it (fig. 11). Curtains are uncommon and attached not tothe picture rame but to the architecture within; theyare spread outwards horizontally, ofen tightly tied, andtypically accompany images o Christ and saints. Teirorm suggests a resonance not with the perormancestage but with the katapetasma, the curtain that inchurches separates the sanctuary rom the nave, andhence the sacred rom the worldly.61 Te ships thatappear in Byzantine illustration, notably or scenes oChrist walking on the sea, are given more depth than inthe Maqāmāt by showing both sides o the hull. Teirfigures have a more logical size in relation to the vessel

as a whole; the latter also occupies a proportionallysmaller part o the image.62

Christian illustrators tended to spread their figuresbetween a oreground, a middle ground, and a back-ground, rather than flattening them into the same plane;


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Fig. 9. A ship bound or Oman (thirty-ninth maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , thirteenth century. Saint Petersburg, RussianAcademy o Sciences, Ms. S.23, p. 260 (total page dimensions 25 x 19 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Russian Academy oSciences)

Fig. 10. Shadow puppet o a ship with soldiers. Egypt, ourteenth to eighteenth century; 49 x 67.5 cm. Present locationunknown. (Ater Paul Kahle, “Islamische Schattenspieliguren aus Egypten II,” Der Islam 2 [1911]: ig. 43)


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in the shadow theater and largely shaped by its require-ments o perormative expressivity and clarity. Teseelements were transposed onto the pages o books andblended with other sources, notably Christian ones, inan individual manner by their illustrators. As a result,a variety o contrasting patterns can be observed acrossthe corpus. Paris Ms. Arabe 3929 and LondonMs. Or. Add. 22114 (in the British Library), or exam-ple, have dissimilar styles o illustration: the figures aresupple, colorul, and animated, with some acial detail,in the ormer manuscript, whereas in the latter they aremore corpulent and stiffly articulated, with schematiceyes and a relatively toned-down palette. Yet in bothcases, the eatures outlined above are so prominent thatthe impression o seeing a shadow play in action ofenbecomes striking.72 Te same is true o numerous sim-

ture and activity once again reflect the age-old Islamiciconography o the banquet, itsel rooted in the Sasa-nian imagery o rulership.69 Surrounded by angels, hisportrait is set within a raming illumination reminis-cent o Mamluk Korans.70 But an acrobat irrupts intothe oreground, bringing an animated touch to thispompous entrée en matière. Te articulation o his jointsmakes him look as i he were literally being moved bya stick, bringing to mind the acrobat Hassun al-Maw-zun (Hassun the Balanced), who “bends [his body],tumbles over and walks like a crab” in ʿAjīb wa gharīb.71 Te rereshing intrusion o this character in the Viennamanuscript can be seen as a metaphor o the changesthat swept across Arabic book illustration o this period.

Te illustrations o the Maqāmāt, in sum, reflect afigural style and a mode o scene visualization rooted

Fig. 11. Gregory and his ather. Gregory Nazianzenus , Homilies, eleventh century. Mount Athos, Monastery o Saint Pan-teleimon, Ms. Cod. 6, ol. 281r (total page dimensions 24.5 x 20 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Monastery o Saint Panteleimon)


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Ms. Or. 1200, a kadi who receives Abu Zayd is depictedin a highly schematic profile; his proportions are gigan-tic in relation to the composition, and the hatching ohis body surace calls to mind the patterning o Kahle’spuppets, as i the subtle transposition o earlier manu-scripts were being reenacted in the most open manner(compare fig. 14 with fig. 7).80 On the whole, however,in Ms. Or. 9718 and most o all in Ms. Or. 1200, theiconographic ties with the shadow play are less promi-

nent than in the rest o the corpus; these two manu-scripts are also set apart by a comparatively small ormatand script.81 Tis combination o text, size, and imagerymakes them less adapted to the needs o oral perorm-ance than most illustrated versions o the Maqāmāt .

manuscript ofen have more contained, less expressivelimb movements, an impression reinorced by the ten-dency or their torsoes to overlap. Te aces are, more-over, predominantly shown in semi-profile.Nevertheless, in this manuscript, several key elementsalready outlined previously—large figures, mechanical

articulation, notably o aces and hips, simple rames,and uncluttered backgrounds—create an unmistakable visual affinity with the shadow play, although its flavoris markedly different than, or example, in Ms. Arabe3929 and Ms. Or. Add. 22114.

Te ties with Christian narrative imagery are stron-gest in Paris Ms. Arabe 6094 (dated 619 [1222]), wherethey extend to the treatment o acial traits, the emaci-ated proportions o human bodies, and compositionalschemes.76 Yet in almost every scene rom this manu-script, one or several characters betray an unmistakablekinship with shadow puppets through the movemento their arms, hands, and legs, and their rigid articula-tions. Indoor scenes are enclosed within schematicarchitectural rames, ofen simplified to the extreme. Aew figures lean orward in a surreal manner, as i theirsoles had been glued to the ground (fig. 13).77 Tis ea-ture, which is odd rom the perspective o manuscripts,brings to mind the puppeteer moving a stick at torsolevel while keeping the legs in place, as i to conveyinvolvement with the opposing figure through exagger-ated body movement.

London Ms. Or. 9718, produced by Ghazi ibn ʿAbd

al-Rahman, has a distinct style o refined, small-scaledrawing most evident in the articulation o textiles andclothing. Te characters show some gestural animation,albeit less ample than elsewhere; schematic architec-tural rames occur, yet compositions tend to be busyand symmetrical, with a static, ormalized quality notrequently encountered in this corpus.78 Te legibilityo the images is urther reduced today by their subse-quent deacement. In London Ms. Or. 1200, finally, fig-ures are drawn through an accumulation o sketchylines, without a particular emphasis on outlines or pro-

truding limbs, and with ew architectural rames.Even so, in both o these manuscripts, many simpledialogue scenes set indoors or against a prop-like vegetation doubtlessly carry the imprint o the shadowplay.79 Intriguingly, in a later replacement olio rom

Fig. 13. Abu Zayd and his son in ront o the kadi o Saʿda,Yemen (thirty-seventh maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt ,619 (1222). Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France,Ms. Arabe 6094, ol. 130v (30 x 23 cm). (Photo: courtesy othe Bibliothèque nationale de France)


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For illustrators working in this perspective, the triedand tested iconography o the shadow play thereorehad the additional advantage o responding to theimperative o visibility at a glance, or rom a distance.83 But this spectacle may have also sparked their creativeimagination beyond the sole dimension o orm. In the

Naẓm al-sulūk, Ibn al-Farid writes:Consider the Maqāmāt o al-Saruji; ponder his disguise(talwīn, lit. coloring) and you will surely ind it good totake my counsel; you will recognize that whatever out-ward orm and image (shakl wa ṣūra) the soul assumes,it is inwardly disguised in sense.84

Tis lexical field o color and likeness brings to mind animagined Abu Zayd, perhaps his image as seen in amanuscript. In almost the same breath, Ibn al-Faridgoes on to associate our world o appearances with theshadow theater, as i to underline the shared artifice and

perormative dimension o the two genres.85 Shadowpuppets perormed their acts in movement and color.Even immobilized on the pages o modern publicationsor the walls o museums, they continue to exude a senseo animation—as with, or example, the man carryinga tray in figure 1. Te effect must have been all the more vivid when experienced in ull sound and motion inactual perormances. Tis spectacle may, in otherwords, have lef its mark on the animation and vibrantcolor that characterize so much Maqāmāt illustration.Several distinctive eatures o this corpus, many o

which were noted by Grabar but never ully explained,might also find their rationale in this context. Troughout the corpus, Abu Zayd is distinguished

by his lack o an established iconography, a set o attri-butes that would make him immediately recognizableto the reader.86 Instead, byo a given manuscript, one discovers him successivelyrepresented by completely distinct characters, young orold, male or emale, without recurrent traits, like onepuppet being changed or another in a shadow play. Teparallel with ʿAjīb wa gharīb is striking: in this shadowplay, the eponymous (anti-)hero successively appears

as, among other impersonations, a preacher, a doctor,a trader in amulets, an acrobat, a camel driver, and soon. Many o the same roles are also assumed by AbuZayd in the Maqāmāt , which attests to a shared reper-toire between manuscripts and shadow puppets.

ANIMAION, MOVEMEN, AND COLOR

In the pre-modern Islamic world, the preerred way oreading books, whether literary, religious, or other, wasnot silent and solitary but oral and sociable, with the

text being delivered in ront o more or less ormalassemblies (majlis, pl. majālis). By virtue o their inher-ent perormative dimension and narrative structure, the Maqāmāt were particularly suited to this mode oappreciation. A convivial unction seems reflected inthe physical eatures o their illustrated copies, wherethe images tend to be very clear, mainly thanks to theeatures outlined above, and to accompany an amplyspaced, legible text. Mid-level patrons probably con- vened gatherings geared towards lighthearted literaryenjoyment around these books in their urban housesand courtyards. Most o these volumes are large by the

standards o the era, yet small enough to have beeneasily turned or passed around.82 Pauses may have beenmarked to show each new image to members o an audi-ence, presumably opening the way to interludes duringwhich they could exercise their own wit.

Fig. 14. Abu Zayd beore a kadi in Alexandria (ninth

maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , undated replacement oliobelonging to a manuscript dated 654 (1256). London, BritishLibrary, Ms. Or. 1200, ol. 24r (total page dimensions 24.5 x17 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the British Library)


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ordinary man with a gray beard, a blue turban, and awhite tunic. His posture seems comical: his hips aretwisted, and one hand is close to his ace while the otheris enguled in a long sleeve. But come the next page, heis seated in ront o the assembly, with a dark greentunic, blue turban, brown shawl, white beard, and walk-

ing stick. Te audience is nearly as variable as he is, con-sisting first o three, then our, then again three men,each time with different clothing and acial traits, romyoung to old, ginger-haired to white, and beardless tobearded. Te continuity o the compositions generatesan almost kinetic visual sequence—a “comic-stripeffect,” as Grabar put it89—in which these shifing char-acters, notably Abu Zayd, evoke a succession o pup-pets appearing and vanishing on the shadow-playscreen.

Comparable sequences o two or three imagesappear again in this and other manuscripts.90

A remarkably long one can also be noted inMs. Or. Add. 22114. In the orty-sixth maqāma, youngpupils display their verbal talent beore Abu Zayd andal-Harith, a straightorward storyline to which mostillustrators responded with a general school scene. But

Al-Harith, being a less versatile character, usuallyappears as a grown man in Arab dress, but again witha variability o type and attire that would be difficult tounderstand outside this ramework. In Maqāmāt illus-tration as a whole, a amiliar cast o figures gets recy-cled to impersonate different characters, while the same

images are used to signiy different urnishings andarchitectural settings, in the manner o puppets andprops in a shadow play.

A series o three images rom Ms. Arabe 3929(fig. 15) will serve to illustrate this point. In the thirty-sixth maqāma, Abu Zayd, appearing as an ungainly oldman, joins al-Harith and nine o his companions in aliterary game o riddles: the text tells us, by way o anintroduction, that he arrived, addressed them whilestanding, and finally sat down “in his place or a goodstay.”87 Te first illustration o this brie passage showsAbu Zayd coming towards three seated men under theguise o an ascetic, as signaled by his tall qalansuwa (conical hat), which is rounded at the top and coveredby a hood, as well as his walking stick and his long,white beard.88 urning the page over, one discovers himstanding in the midst o the audience, this time as an

Fig. 15. Abu Zayd joins al-Harith and his companions in a game o riddles (thirty-sixth maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt ,thirteenth century. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 3929, right to let: ols. 180r, 180v, and 181r (32 x21.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèque nationale de France)


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Fig. 16. Abu Zayd at a school (orty-sixth maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , thirteenth or ourteenth century. London, BritishLibrary, Ms. Or. Add. 22114, right to let, top to bottom: ols. 162r, 162v, 163r, 163v, 164r, 164v 165r, 166r (new oliation;total page dimensions 26.75 x 19 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the British Library)


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Fig. 17. Abu Zayd in a ight with his creditor (twenty-sixth maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , thirteenth century. Paris, Biblio-thèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 3929, ol. 96v (32 x 21.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèque nationale de France)


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Fig. 18. A man wearing a ṭurṭūr being paraded on a donkey. Album page rom an unidentiied manuscript, late ourteenthto early iteenth century. Istanbul, opkapı Palace Museum Library, Ms. Hazine 2153, ol. 99v (12 x 16.5 cm). (Photo:courtesy o the opkapı Palace Museum Library)

or Baghdad towards the end o the ourteenth century—a context distinct rom that o Arabic illustrated books,and one in which the shadow play bears no apparentrelation to the style o illustration (fig. 18). extualsources tell us that market inspectors would hang theinamous object above their bench (dikka), togetherwith a whip (dirra), as a deterrent or potential offend-ers.98 Until Mamluk times in Cairo, during the celebra-tion o nawrūz, the spring estival o the New Year, a jester o strong constitution also used to ride the streetsnaked on a donkey, wearing a ṭurṭūr made o palm

leaves. Tis man, ollowed by the crowd, handed outpetitions demanding money rom the rich, who, i theyreused, were showered with insults while the populaceremained at their door until they acceded to therequest.99

In everyday lie, however, the ṭurṭūr was primarilyassociated with clowns and entertainers. In his elegy toIblis, ay al-Khayal thus laments that Baybars’s menhave ransacked, among the other riches o taverns, “theṭurṭūr s and the ṭār (tambourine).”100 As such, this typeo hat must have also been a requent sight in the shadowtheater. Te Menzaleh puppets count among their ranksa character playing the flute on horseback who sports asimilar, bent hat.101 One o his consorts, the Sudaneseclown Natu, is thus introduced by Ibn Daniyal in ʿAjībwa gharīb:

Natu makes his entry with his drum, ṭurṭūr , and ore-locks (dhawāʾib), shaking the spiers (mazārīq). He pre-tends to take light back and orth on the road, sticks hiseyes out, opens his mouth with his ingers and brays likea mule. He dances and sings to the rhythm o drums,


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impression.106 On the other side o the inkwell, the samefigure is shown again holding a cup while kneeling,which seems to confirm that the first image may be thesubverted portrait o an ascetic.107 Te ṭurṭūr was typo-logically related to the tall qalansuwa o Sufis, and thisambiguity may have been consciously exploited in thisimage—and in one closely related depiction o AbuZayd as a (ake) holy man in Ms. Arabe 3929

(fig. 20). In the Maqāmāt , the sense o joyul animation gen-

erated by countless figures and compositions is ofenaugmented by the introduction o details—note, orinstance, in figure 8, the character embracing a pillarwhile Abu Zayd enthralls the governor o Merv with hiseloquence. A comical dimension becomes increasinglyevident when one attempts to read the images along-side the text, as their original audiences would havedone—and this, even in apparently emotionless manu-scripts such as the Vienna Maqāmāt .108 Occasionally,this jubilant mood takes an unexpected turn towardindecency, as in one mosque scene rom the latter man-uscript, in which Abu Zayd is shown acing two men inprayer with his genital parts in evidence.109

Licentiousness was not a characteristic o al-Hariri’swork, so that the rationale or most o these digressions

then proclaims: “Natu, oh Natu, oh Natu Natu! Gazelleo the Sudan, most manly o men! I the boys were stillalive, they wouldn’t have died!”102

Natu finds an echo in two dark-skinned figures withconical hats depicted in profile, with disproportionatelylarge legs, in a slave-market scene rom the Saint Peters-burg Maqāmāt .103 Likewise, a variety o other charac-ters in this manuscript, Ms. Arabe 3929, the Istanbul

Maqāmāt , and Ms. Or. 1200 are shown wearing a tallconical hat evocative o the ṭurṭūr . Most o them areslender and appear in profile, some with maniestlycomical poses—sulking, or example, in the corner oone mosque scene.104 o their original audiences, thesecharacters may have immediately conjured scenes olaughter, perhaps against a joyul background o music,noise, and animation. So popular was the type o manshown in profile with a ṭurṭūr (itsel ofen mirrored bya pointed beard), that in the twelfh to thirteenth cen-turies it also made its way onto painted ceramic ves-

sels.105

A similar character also appears on a bronzeinkwell o the same period (fig. 19). Te articulation ohis clothing and his supple body movement suggest aprototype in book illustration. He is carrying a walkingstick and purse, both o which seem to denote a dervish,but his rantically agitated limbs seem to contradict this

Fig. 19. Front (let) and back (right) o a bronze inkwell inlaid with copper and silver. Eastern Islamic world, twelth orthirteenth century; height: 9.5 cm, diameter: 7.5 cm. Copenhagen, he David Collection, inv. no. 32/1970. (Photo: courtesyo he David Collection).


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Fig. 20. Abu Zayd, having passed himsel o as a holy preacher, departs (twenty-irst maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , thir-teenth century. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 3929, ol. 52v (32 x 21.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o theBibliothèque nationale de France)

must be sought outside the parameters o the text,within a broader cultural context. Levity (hazl ) andgross, comical indecency (mujūn) had been a part oArabic literary lie and popular entertainment since atleast the early Abbasid era, notably in poetry, livetheater, and the shadow play. Mujūn was cited by IbnDaniyal as one virtue o his three plays in al- Mutayyam,110 and the same brazen spirit could some-times hold sway during literary assemblies, in arelaxation o usual social norms. For illustrators work-ing in this perspective, the shadow theater would haveonce again offered a ertile trove o orms and ideas,being a realm in which this type o verbal excess hadlong ago been translated into images. Details pointingto such an iconography can be derived rom Ibn Dani-yal’s plays, as when, in Ṭay al-khayāl , Shaykh ʿAflaq,the husband o Umm al-Rashid, the matchmaker,

recites a lengthy versified ode to his declining penis. Henotably laments, while sobbing and braying, that it hasbecome “sof as melting candle wax” and that this once“erect ali ” is now but a “bending nūn.”111 Among theMenzaleh puppets, a large standing figure is equippedwith a seventeen-centimeter long retractable phallusthat could be stuck out during perormances (fig. 21).112 He is holding an object that Kahle saw as a water flaskbut could also have been a rattle, and wears a pointedhat, albeit one that seems shorter than the ṭurṭūr .

Te mirror image o this figure occurs in Ms. Arabe3929 when, in the twentieth maqāma, Abu Zayd, whois wearing a short, concentric hat (though again, not aṭurṭūr ), reveals his genital parts to al-Harith (fig. 22).Tis maqāma contains one o the rare sexual allusionsin al-Hariri’s work, as Abu Zayd, who is passing him-sel off as a beggar, laments in verse over the decline o


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gration with a broader culture o orality may hold parto the explanation or their success. Such was theirappeal that, as has already been pointed out, they werealso transerred to other media, such as metalwork andceramics.116 Tis circulation o orms presumably tookplace around the book markets o cities, through the

medium o paper sketches made by crafsmen.117

Onecannot exclude that at times the movement reached ullcircle and came to have an impact on the manuactureo shadow puppets.

In Ṭay al-khayāl, when the Amir Wisal’s secretary,al-aj Babuj (Crown Slippers), is called orward, thetext, instead o describing him, simply indicates: “Heappears like this”—which implies that an image wasoriginally drawn here.118 Tis image may have beenbased on a puppet owned by the rayyis ʿAli ibn Mawla-hum, or have simply been the product o Ibn Daniyal’simagination. It is conceivable that in original manu-

scripts o the work or some early copies by scribes, pic-tures such as this were drawn according to the dominantidiom o book illustration. Trough such a channel, orthrough the more direct transers just evoked or othermedia, aspects o the visual language developed inbooks may conceivably have ound their way into themanuacture o shadow puppets—or example, byprompting the introduction o finer painted acial traitsand textile olds onto translucent sheets o coloredleather. But evidence o this reverse process, i it didever occur, is lacking.

HE BROADER ILLUSRAIVE RADIION

Having outlined the main eatures o a phenomenon soprominently displayed in the Maqāmāt , it is now timeto turn to its broader ramifications. Lively, colorul fig-ures populate the pages o most i llustrated books o thisperiod, and iconographic elements derived rom theshadow play ofen appear in what seem like the mostunlikely texts. De materia medica, or example, was aGreek classic o pharmacology composed by Dioscorides

in the first century B.C. Its first Arabic translations,made in the ninth century, probably inherited rom theGreek originals the naturalistic depictions o plants thatwere necessary to its comprehension. Human figureswere introduced into this work at a relatively early point

his sexual powers with age. Having departed, he isprompted by al-Harith to show his body, whereuponhe “lowered his trousers and pointed to his penis.”113 Tis excursus, even i mild by Ibn Daniyal’s standards,was promptly seized upon by the illustrator o this man-uscript—and o Ms. Arabe 5847, the Vienna Maqāmāt ,and probably Ms. Or. Add. 22114, where this part oAbu Zayd’s body has been erased.114 Te ew otherimages in the corpus that err on the side o licentious-ness, sometimes quite crudely, do so without any appar-

ent invitation rom the text.115 Having reached the hands o an owner, these pic-

tures could be brought to lie by live assemblies. Light-hearted or coarse, they could contribute to the joyul,sometimes unbridled, mood o literary circles. Tis inte-

Fig. 21. Shadow puppet o a man with a pointed hat. Egypt,ourteenth to eighteenth century; height (excluding hat):77 cm. Present location unknown. he hand o the out-stretched arm is not original. (Ater Kahle, “Schattenspielig-uren I,” ig. 36)


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Fig. 22. Abu Zayd shows his body to al-Harith (twentieth maqāma). Al-Hariri, Maqāmāt , thirteenth century. Paris, Biblio-thèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 3929, ol. 45r (32 x 21.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèque nationale de France)


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a flat groundline through amplified gestures, withclearly profiled silhouettes. Outdoor subjects appearagainst a blank background, while the tripartite or sim-ple house rames also encountered in the Maqāmāt havebeen converted into pharmacies and medical prac-tices.121

In one emblematic illustration, a doctor receives twopatients (fig. 24). As in the rest o this work, the textplainly describes the characteristics o a plant and itsmedicinal virtues. In the image, the physician is seatedin profile, extending one hand out and bringing theother to his mouth, in a traditional posture o reflectionor attention.122 His two patients are seated on theground with a less solemn bearing. One o them isblindolded and pointing towards the ceiling with bothhands. Te other has an enormous, swelling belly andis reclining backwards. He resembles a puppet in his

by Greek illustrators: thus, in Paris Ms. Grec 2179,which dates to the late eighth century, a small figure isoccasionally depicted beside a plant to illustrate the dis-ease or which it provides a cure (fig. 23). Tis book mayhave been produced in the Middle East, and its Arabicmarginal glosses suggest that it remained in the Islamicworld or a long time beore eventually reaching theLatin West around the thirteenth century.119

Te idea o introducing human figures may arguablyhave come rom such precedents.120 Yet by the twelfhto thirteenth centuries, illustrators o Islamic scientificmanuscripts were giving the same subject matter anentirely different flavor by introducing ull narrativescenes with a vibrant mood and style that undamen-tally severed the links with the classical tradition. Smallfigures have thus come to abound in a dispersed Ara-bic copy o the work dated 621 (1224); they interact on

Fig. 23. Illustrations to Isatis agria (woad) and tilephion (orpine). From a Greek Materia medica o Dioscorides, late eighthcentury. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Grec 2179, ol. 5v (34.7 x 26.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Biblio-thèque nationale de France)


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riac) o pseudo-Galen, completed in 595 (1199) (ParisMs. Arabe 2964).125 Te animation o its figures is crisp,with vibrant colors; profiles and silhouettes are morerequent than in Christian manuscripts, but less so thanin the Maqāmāt . Scenes are ofen composed on two ver-tically superposed levels, rather than in a single hori-zontal plane. Secondary figures and decorative elements,such as plants, crowd much o the picture space, at theexpense o the immediate visual impact that character-izes much Maqāmāt illustration. Yet in a comical toucho indecency, a ew characters casually undertake theirdaily activities with their genital parts in evidence. Inone passage rom the text, the physician Andromachusthe Younger recalls once going through a field as peas-ants were working the land. He was told the story o aman cured rom a cutaneous disease by drinking winerom a jar in which a decomposed snake had been dis-

articulated joints and rigid posture; his hands areexpressively outstretched, and he is holding what lookslike a an.123 Despite its actual subject matter, the pas-sage has thus ormed the basis o an eminently comicalscene that once again recalls the shadow play. Severalacts involving doctors were indeed part o Ibn Daniyal’sshadow theater, where a Dr. Yaqtinus gives an accounto the death o Umm al-Rashid, the matchmaker, in abrothel, while in ʿAjīb wa gharīb, the herb hawkerNubata al-Aʿshab al-ʿAttar is lauded as “successor oDioscorides and offspring o Ibn al-Baytar.”124

In other books o this era, including other illustrated versions o Dioscorides, the imprint o the shadow playis also perceptible, though it is rarely as pronounced asin this copy o the work and in the Maqāmāt . Te ear-liest dated Arabic manuscript to show the imprint othe new idiom is a Kitāb al-Diryāq (Book o the Te-

Fig. 24. A doctor and his patients. From an Arabic Materia medica o Dioscorides dated 621 (1224). Washington D.C.,Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery o Art, S1986.97, single olio rom a dispersed manuscript (33.1 x 24.3 cm). (Photo:courtesy o the Freer Gallery o Art)


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ant in the previous image in ace, dress, and body. Tis,together with their marked profiles and the articulationo their knees, makes it probable that an actual shadowpuppet served as their model. Indeed, in ʿAjīb wa gharīb,Andromachus makes a brie appearance, which waspossibly staged with a puppet, to vaunt the merits o histheriac against different bites; this is preceded by a pas-sage about the powers o snakes that may have alsobrought some o these creatures to the screen.128 Tesehumorous extrapolations on the Diryāq suggest thatrelated subjects could be dramatized in the shadow the-ater.

Returning to Ms. Arabe 2964, there is nothing in theletter or spirit o the text to suggest the introduction o

covered. Andromachus, the wine jar, and the peasantsare all present in the illustration; but a green figure witha shovel on the right-hand side has his penis revealedby a lifed robe (fig. 26).126

Tis appears to have been more than a temporary ela-tion on the part o the illustrator, since the same detailcrops up again, without warning, in the episode wherea slave poisoned with opium at the palace o KingBathulus is accidentally cured by a snake bite (fig. 25).127 Te king is shown in the traditional posture o the ban-queting ruler; but on the level below him, both the gar-dener on the ar right and the attendant standing nextto the slave are undressed below waist level. Te latterhas a clearly visible penis; he closely resembles the peas-

Fig. 25. he poisoned slave at King Bathulus’s pavilion. Kitābal-Diryāq o pseudo-Galen, Rabiʿ I 595 (January 1199). Paris,Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 2964, p. 27

(37 x 29 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèque nationalede France)

Fig. 26. Kitāb al-Diryāq o pseudo-Galen, Rabiʿ I 595(January 1199). Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France,Ms. Arabe 2964, detail o p. 22. (Photo: courtesy o the Bib-

liothèque nationale de France)


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Fig. 27. he merchant, his spouse, and the thie. Ibnal-Muqaaʿ, Kalīla wa Dimna, thirteenth century. Paris,Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 3465, ol. 102v(28 x 20.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèque nationale

de France)

these pictorial details. However, in the context o a maj-lis, they could have prompted a lighthearted diversionrom the main subject matter, in accordance with thewidespread conception in Arabic literary lie that theseriousness ( jidd ) o learned pursuits ought to be coun-terbalanced by levity (hazl ).129 In the manuscript as a

whole, elements originating in the shadow play havebeen absorbed into an accomplished iconography thatblends them with Christian sources and the traditionalprincely cycle in Islam.

Kalīla wa Dimna seems to have been, alongside the Maqāmāt , among the most requently illustrated Ara-bic texts in this era.130 Based on Indian animal ables,this work has an inherent oral dimension, and its lesssophisticated language gave it the potential to garner abroader popular appeal. In his preace, the author o theArabic version, Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. ca. 756), explains hisambition to captivate the hearts o “lighthearted youths.”Te work, he also says, should have images “so as todelight the hearts o princes [and] increase their plea-sure.”131 Many o the animal scenes ollow age-old icon-ographic traditions, with roots stretching at least as arback as the eighth century, when some closely relatedsubjects were painted in the wall rescoes o Panjikent,in Central Asia.132 Te imprint o the shadow play canalso be elt in some scenes with human narratives. Giventhe subject matter, it may come as a surprise that imageso a husband (or lover) and wie in bed also appearrepeatedly in manuscripts o this text.

In the story o the man and the thie, a beautiul wiereuses her charms to her older husband, a rich mer-chant, until one night she is so terrified by a thie intrud-ing into their house that she jumps into his bed. Temerchant awakes; upon seeing her by his side, he looksup and discovers the thie. Such is his delight that heallows the intruder to take whatever he wishes and runaway.133 In Paris Ms. Arabe 3465 (thirteenth century),the man is shown lying next to his wie, whose breastsare naked. Both o them are depicted looking at a thiewhose stiff joints, neat movement, and pronounced out-line recall the image o a shadow puppet (fig. 27). Tescene is set within a stage-like architectural rame, witha curtain drawn to one side and tied to a pillar.

In another episode, a carpenter hides underneath hisbed in an attempt to catch his wie with her lover. Teillustrator o Ms. Arabe 3465 has again shown both lov-

ers lying in bed within a schematic rame.134 In Ms.Arabe 3467 (ourteenth century), they even appear tobe in the middle o intercourse (fig. 28); virtually thesame image reappears on two ceramic house modelsrom the same period (fig. 29), which suggests a wide-spread iconographic type.135

In yet another story, a man and his two wives havebeen reduced to a state o servitude, nudity, and hun-ger by the invaders o their city. One day, as they are

gathering wood, one o the wives finds a shabby pieceo cloth and attempts to cover hersel with it. Te otherwie exclaims, “Look at this whore, going about naked!”Te husband responds that she should look at hersel(she is still completely undressed) beore criticizing oth-


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Fig. 31. he ascetic, the woman, the maiden, and her lover. Ibn al-Muqaaʿ, Kalīla wa Dimna, ourteenth century. Paris,Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 3467, ol. 16r (29.2 x 22.4 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèque nationalede France)


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ries, suggest that Arabic illustrated books had started tobe produced in the Islamic lands as early as the eighthcentury.146 It is thereore possible that the new illustra-

tive mode had already come into being beore thetwelfh century, but that no witness o this earlier phasehas survived. Possible, but not likely: the ew dated ordatable painted ragments o this earlier period, whetheron manuscripts or other media, do not display the ea-tures identified above. Even when a dose o realism andanimation was introduced into Fatimid ceramics andwoodwork between the tenth and twelfh centuries, itseems to have been based on the observation o every-day lie rather than the shadow play.147

Afer the turning point marked by Ms. Copte 13, onthe other hand, nearly all illustrated manuscripts in theArabic tradition clearly exhibit elements derived romthis source. Te next earliest dated example is the Kitābal-Diryāq o 1199; in the ollowing quarter o a century,a mature pictorial idiom incorporating eatures romthe shadow play can be observed in, besides this man-

Coptic-Arabic, and Syriac manuscripts made in theIslamic lands in the thirteenth century ully belong tothe Arabic pictorial tradition heralded by the Maqāmāt ,

though probably as derivatives rather than models.145

HE QUESION OF ORIGINS

Tese manuscripts attest to the breadth o the phenom-enon under study, and the example o Ms. Copte 13shows that it had been set in motion by the third quar-ter o the twelfh century. But when and how did thesenew trends first emerge? Until the strands, regionalstyles, and patterns o diffusion that prevailed in bookillustration o this period are more ully understood, itwill be difficult to bring a definite response to this ques-tion. Some elements o an answer can, nevertheless, beattempted on the basis o our ragmentary evidence.Scattered textual and manuscript remains, together withinstances o iconographic continuity across the centu-

Fig. 32. Shamul delivers a letter rom Riyad to Bayad by the banks o the river harthar. Ḥadīth Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ , late twelthor thirteenth century. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ms. Arabo Riservato 368, ol. 17r (total page dimensions28.2 x 21 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)


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Fig. 34. he Announcement to Zacharias. Coptic manuscript o the New estament, Damietta (Egypt), 1178–80. Paris,Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Copte 13, ol. 135r (total page dimensions 38.5 x 27.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o theBibliothèque nationale de France)

Fig. 33. Miraculous healings. Coptic manuscript o the New estament, Damietta (Egypt), 1178–80. Paris, Bibliothèquenationale de France, Ms. Copte 13, ol. 32r (total page dimensions 38.5 x 27.5 cm). (Photo: courtesy o the Bibliothèquenationale de France)


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Library, Marsh 458; Istanbul, Süleymaniye Library, EsadEendi 2961. For more detailed lists, see Oleg Grabar, TeIllustrations o the Maqamat (Chicago: University o Chi-cago Press, 1984), ch. 2; Alain George, “Orality, Writingand the Image in the Maqāmāt : Arabic Illustrated Booksin Context,” Art History (orthcoming). Grabar’s work isaccompanied by microfiches that remain an invaluableresource or the study o this body o illustrations. A ullset o images rom the Paris manuscripts can also be con-sulted on Mandragore, http://mandragore.bn.r, and Gal-lica, http://gallica.bn.r. Te acsimile o one manuscriptrom the same collection, Ms. Arabe 5847, was recentlypublished in a limited edition: Ḥarīrī, Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī ,illustrated by al-Wāsiṭī, with an introduction by Oleg Gra-bar, 2 vols. ([Beirut?]: ouch@rt, 2003).

3. See George, “Orality” (orthcoming).4. Richard Ettinghausen, “Early Shadow Figures,” Bulletin o

the American Institute or Persian Art and Archaeology 6(1934): 10–15.

5. Grabar, Illustrations o the Maqamat , 142–43; ShirleyGuthrie, Arab Social Lie in the Middle Ages: An IllustratedStudy (London: Saqi, 1995), 21; Richard Ettinghausen, Arab

Painting , 2nd ed. (Lausanne: Skira, 1977), 81–83; Eva Baer,“Te Human Figure in Early Islamic Art: Some PreliminaryRemarks,” Muqarnas 16 (1999): 39–40.

6. See Fan Pen Chen, “Shadow Teaters o the World,” AsianFolklore Studies 62, 1 (2003): 25–64.

7. Shmuel Moreh, “Te Shadow Play (“Khayāl al-ẓill ”) in theLight o Arabic Literature,” Journal o Arabic Literature 18(1987): 47–48.

8. Moreh, “Shadow Play,” 48–52, where Moreh cites reer-ences by writers active in Egypt and Greater Syria. ForIran, see also the reerence to the shadow play in Nizami’sIskandarnāma, in Ettinghausen, “Early Shadow Figures,”10–11. Te internal structure and contents o one extantepistle by Ibn Shuhayd (Spain, d. 1035), and another by

al-Maʿarri (Syria and Iraq, d. 1058), could arguably suggestthat they were intended or perormance as shadow plays;Shmuel Moreh, Live Teatre and Dramatic Literature in the

Medieval Arab World (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UniversityPress, 1992), 110–15.

9. J. Landau, Encyclopaedia o Islam, New Edition (hence-orth EI2) (Leiden, 1954–2004), s.v. “Ibn Dāniyāl”; IbrāhīmḤamāda, Khayāl al-ẓill wa tamthīliyyāt Ibn Dāniyāl (Cairo:al-Muʾassasa al-Miṣrīyya al-ʿāmma li’l-taʾlī wa’l-tarjamawa’l-ṭibāʿa wa’l-nashr, 1963), 87–88.

10. Moreh, “Shadow Play,” 55–56.11. Ibid., 48, 50, 58–59.12. Mohamed Mustaa Badawi, “Medieval Arabic Drama: Ibn

Dāniyāl,” Journal o Arabic Literature 13 (1982): 93, 107.Tis article was reprinted in the first chapter o MohamedMustaa Badawi, Early Arabic Drama (Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press, 1987), and as an introduction toMuḥammad Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, ed. PaulKahle (Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial rust, 1992).

13. Te present section makes use o the detailed summaryo the three plays provided by Badawi, “Medieval Arabic

extend ar beyond the realms o ormal iconography.Te phenomenal success o the new pictorial idiommay, in other words, have gone hand-in-hand with thato the Maqāmāt themselves.

For centuries beore the modern era, the shadow playwas the most popular narrative art to combine word

and image in the Islamic world. Faced with the chal-lenge o introducing narrative pictures into their works,Arabic book illustrators appear to have derived romthis source the essential ingredients o their lively andeffective approach to iconography, space, and compo-sition. Tey created images, ofen joyul, sometimesindecent, which had the potential to engage with liter-ary lie at large, rom high culture to low, and encoun-tered sweeping success in society. O all books illustratedin that period, the Maqāmāt contained a uniquely richarray o links with the shadow play; indeed, it is con-ceivable that this particular work and its social context

served as the conduit through which these new trendsentered Arabic book illustration. Te Maqāmāt , at anyrate, attracted some o the most accomplished expres-sions o this effervescent pictorial mode until, or rea-sons still unknown, it began to decline in the ourteenthcentury.

History o Art,University o Edinburgh

NOESAuthor’s note: I thank Robert Hillenbrand, Gülru Necipoğlu,and the anonymous reviewer at Muqarnas, or their helpul com-ments on earlier versions o this article; Colin Baker, GillianEvison, Colin Wakefield, Marie-Geneviève Guesdon, and AnnieVernay-Nouri, or welcoming me at their respective institutions,the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and the Bibliothèquenationale de France; Keith Milne, or his invaluable help withimage digitization; and Anna Contadini, Liz James, JaclynneKerner, and Claude Gilliot, or responding to my various queriesduring the preparation o this work.1. Eva Hoffmann, “Te Beginnings o the Illustrated Ara-

bic Book: An Intersection between Art and Scholarship,” Muqarnas 17 (2000): 37.

2. Te eleven manuscripts are: London, British Library(henceorth BL), Or. 1200, Or. 9718, Or. Add. 7293, Or.Add. 22114; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (hence-orth BnF), Arabe 3929, Arabe 5847, Arabe 6094; Vienna,Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, A.F. 9; Saint Peters-burg, Russian Academy o Sciences, S. 23; Oxord, Bodleian


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“Schattenspielfiguren II,” 182–84; Kahle, “Arabic ShadowPlay in Medieval Egypt,” 94.

29. A number o these puppets were donated to museums inGermany beore the Second World War. oday, at leastthirteen remain at the Linden Museum (Stuttgart), withanother five at the Ledermuseum (Offenbach, near Frank-urt) and one at the Museum ür Islamische Kunst (Berlin).A large part o the collection was still in Kahle’s possessionaround 1960, when Derek Hopwood saw puppets on thewalls o his house in Oxord; see Hopwood’ introduction toIbn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 4 (English). Tey seem tohave been dispersed among amily members afer Kahle’sdeath in 1964; some have appeared on the art market inrecent years. Te state o the collection is also discussedin Marcus Milwright, “On the Date o Paul Kahle’s Egyp-tian Shadow Puppets,” Muqarnas 28 (2011): 44–45. I thankDerek Hopwood, or his attempt to help me track down thepuppets; Felix Kahle (Paul Kahle’s grandson), or sharinginormation about the parts o this collection still in hisamily; and Marcus Milwright, or a stimulating exchangeo ideas on the subject.

30. Kahle, “Schattenspielfiguren II,” 189–90. In two o the fig-

ures, Kahle noted traces o green in the middle field and yel-low in the rest o the composition (p. 190). On this blazonand office, see D. Ayalon, EI2, s.v. “Djamdār”; N. Rabbat,EI2, s.v. “Rank”; L. A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey (Oxord: Clarendon Press, 1933), 14.

31. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry , 155–56, 170–71; Michael Mei-necke, “Zur mamlukischen Heraldik,” Mitteilungen desDeutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 28(1972): 228. See also the examples listed in Kahle, “Schat-tenspielfiguren II,” 190–92.

32. Meinecke, “Zur mamlukischen Heraldik,” 247–50. See alsoMichael Meinecke, “Die Bedeutung der mamlukischenHeraldik ür die Kunstgeschichte,” in XVIII. DeutscherOrientalistentag vom 1. bis 5. Oktober 1972 in Lübeck , ed.Wolgang Voigt, Zeitschrif der Deutschen Morgenlän-dischen Gesellschaf, Supplement 2 (Weisbaden: FranzSteiner, 1974), 228–29. Te detailed typology offered byMeinecke has allowed me to narrow down the date rangepreviously put orward by Kahle as 1290–1370: c. Kahle,“Arabic Shadow Play,” 97.

33. As proposed by Kahle, “Schattenspielfiguren II,” 189–94.34. Kahle, “Schattenspielfiguren II,” 156–59, and fig. 45; Mil-

wright, “On the Date o Paul Kahle’s Egyptian Shadow Pup-pets,” 54.

35. Milwright, “On the Date o Paul Kahle’s Egyptian ShadowPuppets,” 54–57.

36. Franz Rosenthal, Te Herb: Hashish versus Medieval Mus-lim Society (Leiden: Brill, 1971), 65.

37. Kahle, “Schattenspielfiguren II,” 155; Milwright, “On the

Date o Paul Kahle’s Egyptian Shadow Puppets,” 49.38. Kahle, “Schattenspielfiguren I,” 264–65. While by the early

twentieth century the armature was covered with soot accu-mulated rom lamps over the centuries, its leather may haveoriginally been translucent, albeit less so than the coloredsheets. Ibid., 267.

Drama,” 93–106, as well as the translation o Ṭay al-khayāl given in Paul Kahle, “Te Arabic Shadow Play in MedievalEgypt,” Journal o the Pakistan Historical Society 2 (April1954): 98–115.

14. See Li Guo, “Paradise Lost: Ibn Dāniyāl’s Response toBaybars’ Campaign against Vice in Cairo,” Journal o the

American Oriental Society 121, 2 (2001): 219 n. 1; Kahle,“Arabic Shadow Play in Medieval Egypt,” 93.

15. Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 5–6.16. Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 7. ranslation afer Kahle,

“Arabic Shadow Play in Medieval Egypt,” 105, with minormodifications.

17. Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 90. See also Badawi,“Medieval Arabic Drama,” 106 n. 44.

18. On the Banū Sāsān, see Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Te Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: Te Banū Sāsān in ArabicSociety and Literature, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976).

19. Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 60–61; Badawi, “MedievalArabic Drama,” 102.

20. Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 61–89; Badawi, “MedievalArabic Drama,” 102.

21. Te textual links between the Maqāmāt and these shadow

plays are urther developed in Badawi, “Medieval ArabicDrama,” 106–7; Ḥamāda, Khayāl al-ẓill , 119–24; GeorgJacob, Geschichte des Schattentheaters im Morgen- und

Abenland , 2nd ed. (Hannover: Laaire, 1925), 61; Moreh,Live Teatre and Dramatic Literature, ch. 6. See also Kahle’sremarks in the introduction to Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree ShadowPlays, 2 (English).

22. Badawi, “Medieval Arabic Drama,” 84, 91–92. As men-tioned in n. 8 above, two earlier literary epistles might haveoriginally been perormed as shadow plays. One play o aless refined standard, which was committed to writing inthe sixteenth or early seventeenth century, may also havebeen based on earlier material: Paul Kahle, ed., Der Leucht-turm von Alexandria: Ein Arabisches Schattenspiel aus dem

Mittelalterlichen Ägypten (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1930).23. Tis poem was noted in relation to the shadow play by

Ettinghausen, “Early Shadow Figures,” 14.24. ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Fāriḍ, Te Dîwân o Ibn al-Fāriḍ:

Readings o Its ext throughout History , ed. Giuseppe Scat-tolin (Cairo: Institut rançais d’archéologie orientale, 2004),134–35. Te present translation is based, with minor modi-fications, on ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Fāriḍ, Te Poem o theWay: ranslated into English Verse rom the Arabic o Ibnal-Fāriḍ , trans. A. J. Arberry, Chester Beatty Monographs5 (London: Emery Walker, 1952), 68.

25. Moreh, “Shadow Play,” 49. On the lie and travels o Ibnal-ʿArabi, see A. Ateş, EI2, s.v. “Ibn al-ʿArabī.”

26. Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Poem o the Way , 68–70 (English); Ibn

al-Fāriḍ, Dîwân, 135–36 (Arabic).27. Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Poem o the Way , 70; Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Dîwân, 136.28. Paul Kahle, “Islamische Schattenspielfiguren aus Egypten

I,” Der Islam 1 (1910): 264–99; Paul Kahle, “IslamischeSchattenspielfiguren aus Egypten II,” Der Islam 2 (1911):143–95. On the circumstances o their discovery, see Kahle,


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al-Ḥarīrī, Maqāmāt al-Ḥarīrī, al-musammā bi’l-maqāmātal-adabiyya, ed. Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Salām al-ībī, 6th ed.(Beirut: Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya, 2008), 123.

50. Oleg Grabar, “Pictures or Commentaries: Te Illustrationso the Maqāmāt o al-Ḥarīrī,” in Studies in Art and Litera-ture o the Near East in Honor o Richard Ettinghausen , ed.Peter J. Chelkowski (New York: New York University Press,1974), 94.

51. On this iconographic type, see Katharina Otto-Dorn, “Dasseldschukische Tronbild,” Persica 10 (1982): 149–94.

52. Guthrie, Arab Social Lie, 183.53. Maqāmāt manuscripts virtually always have plain back-

grounds; Vienna A.F. 9 and Oxord Marsh 458 have goldbackgrounds which, in terms o visibility, achieve much thesame effect.

54. On this point, see also Ettinghausen, Arab Painting , 83.55. See, or instance, ibid., 106, 107, 113 (Saint Petersburg); 121

(BnF, Ms. Arabe 5847).56. E.g., Grabar, Illustrations o the Maqamat , microfiche 2F12

(Saint Petersburg), 4E5 (Istanbul), 6B2 (BL, Ms. Or. 9718).57. In shadow plays witnessed by a French traveller in Istan-

bul in the seventeenth century, the screen was ramed by

a “rug” (tapis) with a square opening or the screen: Jeande Tévenot, Relation d’un voyage ait au Levant (Rouen:L. Billaien, 1665), 66–67; Moreh, “Shadow Play,” 55 (Eng-lish translation). For China, see Fan Pen Chen, “ShadowTeaters o the World,” 46–47; Fan Pen Chen, ChineseShadow Teatre: History, Popular Religion, and WomenWarriors (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press,2007), 43. Te photograph o such a stage in modern Shanxican be seen in Fan Pen Chen, “Te emple o Guanyin: AChinese Shadow Play,” Asian Teater Journal 16, 1 (Spring1999): fig. 4.

58. Ibn Dāniyāl, Tree Shadow Plays, 1, 55, 90. In the firstinstance, Ibn Daniyal reers to the screen as being “revealedby candles” (idhā … jalawta al-sitāra bi’l shamʿ ).

59. See also Grabar, Illustrations o the Maqamat , microfiches

4F1 (BnF, Ms. Arabe 3929), 4F2 (BnF, Ms. Arabe 6094),4F3 (BnF, Ms. Arabe 5847), 4F4–4F5 (Saint Petersburg),4F6 (Istanbul), 4F7 (BL, Ms. Or. 9718), 4F8 (BL, Ms. Or.Add. 22114), 4F9 (Vienna), 7G1 (BnF, Ms. Arabe 5847),7G5 (Saint Petersburg), 7G6 (Istanbul), 7G8 (BL, Ms. Or.1200), 7G12 (BL, Ms. Or. Add. 22114); and the puppets inKahle, “Schattenspielfiguren II,” figs. 44–46.

60. A comparison o architectural rames with Byzantine illus-tration was proposed by Grabar, Illustrations o the Maqa-mat , 139 and n. 23. A wide range o Byzantine illustrationswith illuminated rames (eleventh to ourteenth centuries)can be seen, or example, in George Galavaris, Te Illus-trations o the Liturgical Homilies o Gregory Nazianzenus (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969); John

Rupert Martin, Te Illustration o the Heavenly Ladder o John Climacus (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,1954). For Syriac, see Jules Leroy, Les manuscrits syriaquesà peintures conservés dans les bibliothèques d’Europe etd’Orient: Contribution à l’étude de l’iconographie des Églisesde langue syriaque, 2 vols. (Paris: Geuthner, 1964), 2: pls.

39. Female puppeteers are mentioned by al-Wajih al-Minawi(thirteenth century) and al-Saali (d. 1362): c. Moreh,“Shadow Play,” 52; Shmuel Moreh, “Live Teatre in Medi-eval Islam,” in Studies in Islamic History and Civilization inHonour o Proessor David Ayalon, ed. Moshe Sharon (Jeru-salem and Leiden: Cana and Brill, 1986), 587–88; Ḥamāda,Khayāl al-ẓill , 54.

40. Moreh, “Shadow Play,” 51.41. Full descriptions o this and the other puppets are given in

Kahle, “Schattenspielfiguren I,” and “SchattenspielfigurenII.”

42. Tis manuscript is dated 649 (1251): George, “Orality”(orthcoming).

43. George, “Orality” (orthcoming); D. S. Rice, “A Miniaturein an Autograph o Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn Faḍlallāh al-ʿUmarī,”Bulletin o the School o Oriental and Arican Studies 13, 4(1951): 862–63.

44. George, “Orality” (orthcoming).45. See also the similar remarks made about later Persian illus-

tration by David Roxburgh, “Persian Drawing, ca. 1400–1450: Materials and Creative Procedures,” Muqarnas 19(2002): 51–52.

46. Daniela Meneghini Correale, “Il capitolo sulla scritturanel Rāḥat al-ṣudūr di Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Sulaymānal-Rāwandī,” Annali di Ca’Foscari 33, 3 (1994): 231. rans-lation afer François Déroche, Islamic Codicology: AnIntroduction to the Study o Manuscripts in Arabic Script ,trans. Deke Dusinberre and David Radzinowicz (London:Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2005), 188. IbnKhaldun (d. 1379) also states that one type o crafsman, thewarrāq, was in charge o “transcribing, prooreading, bind-ing and everything else that has to do with books and officework”: Johannes Pedersen, Te Arabic Book, trans. GeoffreyFrench (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984),52. Te study o actual colophons confirms such instanceso polyvalence: or instance, the scribe o London Ms. Add.7214 (dated 427 [1036]) was also its illuminator (mudhah-hib), and in Paris Ms. Arabe 6883 (dated 640 [1242]), hewas the binder (mujallid ); Déroche, Islamic Codicology , 188,204. Te term warrāq may sometimes have simply desig-nated booksellers: see François Déroche, Le livre manuscritarabe: Préludes à une histoire (Paris: Bibliothèque natio-nale de France, 2004), 48–49; Déroche, Islamic Codicology ,187–88.

47. Mashhad, Library o the Shrine o the Imam Riza (no knownshelmark); Florence E. Day, “Mesopotamian Manuscriptso Dioscorides,” Te Metropolitan Museum o Art Bulletin,n.s., 8, 9 (May 1950): 279.

48. Kurt Holter, “Die Galen-Handschrif und die Makamen desHarîrî der Wiener Nationalbibliothek,” Jahrbuch der kunst-historischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s., 11 (1937): 45–48.

49. Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim al-Ḥarīrī, Te Assemblies o Al Harîri: ranslated rom the Arabic with an Introduc-tion, and Notes, Historical and Grammatical , ed. and trans.Tomas Chenery and Francis Joseph Steingass, 2 vols.,Oriental ranslation Fund, n.s., 9, 8 (London: Williamsand Norgate, 1867–98), 1:173; Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim


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On more complex spatial experiments, see James, “Space-orms.”

76. Buchthal, “ ‘Hellenistic’ Miniatures,” 126–28.77. E.g., Grabar, Illustrations o the Maqamat , microfiche 1A5,

5A12, 9F3.78. E.g., ibid., microfiche 2D12, 4A12, 4E6.79. See n. 73 above.80. Contrary to Grabar’s assertion (Illustrations o the Maqa-

mat , 40), the image is not “damaged beyond useulness,”but a distinctive paper and script do show that this is a laterreplacement olio.

81. George, “Orality” (orthcoming).82. Te remarks made in this paragraph are based on George,

“Orality” (orthcoming). On the role o orality in Arabicliterary lie, see also Samer Ali, Arabic Literary Salons inthe Islamic Middle Ages: Poetry, Public Perormance, andthe Presentation o the Past (Notre Dame, Ind.: Universityo Notre Dame Press, 2010).

83. Besides the remarks already made above on the treatmento figures, compositions, and settings in manuscripts, seeGeorge, “Orality” (orthcoming).

84. Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Dîwân, 132. ranslation afer Ibn al-Fāriḍ,

Poem o the Way , 66, with modifications reflecting theoriginal Arabic.85. See p. 3 above (passage cited in n. 24).86. Grabar, Illustrations o the Maqamat , 105–9. Among

the eleven extant illustrated Maqāmāt o the thirteenthand ourteenth centuries, the only exception is LondonMs. Or. Add. 22114, where Abu Zayd consistently appearswith the same costume and headgear. Ibid., 105–6.

87. Al-Ḥarīrī, Assemblies, ed. and trans. Chenery, 2:76;al-Ḥarīrī, Maqāmāt , ed. ʿAbd al-Salām al-ībī, 380–81.

88. Te qalansuwa had been an attribute o power and author-ity in early Islam, but in this period it became chiefly asso-ciated with mendicant dervishes and Christian monks:Yedida Stillman, Arab Dress: A Short History, rom theDawn o Islam to Modern imes, ed. Norman A. Stillman,

2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 35–36, 71–7

Documents

Illustrations of Maqamat Al Hariri