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Painting as Persuasion: A Visual Defense of Alchemy in an Islamic Manuscript of the
Mongol Period
Author(s): Persis Berlekamp
Source: Muqarnas, Vol. 20 (2003), pp. 35-59
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1523326
Accessed: 15-04-2019 11:46 UTC
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PERSIS BERLEKAMP
PAINTING AS PERSUASION: A VISUAL DEFENSE OF ALCHEMY IN

AN ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT OF THE MONGOL PERIOD
An intriguing double-page painting (fig.Christian

1) appearsevangelist. He sits on a chair and wears a
near the beginning of a manuscript made indraped
heavily 1339 garment, and his head, slightly inclined
that contains a collection of Arabic and Persian al-
is perfectly round, as if his thick hair has been painted
chemical texts.1 The odd formal features of theinto the outline of a halo. He holds a tablet with an
paint-
ing, as well as the elusive inscriptions on it, confrontodd assortment of symbols, which include a pair of
the viewer with visual and textual puzzles. This birds pa-
interlocked like yin and yang, mysterious gold
per seeks to explain these puzzles in terms ofwhite
and the circles, and a silver crescent moon. (This
intellectual and artistic traditions that were familiar moon is now difficult to see against the black ground
to the anonymous painter and calligrapher who made of the tablet because its silver pigment, tarnished with
the manuscript, and in terms of the purpose ofage, the has darkened; but it is barely visible, directly be-
painting. The painter and calligrapher combined tween the pointed beard of the evangelist-like figure
broad cross-cultural traditions with other references and the white circle beneath his beard. Also somewhat
that were specific to the cultural context in which difficult to see are three faint rays of gold that descend
the painting was made: the Islamic lands underfrom Mon-the two gold circles at the top of the opposite
gol rule. This combination conveyed the purpose sideof
of the tablet.)
the painting, which, I argue below, was to persuade The inscriptions surrounding this tablet comment
the viewer of the legitimacy of alchemy. on its symbols in an elusive manner, adding textual
When viewed in isolation, the painting initially puzzles
seems to the visual ones. The inscription toward the
very strange. The formal relationship between thegutter
two above the tablet reads "They are two vapors:
pages on which it appears is puzzling. Each side is
the light and the heavy. They are the steam and the
framed by a different architectural device: thesmoke.right They are the dry and the moist. The smoke is
the dry; the steam is the moist. The smoke is the soul
side by a pointed arch and the left side by a post-and-
lintel construction with a dome. A masonry wall with the steam is the spirit [al-rfth], and it is the
[al-nafs];
large blue and peach stones runs directly across the
moist."3 The inscription above the tablet on the up-
gutter where the two pages join, but it is interrupted
per left presents the following confusing numerological
in front of a large figure holding a tablet, andstatement:
again "Water, air, and fire: therefore they have
at the doorway at the far right. Just below the wall,
drawna it as three, to indicate thereby that it is one,
continuous blue strip unites both pages. On thewithinright which is three. They became five in number.
page, nine eagles fly through the wall supporting Andthe
the five is from two. Thus, they have said that the
arch and towards the left side of the painting. earth
Above is of two substances and the water is of two na-
these eagles, a woman looks towards the left side from
tures. And they drew it as five." Below the two inter-
an open window, and below them, four men gesture locking birds at the lower right of the tablet, another
towards the left. The eagles, woman, and men inscription
all di- reads "The female is the spirit [al-rfih],
rect the viewer's attention toward a figure who isextracted
jar- from the male, carrying it, flying away with
ringly different in scale and style: he looms soit."4
much Damage to the last long inscription, written at a
larger than the men on the right that one of theirsteep
faces angle near the outer red post, has made the
is barely as big as one of his knees. Whereas the smaller
middle part illegible. The first part reads "The expla-
nation of this black earth deems that it was white..."
figures find their closest parallels in fourteenth-cen-
tury Jalayirid Persian manuscripts,2 the larger figure
After several words, among which only the word for
on the left resembles a medieval author portrait of a
"crescent moon" is legible, this inscription continues
+!+ ,;-~
+ +I+i ++ ++ +-++'
i +. . +/ :+:
__._i... i:
++++++++++++
:Q
"' ``,;.t ~
?"?* ;5~~~i~
Ri~'~~:,.4~ ~ ~ F~a ;;:1;? ?- i' ~
++.. ..++,+,! .
1 ? ? ? `'++ ..
fioiilt~?ti~xz
;t,;?~1L?~;'J~nl~, e~ .E~lrS'~~b,?.'
+++++++++
: ++ + ? ?+++ +++++++
. ... ;++;+++ i++ii% . .!i i? ++*++++ + + +++
.. ....: ?.i- +:
++i+>i+++++i++i++++ + ++~C++++!+ ++ .I+++i% ++++++++:+
l+++i++!i++i~qi++
.+++++++++.. . . . . ..... ..... .. . . . i ++++++++++++++++++i+++++.. .. ? ... .. +++++,++
Fig. 1. The Silvery Water painting. Compilation of alchemical texts, probably Baghdad, 1339. Topkapi Palace Library, A. 2075, fols. 2b-3a. (Photo: courtesy
of the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul)
A VISUAL DEFENSE OF ALCHEMY IN AN ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT OF THE MONGOL PERIOD 37
as follows: "... mixed into it. In it are two, and the third.
is no documentation of where it was produced, stylis-
The districts of the land are in its interior. They tic be-
considerations clearly place it in the eastern Islamic
came five." Inside the tablet, both white circles once sphere under Mongol rule, and very likely, as both
had inscriptions that are no longer legible. The smaller Ernst J. Grube and Stefano Carboni have suggested,
gold circle at the top of the left side of the tablet isin Baghdad.5 Examination of the calligraphy shows that
inscribed "three." The slightly larger gold circle at the a single scribe wrote out not only the inscriptions on
upper far left corner has a longer inscription that is the painting and the text to which the colophon is
partly illegible but begins "and it is one." attached, but also all of the other texts in the manu-
The painting's purpose of legitimizing alchemy isscript.6 The scribe and the painter (who is henceforth
not obvious at first glance, and its persuasive impactidentified as the "Silvery Water painter") may or may
is not instantaneous. Rather, it depends on extended not have been the same person; it is not possible to
consideration in conjunction with the text of thedetermine this. What is definite is that as a material
manuscript. The significance and impact of the paint-object, the entire manuscript was produced at approxi-
ing unfold gradually as the text leads the readermately the same time, even though the various tex
through it in a specific temporal sequence. As one that follow the painting were originally composed over
reads, one becomes aware of three different levels at a period of centuries.
which the painting relates to the text. First, it illus- The text that guides the reader through the paint
trates the allegorical story, which directly precedes it
ing, the first of several different texts in the man
in the manuscript, of how ancient alchemical knowl- script, was composed in the tenth century, predatin
edge was preserved on a tablet and then rediscovered the painting by four centuries. Its author, Ibn Umayl,
in an ancient Egyptian temple. Second, it serves as awrote it in three distinct parts: an allegorical intro
frontispiece for the manuscript as a whole. It authen- duction, which bears no separate title; a poem entitl
ticates the entire manuscript by successfully manipu- Risdlat al-shams ild al-hildl (The Letter from the Su
lating the connotations of an artistic tradition of
to the Moon); and a commentary, al-Md' al-waraqi w
author-portrait frontispieces, which by the fourteenth al-ard al-najmiyya (The Silvery Water and the Starr
century were already well established in Islamic bookEarth).7 Somewhat confusingly, the three parts to
culture. Third, in the black tablet of symbols it con- gether are known by what is properly the title only of
tains, the painting presents a pictogram of the secrets the third part, because the third part depends on an
of alchemy discussed in the text. Its full persuasivealways includes the previous two. I therefore refer t
impact depends on the cumulative layering of thesethe third part as "the commentary," and follow estab-
three levels of relationship between it and the accom- lished usage in referring to the whole text by the a
panying manuscript text, as well as on the viewer'sbreviated title, al-Md' al-waraqi. As Manfred Ullman
ability to recognize the artistic and cultural references has noted, the paired terms of the full title echo th
to which the fourteenth-century painter alluded at eachdesignations of mercury and sulfur in Greek: Mercury
of these three levels. was referred to as "watery silver" [sic], and white su
Whereas the purpose of the painting can be fur
suc-as "starry earth."8 Ibn Umayl's title therefore a
cinctly defined as the affirmation of the legitimacy of to what modern scholars call the mercury-sulfur
ludes
alchemy, the artistic and intellectual traditions through
theory of alchemy.9
which the painter expressed that purpose are moreAl-Md' al-waraqi became a classic of Islamic alchemy,
difficult to label in a single phrase. Some of the
and manuscripts of Arabic commentaries on it wer
painter's references belong to extremely broad cross-
still being produced as late as the nineteenth centur
It had been translated into Latin in the twelfth or
cultural traditions, while others belong to the specific
cultural context in which he worked: the Islamic lands thirteenth century, and the translation was widel
under Mongol rule in the first half of the fourteenthdisseminated among alchemists in Europe.10o It is im
century. The inscriptions on the painting secure possible
its to understand the painting in the 1339 man
date, since they are in the same hand as the colophon
script without reference to the tenth-century text an
on folio 65a of the manuscript (fig. 2). There, thein turn impossible to understand al-Ma' al-waraq with-
unnamed scribe records that he finished that section out reference to the cross-cultural traditions of Her-
of the manuscript on the eleventh of Muharrammetic al- alchemy to which it belongs.1' Yet it is also crucial
to consider how the interpretation of the painter,
Haram in the year 740 (July 19, 1339). Although there
38 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
..~ . ",.~ U~' ?'?.t. "" .'

Ir "I ? .. . " "'" ' ,
#1 JOOO t
" I L
MAP
IlI
-,.... / 1 01
#Ve I~il" j 1 ) 2 ?J) ~J

b i LBIkft.O,
f . - S ?j
~rli.
fa wirI'?LIIte~Js
j
Fig.2. Colophon. Compilation of

courtesy of the Topkapi Palace
henceforth manuscript
identified as of
the Si
fers from of
visual the Silvery
interpretati
ated at other ages-an
times andallegor
plac
To this end, Ia use threeof
diagram rela
th
tive lenses for in the
viewing Silvery
the Silv
of these comes Ibn Umayl's
from a tex
fiftee
of a text could
entitled conceivab
Aurora Consu
on the Latin translation
but in of
other al-M
wa
script includes the
a Perso-Mong
painting illu
legory (fig. 3).12
the Another
fourteenth is
printed in 1622, which
eastern intro
Islamic l
tion of al-Ma' greatly
al-waraqi (fig.
intensif
gram of the tablet from a si
At.
~o;Bne c ))t~rS~5-s toe*"
f4
~Hr ?f"~wzvw
c io 'I.,e
..........
..............i
MIN:P *e~ai
r7; iCI
oq i
,wgpl3 lP~r~
TIT:
Fig. 3. The rediscovery o

bibliothek Zu'rich, ms. R
bibliothek Ziirich)
40 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
Ak-
--- 4w/
11
fi
UL
SENIO0
Fig. 4. Frontispiece to volume five of Zetzner's Theatrum Chemicum, Argentorati, 1622. (Photo: after Stapleton and H
Edition of the Latin Rendering, p. 146)
V I I i I II IIIIIII III I i II I
(I, ~ ( _, TJJY
L~j
r Ir
.-.-J ,
, .d
V-. ...
cap
And
in these
its two Pictures
parts. indi
The Picture o
and it is the
The Triple
gin of the two birds, Male and Moisture. Wate
Female, and its origin is the New,
The Two Suns, The Single Sun, Moon.
Two in One and it is One
in One. This is the First (and the) Right half of the Tablet. It is the first half
of the " Operation of the People", and includes five, pictures-the New
Moon, the Full Moon at its zenith, the Circle of the Male, the Circle
The Two ingle Ray. of the Female, and

tionanother Full
of the Male Moon.
and the And
Female', this
and the indi-ate.
'Three Salting. the *Opera
feet Full Moon, referred to above, Tail ITheTwo Ilea

and from this come these i
Two Birds, the Male and the Bi
Female. Head o in Oail
and this is the Left half of the Marble Tablet

referred to above. And this is the Right half of the MarlI.e T'r,Iet rcf.rr.d to aIv,.
Fig. 5. Above: Arabic diagram. Ibn Umayl's al-M' al-waraqi, sixteenth century. Bibliotheque nationale de France, m
1610, fol. 3a. (Photo: negative courtesy of the Biblioth'que nationale de France, Paris) Below: Diagram with English tr
by 'Ali. (Photo: after 'Ali, Three Treatises, pl. 1)
42 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
ALLEGORICAL ILLUSTRATION the most suitable place for alchemical knowledge to

be located. The myth that alchemical knowledge was
Ibn Umayl begins the allegory as follows: preserved in the earth expressed the idea that, while
humanity's grasp of alchemical secrets was fleeting,
With Abu al-Qasim 'Abd al-Rahman, the brother of Abu
the earth's grasp of the same secrets endured.
al-Fadl Ja'far al-Nahwi, and then another time, with Ibn
The particular geographical localization of alchemi-
al-Husayn 'Ali b. Ahmad b. 'Umar, known as al-'Adawi,
cal knowledge in the earth of ancient Egypt had use-
I entered into Abu Sir, the Prison of Yusuf, known as
Sidr wa-Abft Sfr.15 fully ambiguous connotations in the medieval Islamic
context. One aspect of this localization was that it gave
The Silvery Water painter emphasizes this location mythical expression to part of the history of Islamic
with an inscription over the doorway at the far right, alchemy, which, like alchemy in the medieval West,
reading, "The ancient Egyptian temple [birba'] Sidrhad actual roots in Hellenistic Egypt.23 Yet it is worth
wa-Abu Sir."16 Ab- Sir or, as it appears in other manu- noting that other roots of Islamic alchemy in China
scripts, Busir, refers to several places in Egypt.17 Oth- were generally not mentioned in these allegories.24 For
er medieval Islamic allegories also often relate that legitimizing purposes, in most periods of Islamic his-
alchemical knowledge was located in Egyptian soil.18tory it made more sense to emphasize the origins of
For example, the Kitaib sirr al-khaliqa (Book of thealchemy in Egypt. Ancient Egypt was distant, foreign,
Secrets of Creation) of Balinus (Apollonius of Tya- and mysterious in time, yet geographic Egypt lay in
na) begins with an account of how the author en- the heart of the Islamic world, plausibly accessible in
countered at Tuwana, Egypt, a statue of Hermes with space. The balance it struck in the imagination between
an inscription saying that the secrets of creation were
mystery and plausibility remained a reliable constant.
below the statue's foot. Balinus dug under the statue The accessibility of China, in contrast, vacillated with
and opened a subterannean chamber. He entered it historical shifts in political and commercial relations
along the Silk Route.
and encountered an old sage grasping an emerald
tablet with those secrets.19 The Silvery Water painter emphasizes the Egyptian
location in the style of the door at the bottom right.
The topos of the rediscovery of alchemical knowl-
The geometric panelling of the door contrasts sharply
edge through archaeological excavation in ancient soil
with the more delicate white budding-leaf shapes that
had clear implications for the legitimacy of that knowl-
climb up the doorway, and with the larger-scale, light
edge, suggesting that the secret knowledge the alche-
green tendrils that spiral loosely on the pediments
mists sought must exist, since it had existed before.
above the main arch. The doorway and tiled pediments
Long ago, it had been known by the ancient sages,
most obviously suggest the contemporary architectural
and particularly by the father of alchemy, Hirmis al-
decoration of the Perso-Mongol cultural sphere in
Muthallath (Hermes Trismegistus);20 therefore,
which they were painted. In contrast, the dark, heavy
it must be possible to know this secret knowledge
pattern on the door is also compatible with the archi-
again.21 Yet the difficulty of rediscovering it was only
tecture of the Mamluk dynasty that ruled Egypt at the
to be expected, given the long passage of time since
same time, and may be compared to a surviving four-
it had last been known. Furthermore, it was fitting that
teenth-century Mamluk door (fig. 6).25 In the paint-
the knowledge of alchemy should be hidden in ing, the the inscription over the door invites the viewer
earth, since it was the earth that most effectively pro-
to follow Ibn Umayl on the journey he made into the
duced gold. A widespread alchemical idea, foundtemple.not By providing a door that looks Mamluk, the
only in Islamic and European but also in Chinese al-
fourteenth-century painter marks this stage of the
chemy, was that metals gestated in the earth like the
imaginative journey as similar to a plausible physical
fetus in the womb.22 All metals had the potential to
journey, in which the traveler may traverse space but
be born as gold, but most were born too soon or not were
time.
otherwise unable to achieve their healthiest state and
In the allegory, Ibn Umayl specifies that the
were therefore born as other, baser metals. The at-
ple he entered was the Prison ofYusuf. Yusuf's
tempt of alchemists to transform base metals into goldin Islam was firmly established; the twelfth sura
was only an attempt to replicate and accelerate whatQur'an relates the story of how he was sold into s
naturally occurred in the earth, which was thereforein Egypt, imprisoned, and eventually released
A VISUAL DEFENSE OF ALCHEMY IN AN ISILAMIC MANUSCRIPT OF THE MONGOL PERIOD 43
i?a%
31 1 rr ir
Q.:ff, Ml
il
:: v
.n~i'3ii~g( ?I~eEi~r~"B"s~"B"%ll"`i"" ti~l~i a131 B~tW~lil~a;k3
flli~~i; ?':M. 'aP
f NOW~~L1~as -rrrrasr1 iif~~~"'iir~~ l"Ps?ses l~~~Li
I .. ..... ...
m lop?
. . . ... . ..
RM:"6
f?,mA
........
Mz.: a
LM? . ....
iii~U .........:
Fig. 6. Pair of doors

courtesy of the Ben
44 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
he successfullycolor lightens to pale jade green, and as the

interpreted they appro
the Qur'anic telling, the
the sage, who literally import
holds the secret, they turn wh
The painter's
ity to interpret treatment of these birds seems inspi
is emphasized: G
sold into slaveryby the third section of al-Md' al-waraqr,
specifically so the commen
tha
tary. There,
interpretation of Ibn 'Umayl frequently refers
stories.26 A to the d
stu
makes clear that
sion ofthe
nine parts Prison ofsometi
of water into three thirds, Y
associating
ancient Egyptian this division withto
temple color. whic
eval Cairo made excursions and
His statement, "After the disappearance of the Blac
medieval Islamic name for the temp
ness, the Gold will turn again into a Silvery Stone
as an ancient monument whose
because the Blackness will become manifest on this
ture was secured"White
by the accretion
Pure Earth" at the entering of the first three
cause it was recognized as
of the nine parts of the "Divine anc
Water," and it is
different, yet associated with
third of the nine. Then it will be whitened and the a
Qur'an, the Prison blackness willof Yusuf re
disappear.32
within Islamic culture that the d
claimed for alchemy Thus the progression of the birds from
itself. The dark br
tellectuals who opposed alchemy to white gives visual form to the idea of alchemy
lamic and false. Its defenders claimed it was a form process of purification in successive stages.
The
of the wisdom of the ancients that, along with the birds in the Silvery Water painting are striki
rest
of philosophy, had been confirmed by Islam.28 In those in the Aurora consurgens painting, wh
unlike
depicting the Prison of Yusuf, the painter does theynot
appear menacing and aggressive and are all
visually specify the building type but does indicate thatthat, according to Barbara Obrist, is rese
a color
it belongs in an Islamic milieu by providing it throughout
with a that manuscript for motifs that sym
dome and an iwan. ize quicksilver,33 or mercury. As in other publis
The painter of the fifteenth-century Aurora Western
Con- depictions of the scene (fig. 4), they aim t
surgens illustration faced a parallel problem of assertingeither directly at the sage or at the part
arrows
figures gesturing towards him. Their bows signify
the compatibility of alchemy, despite its controversial
capability
status, with Latin Christianity. But he addressed the and strength.34
problem by depicting the ancient temple unambiguous- Silvery Water painting, in contrast, the bi
In the
have
ly as a medieval church with a steeple tower.29 In thisan almost lyrical quality. Their bows are o
faintly
way, he literally located alchemical knowledge within indicated, trailing delicately from their feet
a church and asserted its place in Latin Christianity.
gentle curve of each bow, ending with a loop, is ech
The allegory of Ibn Umayl continues: in the arrangement of the nine birds in forma
The painter's decision to depict the birds in suc
I went towards a temple. The seekers (al-mutilibiyyftn)30
unthreatening manner might be linked to the M
opened it, and on the ceiling of the entry hall, I saw a
understanding of nine as a lucky number.35
picture of nine eagles with open wings, as if they were
flying, and with outstretched and open claws. In theIn the allegory, Ibn Umayl goes on to describe wh
claw
of each of the eagles was something like a fullyelse he saw in the temple:
drawn
bow that soldiers have.31
On the wall of the gallery, to the right and left of
In the Silvery Water painting, the eagles are notone
af-entering the temple, were pictures of people st
fixed onto the ceiling but seem to be flying throughof most perfect form, wearing a variety of clot
ing,
and extending their fingers and hands towards th
the wall. Using the colors of brown, pale jade green,
side of the temple, towards the thing that was near
and white, the painter divides the nine birds into
pillar of the gate of the hall. They were pointing to
three sets of three. His decision to distinguish these
idol who sat in the interior of the temple.36
three sets of birds by color is provocative because,
alchemically, the transformation of colors marked Thethe
figures who gesture towards the sage, here
transformation of metals and other substances. The cifically identified as an idol, are described, as
birds outside the temple are brown; after they fly
the birds, as pictures found inside the temple. Pres
through the wall and enter the temple precinct their
ably, then, the text alludes to ancient Egyptian
paintings. Yet, in a way that parallels his treatment

formal similarities between the Hermes/sage figur
of the architectural setting, the artist has made in
nothe
in- Silvery Water painting and the image of Go
dication of the pre-Islamic, culturally foreign status the cosmos in a French moralizing Bible of
holding
of these gesturing figures. Rather, he has dressed
the early thirteenth century are striking (fig. 7).43
them in turbans and indicated tiraz bands on their seems extremely unlikely that the Silvery Water painter
sleeves. could have intended such a heretical allusion. Yet,
The detail of tiraz bands is frequently seen in man-
although this suggestion must remain purely conjec-
uscript paintings from Iraq and Syria before tural,
the it is possible that the painter came across a sim-
Mongol invasion, but then becomes less common.ilar
Al- image, in which the depiction of the cosmos
though it is not clear exactly where these bands orig-
showed celestial bodies.44 The painter may have con-
sidered the depicted "author" of such a cosmos a
inated,37 they loosely suggest the culture of caliphal
Islam that had been centered at Baghdad. Many suitable
that model for his purposes because he, too, had
appear after the fall of Baghdad, and consequently to show an author of an object visualized in terms of
of the caliphate, in 1258 are in manuscripts madesuns in and moons. Alternatively, he may have chosen
areas to the west or south, where Mongol culturesuch had a model because he wanted a particularly "for-
a comparatively slow or indirect impact.38 In post- eign" style. Perhaps the full hair and beard in such a
conquest paintings made near the centers of Mon- painting reminded him of ancient classical statues and
gol power, their appearance often suggests cultural effectively connoted for him the great antiquity of
continuity stretching back to the ancient roots of Ira-
the sculptural idol he was trying to represent.
nian or Islamic culture. In the paintings of the Great What could explain the Silvery Water painter's
Mongol Shahnama (Book of Kings) of the 1330s, they access to such a model? The Ilkhanid court exchanged
are worn by some of the most ancient kings, such as
embassies with the English and the French, whose
Iskandar.39 In the paintings in the Jfmi' al-tawarrkh
communications, since they saw this relationship large-
(Compendium of Chronicles) manuscript of 1307- ly through the prism of the Crusades, often had a
14, the bands tend to appear in scenes depicting religious
sto- dimension. The English and the French sent
ries of the prophets. There, the prophets who pre- monks and chaplains in their embassies to the Mon-
ceded Muhammad, such as Noah and Moses, are gol court because they wanted to win the Mongols'
shown in Islamic dress,40 indicating that they were allegiance to the Christian cause; the Mongols on their
Muslims in the literal sense of submitting to God's part sent Christian monks from the East to Europe,
will, even if they were from the pre-Islamic era. presumably
In because they thought that the Europe-
contrast, the cultural difference of non-Muslims, from
ans were likely to receive them favorably. Further-
more, the Dominican order was well established at
the ancient giant 'Uj to the Chinese emperors, is made
visually clear, and their lack of tiraz sleeve bands is
various Mongol capitals, such as Sultaniya, Tabriz, and
one indication of this difference. Maragha.45 Since these monks presumably traveled
In the Silvery Water painting, therefore, the cos-
with Bibles and possibly other books, there would have
tumes with tiraz bands worn by the figures on been theample opportunity for the transport of books
right are significant. The painter had other stylistic
in general, and of Bibles in particular, from North-
options available to him, as is clear from his depic-
ern Europe to the Mongol Islamic lands.
tion of the idol. By representing the smaller men Theas stylistic elusiveness of the sage/idol figure in
Muslims in a contemporary architectural setting, the
the Silvery Water painting is appropriate, given that
artist invites the contemporary Muslim reader to legends
iden- surrounding Hirmis Muthallath, or Hermes
tify with them. Whatever access they have to the se-
Trismegistus, with whom the sage in the allegory would
crets of the temple, the reader may also hope to certainly
gain. have been identified,46 made him an elu-
The idol on the left, by contrast, is clearly foreign,
sive figure. According to tradition, Hermes Trismegis-
and it is difficult to place him in time. Bishr tus Fares
had inscribed the secrets of alchemy on an emer-
suggests that he resembles a Syrian-Byzantine idol.41
ald tablet and preserved it underground so that future
Surprisingly, the drapery folds of his green robe generations
seem might seek it out.47 In different cultural
stylistically closer to drapery in the manuscript paint-
contexts, he represented different amalgams of indi-
ing of England and France around 1200 than to geo- According to a Hellenistic model, he repre-
viduals.
graphically less remote Byzantine examples.42sented The the identification of Hermes with Mercury and
46 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
I'T
:.-J-1 .0 m
iOak&-%,
"~ :::".i
? .o , . ? . ...
:00
...1
t Wi ?i
.}}i:::'C.
:':"i:,i:i~ii 3? ,Al
'.al"A
?:. ...
...k
......
J.r
? o .:. o ,
7.*.
'kil
iiA A
Fig. 7. The Creator formin

bibliothek, Cod. 1179, fol.
with the Egyptian god Thoth. In one widely dissemi-The allegory continues with Ibn Umayl's descri
tion of the tablet:
nated Islamic model, he was three individuals, of whom
the first-identified with both Akhnukh (Enoch) and
In his lap, resting on his arms, his hands extended o
Idris-built the ancient Egyptian monuments and his knees, was a stone slab (baldta), separate from him.
preserved knowledge within them to protect it from The length of it was about one cubit, and the breadt
the Great Flood. The other two individuals with whom
about one span. The fingers of both his hands were ben
Hermes Trismegistus was identified in the same tra- behind the slab, as if holding it. The slab was like an
dition both lived after the flood and spent at leastopen book (mushaf) exhibited to all who entered as i
part of their lives in Egypt.48 These were combined to suggest that they should look at it.56
into the single figure of Hirmis Muthallath, who is
specifically quoted in Ibn Umayl's text so many By explicitly comparing the sage's tablet to a book
times
Ibn
that an entire article has been devoted to those quo-Umayl presents him as an authority from who
it is
tations.49 The Silvery Water painter managed to pow- appropriate to learn. According to Islamic Ne
platonism,
erfully suggest the antiquity and foreignness of this the wisest of the ancients had arrived b
reason
composite figure, without identifying him with any at truths that were compatible with Qur'ani
specific time or place. revelation. These wise ancients would have readily
proclaimed
The Aurora Consurgens painting shows no such sty- their acceptance of Islam had it been ava
able
listic distinction between the observers and the sage.to them.57 By choosing green, the Prophet Mu
Obrist suggests that the painter portrays the sage hammad's
as favorite color, for the sage's robe, the Silve
Water
alive, implying the vitality of alchemy itself.50 Not only painter suggests that the sage was such a ma
At the same time the color of the robe also recalls the
does the Aurora Consurgens painter seem to avoid pre-
green of the emerald tablet on which Hermes inscribed
senting the sage/Hermes figure as the idol with which
his secrets.
he is identified in the text, but even more surpris-
ingly, he introduces another unmentioned idol:51 the
ALLEGORICAL ILLUSTRATION AND
flask of gold at the center of the painting, elevated
FRONTISPIECE
to idol status by its placement on the column.52 The
figures at the right pay more attention to this flask
than to the sage-that is, more attention to the It is interesting that what Ibn Umayl says h
ulti-
mate goal of alchemy, as represented by gold, thethantemple was not the sage himself but an
to the secrets of how to reach it.53 most certainly a sculptural representation of th
In the allegory, Ibn Umayl describes the idoland as not actual observers, but images of obse
follows: understand the relevance of Ibn Umayl's en
with the visual images in the allegory, one m
He was situated to the left hand of whoever desired to
recognize the culturally established type to w
enter the Hall, facing the person who entered from the
description refers. Within the allegory, when Ib
gallery. He was in a chair like the chairs of physicians,
enters the ancient temple, what he encoun
which was separate from the idol.54
monumental author portrait, displaced from
In the Islamic lands, Europe, and China, thephysical
broad context of a page in a book and
goals of alchemy often extended beyond the perfec-three-dimensional in an architectura
partly
Though
tion of metals into gold, to the purification of the the images of the birds are superfluou
human body.55 Thus it is absolutely appropriateidentification
that of this image type, the other im
scribed correspond to it neatly.
the father of alchemy should have sat on a physician's
Ibn Umayl's description emphasizes the p
chair, and the Silvery Water painter has obligingly
correspondence
provided one, the straight golden lines of which stand between what he sees in th
and the
out clearly against the blue and green polygonal tilesauthor-portrait type; he is clearly dete
to make sure that the reader understands the refer-
of the floor. In the Aurora Consurgens painting, in con-
ence.
trast, the sage/Hermes figure sits on the floor. Late antique author portraits generally depi
Since
chairs were common furniture in medieval an evangelist sitting in a chair, holding his gospel.
Europe,
the medieval and early modern Islamic and Europ
the association of the chair with medicine apparently
lost its resonance there. an frontispieces that developed from this tradition
48 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
authors other image containing

than evangelistsan image, paralleled the textual
also h
Ibn Umayl not only layers of commentaries
explicitly on commentaries and relat-
spec
sits in a chair but goes
ed texts that appeared inonalchemicalto bela
manuscripts. For
the slab is like an example,open book.
the 1339 manuscript Later
opened with the Sil-
very Water painting and with Ibn Umayl's al-Ma' al-
figures
This termwho
has gesture towards for
posed a challenge the translators,59
sage as al-mut.flibiyyftn.
but waraqi, which included the introductory allegory; a
by implication it refers to people who seek something, poem that elaborated on the tablet described in the
and it comes from the same root as the word for stu- allegory; and a commentary on the tablet, allegory,
dent, talib, a seeker after knowledge. As Eva Hoff- and poem. The manuscript then continued with sev-
man explains, in both late antique and Islamic author- eral other short texts, all related in various ways to
portrait frontispieces, the author's students sometimes the first. These represented other writings by Ibn
appear with the author."6 In the Silvery Water paint- Umayl, 65 by his sources,66 and by his successors in
ing, the narrative of the allegory is reconciled with the alchemical tradition.67 Similarly, Aurora Consurgens
the description of the frontispiece, so that both are had two parts: in the first, quotations from the Bible,
visible together. The figures referred to as al-mutdli- framed as alchemical allegories, were supplemented
biyyiin, who gesture towards the sage, not only are by passages from Ibn Umayl, while the second was
dressed in a manner appropriate for students but also simultaneously a commentary on the first part and
occupy the space on the page generally associated on Ibn Umayl's treatise. His treatise was also the main
with them.61 source of the second part.68
Given the conventional implications of author por- Although this habit of layering texts was not unique
traits, the monumental one that Ibn Umayl encoun- to alchemy, it had a special significance for alchemists
ters in the allegory implies both that the sage was because of what they saw as their path to uncovering
the authentic author of the tablet and that the tablet the secrets of material and spiritual purification.69 Like
itself was an authentic presentation of its author's medieval scholars in general, they revered the knowl-
knowledge. In addition, the unusual physical context edge of past authorities; but for alchemists in partic-
of the monumental, partly sculptural portrait-which ular, the line of past authorities and the cumulative
Ibn Umayl encounters in the architectural space of layers of commentaries by them and about them were
the temple described in the allegory, rather than the in path to the ancient sages who had once, long
the codicological space of the book where the read- ago, possessed this secret knowledge. The layers of
er later encounters a representation of it-empha- commentaries and interrelated texts can thus be seen
sizes the exceptional way in which the secrets of al-as the alchemists' peculiar archaeology of knowledge.
chemy were supposedly preserved. Rather than having The distinctions between textual layers often col-
been written down in a manuscript, the secrets were lapsed. Ibn Umayl's al-Ma' al-waraqz was both the main
engraved on a tablet kept in an ancient temple, high-source of the second half of the Aurora Consurgens
lighting the antiquity of the knowledge itself whileand also the object of its commentary. A similar col-
simultaneously emphasizing the reliable manner of lapsing of distinctions occurred at a visual level, in
its preservation. images of the allegorical author portrait. While the
Even without any accompanying image, the text traditional physical context for an author portrait was
itself would have brought an author portrait to the the manuscript, the author portrait in the allegory
mind of a reader in both the Islamic East and the was not bound within a manuscript but found on and
European West, since the two regions shared the between
same walls; yet numerous images of that allegori-
late antique artistic heritage. Although the Aurora cal author portrait were images in books.
Consurgens painter did not exploit this reference,62 In their conventional physical context within bound
the Silvery Water painter and the maker of the books,
1622 the placement of both Western and Islamic
frontispiece did. They responded to the literary allu-
author portraits was significant, indicating that the
image pertained to whatever text followed. As evan-
sion to a frontispiece in the allegory with images that
functioned as actual frontispieces. (Another published
gelist portraits typically introduced gospels, author
example, dated 1605,63 shares the basic compositional
portraits appeared as frontispieces to texts by the
layout of the 1622 frontispiece.)64 authors they depicted. The clearly deliberate place-
The resulting visual layering, the images of the ment of the Silvery Water painting near the front of
the 1339 manuscript implied an authorial connec- depicted not only draws attention to him but also
tion, if an indirect one, between the sage depicted emphasizes his antiquity. The Silvery Water painter
and the book as a whole, and thereby acknowledged uses the frontispiece type to emphasize both the am-
the importance of Hermes to alchemy in general. The biguous position of the classical heritage in Islamic
painting appears on folios 2b and 3a, immediately learning and the ultimate authority of the text in the
after the allegory it illustrates, on lb and 2a: one manuscript. Both the theme of cultural difference in
obvious place for it, but not the only one. In several the genealogy of knowledge and the conventions for
other Arabic manuscripts of the same text that expressing de- it visually were already part of the specif-
pict the image held by the sage but not the entire ically Islamic tradition of author-portrait frontispiece
allegory, diagrams of the image appear later, near painting as it had developed by the thirteenth centu-
poetic couplets pertaining to them. Ibn Umayl's text ry. One precedent for emphasizing this point through
implies that this later location was the default loca- stylistic difference is a frontispiece in a thirteenth-
tion for any image of the tablet. He says: century Arabic manuscript of De Materia Medica of
Dioscorides, which Hoffman analyzes in detail (fig.
I have drawn a picture for you of that tablet and of these
8).73 She shows that in this painting, the image of
figures and images that were on it, in its proper place
Dioscorides on the right seems to have been copied
in that poem under the couplets that refer to these im-
ages.70
from a middle-Byzantine painting of the Evangelist
Matthew, and is thereby stylistically marked as pre-
In the 1339 manuscript, however, there is no image Islamic. Dioscorides extends his arm to beckon two
of the tablet under the poetic couplets that refer to figures, who approach him carrying books. These
it. Instead, the painter and calligrapher have deliber- ures, identified as his students presenting their copi
ately placed a painting that includes the tablet imme- of his text for approval, wear turbans and robes w
diately after the prose allegory, and early enough in tiraz bands that mark them as Muslim. As Hoffman
the text block so that it appears in the conventional demonstrates, the image gives visual form to the
frontispiece location of an author portrait. of Islamic scholars as heirs to the classical tradition.
In the 1622 frontispiece, the author portrait is In the thirteenth-century Dioscorides frontispie
emphasized and the narrative of the allegory de-em- the author depicted represents the author of the t
phasized. The large body of the sage is at the center of the manuscript, and the book depicted represe
of the image. The tablet he holds is hinged to re- that manuscript. In the Silvery Water painting, this
semble an open book. There are ten birds, as mention- not the case. The sage/Hermes figure is not the
ed at the end of the Latin version of the commen-
rect author of the texts in the manuscript, but rathe
tary,71 rather than the nine of the narrativethe
allegorical
authority behind the direct authors-the Ur-
introduction. Birds and observers mentioned in the
thor, so to speak. He is the one whose knowled
allegory flank the sage, and like the perspectival
thebeams
authors, and particularly Ibn Umayl, aspire t
and floor tiles above and below him, they act as for-
reveal. What he holds is not the text that follows but
mal devices for framing him. The image has rather
no tem- a tablet with images that are supposedly un
poral direction that corresponds to the unfolding of
derstandable in conjunction with that text.
the narrative. Whereas the Aurora Consurgens paint-
ing, like Latin, reads from left to right, andALLEGORICAL
the Sil- ILLUSTRATION, FRONTISPIECE,
very Water painting, like Arabic and Persian, reads AND PICTOGRAM
from right to left, the 1622 frontispiece is meant to
be perceived at once and from the center. The Thefig- substitution of a tablet with images for
ure's monkish costume distinguishes him from withthe text, as dictated by the frontispiece ima
observers, further drawing the viewer's attention
is partly to explained by the ambiguous nature
him.
metic tradition of the original emerald tablet
Hoffman has explained that in Islamic book cul- according to some accounts had images but a
ture, the frontispiece formula, in which the author ing to others had text. As Obrist explains, th
and his work are depicted, was often used to intro- guity makes sense, given that the original, havin
duce texts by classical or late antique authors.72 The written by the builder of the pyramids, wou
unconventional style in which the Hermes figure is sumably have been engraved with hieroglyph
50 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
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bja-.;::?.::: ?:?::;??...?;. ........... :;:?,~
Fig. 8. Frontispiece showing Dio

2127, fols. lb-2a. (Photo: court
fore, the teenth-century Arabic

question of manuscript.
wheth The half of
was not, and tablet
could first described not in the textbe,appears, inrth
the emerald tablet
responding image, on is the sidemuch
that would be read f
ing ancient images
in the Arabic and Persian readable
manuscripts, the right
gory he and in the Latin books, the
surrounds left.
the tablet
glyphs, which In the of course
Silvery Water painting, the masonry wallare
with
image. peach and blue stones breaks dramatically away in
front of the tablet, emphasizing that the viewer is grant-
Next to the seated one, in the hall (riwl-q):' where the
ed direct access. Since each of the numerous layers
image was situated, were pictures of different things and
of images in the allegory and painting that frame the
lines in the hieroglyphic script.7]
tablet leads somewhere, the expectation that the tablet
In one sense, since the tablet is the object in which should likewise lead somewhere is firmly established.
the secret is supposedly revealed, its discovery is the That "somewhere" is clearly identified in Ibn Umayl's
climactic conclusion of the excavation. The tablet is claim that it contains the secret of alchemy.
clearly visible in the Silvery Water painting, in the Yet early
in another sense the tablet requires an entire-
fifteenth-century Aurora Consurgens image, in lythe
new1622
excavation into the layers of alchemical mean-
printed frontispiece, and in the diagram froming. theIt six-
presents the secret through yet another set of
allegories, this time astrological and numerological, on this point must await more studies about Is
according to Ibn Umayl's description, which begins Chinese cultural relations in the tenth centur
as follows: an early fourteenth-century reader, whose op
nities to see the yin and yang symbol can eas
The tablet in his lap was divided into two halves by a
line down the middle. On one half of it towards the
imagined, would quite plausibly have recognize
symbol in Ibn Umayl's description of the two
bottom was a picture of two birds having their breasts
as a circle that symbolized "Two in One." The
to one another. On one of them both wings were cut
off, and the other had both wings. Each of them mentary
held would also have supported this inter
tion, since it describes the birds as male and fem
fast to the tail of the other by its beak, as if the flying
The
bird wished to fly with the mutilated bird, and the inscription
muti- on the sixteenth-century Arab
gram
lated bird wished to keep the flying bird with itself. Thesealso labels them as male and
female, bu
two birds of the same kind, which held each other inscription
back, just below the birds on
the Silvery
became a single circle, a symbol of "Two in One."77
painting goes further, emphasizing their mut
pendence: "The female is the spirit [al-r4th] e
In the Silvery Water painting, the two interlocking birds
ed from the male, carrying it, flying away w
clearly belong to the same species as the nine birds
The image itself leaves little doubt about the
on the right. Although the wings of one areer's spread
interpretation of Ibn Umayl's words.
open and the wings of the other clipped, both As birdsyin and yang, the two birds connote seve
are depicted in the same scale; the feet of each one associated polarities: not just male-fe
ditional
reach for the other in the same way; and each bites
but also dark-light, dry-moist, and hot-cold. The
the other's tail to the same degree. In the Silvery Water
polarities pertained to the planets, which in m
painting, the carefully balanced image of the two birds,
Western, Islamic, and Chinese alchemy were s
interlocking with Escher-like precision, recalls the
of different metals, although the symbolic associ
Chinese symbol of yin and yang. varied across traditions and within each tradition.
I know of no other representation of the tablet In the allegory, the description of the tablet co
that presents the two birds as yin and yang. In the
tinues:
Aurora Consurgens painting, the birds are unevenly
matched: the upper, blue bird clearly overpowersAtthe the head of the flying one was a circle and, above
smaller white one. In the 1622 printed frontispiece, two birds, at the top of the tablet close to the
these
the birds are of the same scale, but their pose doesfingers of the image, was the representation of the cres-
cent moon. At the side of the moon was a circle, simi-
not suggest a circle. In the Arabic diagram, where
lar to the circle near the two birds at the bottom.83
the abstracted symbol of the birds appears at the lower
right, they appear like two links of a ring that
In thecir-
Aurora Consurgens rendition of the tablet, the
cumscribes an empty inner space. painter has included a crescent and a circle above the
The suggestion that the Silvery Water painterbirds in-
and a circle below them. All three of these ob-
tended the two birds on the tablet to resemble jects yin
share a dark color, creating an affinity betw
and yang is not so far-fetched as it might at first seem.The crescent and the adjacent circle are als
them.
In Chinese alchemy, pairs of ingredients were, in thein scale, suggesting that the artist interpre
similar
words of Nathan Sivin, "yin and yang with respect
them asto two moons, and inscriptions on the Ara
each other."78 Furthermore, yin and yang were diagram
at the identify them as such. As for the 1622 print
basis of Taoist "inner alchemy," whose adepts aimed
it has neither colors nor inscriptions to indicate th
for purification of their own bodies, minds, and spir-
relationship. In the Silvery Water painting, howev
its, and which flourished in this period.79 Because of above the birds is gold; the tiny cresce
the circle
the Mongols, cultural exchange between thedirectly Islamic to its left-now tarnished, dark, and diffi
world and China was particularly vibrant,80 andto see-was once bright silver. The painter has inte
a well-
studied account of a Chinese alchemist's travels in preted these as the golden sun and the silver cresc
Islamic Central Asia dates from this period.8' moon. The inscription above them emphasizes th
Ibn Umayl may or may not have understood polarities
thethey represent, as metals and as planet
two interlocking birds as yin and yang; a "They are two vapors-the light and the heavy. T
conclusion
52 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
are the steam andtomthe

of the tablet, to a black circle, of which
smoke. one-third
They
is divided off. Thus it became two-thirds and one-third.
the moist. The smoke is the dry; the s
One-third of it had the form of the crescent moon
The smoke is the soul [al-nafs]; the s
because the interior of it is white, not filled with blac
[al-rfth], and it is the moist." Ibn Um
al-shams ild al-hildl, The blackalso circle surrounds
presentsit. This picture of the
t
of them is the picture of "Two in One." That whic
in terms of polarities. There, the m
at the bottom is "One of Two." Those two are the black
am the soft cold moon/ And you a
,,84 circle and the crescent moon, which is a portion [of
sun."84
it]. And [there are] two suns at the top, I mean the
Within alchemy generally, the male-female polari-
picture of "Two in One," and the single sun, which i
ty was linked to the idea that metals were born of the picture of "One in One." So these are also five
the earth. In accordance with this idea, alchemy was things."8
also understood as a process of conjugal reproduction
How the second side of the tablet as described adds
involving the union of male and female.85 The female
figure peering from the window in the right half of up to five is very confusing until one realizes t
the Silvery Water painting is not mentioned in Ibn the text poses the same addition problem twice, w
Umayl's allegory. She may, however, have been in- the different terms of the sum presented in two
cluded to emphasize this male-female polarity that ferent orders. First, the problem is posed as foll
was poetically expressed in the Risalat al-shams ila al- The two rays emanating from the first sun, and
hildl.86 Her inclusion with the male figures in the one ray emanating from the other sun, should be ad
painting also offers an indirect link to the Persian the two parts of the circle below (these uneven p
text on the gestation and birth of metals from the are, first, the one-third, and, second, the two-third
earth on folio 76a of the manuscript. 2 + 1 + 2 = 5. Then, starting with the sentence, "
Ibn Umayl's allegory continues without direct com- which is at the bottom is 'One of Two,"' the prob
ment on the remaining circle of the first side of the is stated again in reverse order. In the Arabic d
tablet. In the diagram from the sixteenth-century gram of the tablet, the symbols on the second s
Arabic manuscript, an inscription on this circle ex- are labeled with numerals. In each case the first nu-
plains that it is the source of the two birds, which are meral indicates the numerical value of the symbol,
the male and the female. In the Silvery Water paint- confirming this reading of the problem (fig. 5). The
ing, this circle also bears an inscription, but unfortu- sun with two rays is labeled "2 in 1;" the sun with the
nately the pigments have eroded to illegibility. In the single ray is labeled "1 in 1;" and the circle below i
allegory, Ibn Umayl's description of the first half of labeled "2 in 1." The parts of the second (right) sid
the tablet concludes as follows: of the diagram in the Aurora Consurgens painting can
also be counted as five in this way, by counting the
The total was five-three at the bottom, that is, two birds
divisions
and the circle, and, above, the figure of the crescent of the lower circle by color-one silver part
moon and the other circle.87 and one gold part-instead of counting the two sil-
ver and one gold faces.90 In the printed 1622 frontis
This explanation of how the first half of the tablet addspiece, the rays are not indicated.
up to a total of five is clear. In the Silvery Water painting, it is indeed possible
Ibn Umayl then proceeds to describe the second to count five things on the left side of the tablet by
half of the tablet-the side to the reader's left in the
adding the three faint golden rays extending from
images from Islamic manuscripts, and to the right the insuns to the two parts of the sphere below them.91
the images from Latin books. As for the first half,The he inscription to the left of the tablet, near the re
describes its astrological symbols in numerological pole, includes a reference to "two and the third" tha
terms that are supposed to add up to five. seems to refer to the division of the lower sphere
into one section of two-thirds and a second section
On the other half, at the top of the tablet, close to the
of the
fingers of his hands, was a picture of a sun with two rays, remaining one-third. But the inscription abov
the left side of the tablet seems to complicate the
as if they were a symbol of "Two in One." Next to them
was a picture of another sun, with one descending matter.
ray. Disconcertingly, it reads, "Water, air, and fire.
These are three things; I mean, three lights. The Therefore
rays they drew it as three, to indicate thereb
of the "Two in One"88 descend down towards the that
bot- it is one, within which is three. They became
five in number. And the five is from two. Thus, they

This pertains to the explication of the pictures. Water,
have said that the earth is of two substances and the
air, fire-they named it water of two natures, because
water is of two natures. And they drew it as five." the five is from two, I mean from male and female,93
The key to this puzzling inscription is to recog-
and three...
the their counterparts,
suns. They are which
all one are salting
thing. (al-taml.h)
It is one wa- and
nize that the calligrapher alludes in quick succession
ter within which are three natures-water, air, and fire.
to three different ways of reckoning the tablet's nu-
So he portrayed it as three; he indicated it by this. And
merological significance, without attempting to rec-
this is the triple water. That is, that it is one, and it is
oncile them. Each of these apparently contradictory two, and it is three.94
ways of counting the tablet has its own basis in the
allegory or commentary. The initial objection that the numerological inscrip-
First, the calligrapher interprets the entire lefttion above the left side of the tablet is internally self-
side
of the tablet, which has two suns and one circle be- contradictory becomes irrelevant, given that the ulti-
low, as an expression of three in one. This reflects mate substance, the divine water, has simultaneous
the idea, mentioned repeatedly in the commentary, numerological values of one, two, and three: it is one
that the divine water is of three natures. Then he water, yet has been called a water of two natures (as
goes on to mention that the same three pictorial Hermetic
el- secrets are expressed on the two halves of
ements also add up to five. As explained above, this a single tablet) and also has the three natures of water,
air,
has a basis in the description of the tablet in the al- and fire. In this context, where symbols have
legory, according to which the two rays of the first multiple referents, it is conceivable that the calligra-
sun, the one ray of the second sun, and the two pher may have decided to emphasize the parallels
parts
of the circle below make five. Finally, in the expres- the divine water and the sun with two rays
between
sion "five is from two," the calligrapher alludes on the
to tablet. In the commentary, Ibn Umayl says
that
the idea that there are two sides of the tablet, each one word may have two or three meanings, and
equaling five. This idea is connected to the saying is fire.95 The sun with two rays has multi-
that water
"The earth is of two substances and the water is of ple values-as a constituent of three it is one, and as
a constituent of five it is two. All that is left to make
two natures," which Ibn Umayl interprets in the com-
this sun parallel to the comment that the divine wa-
mentary as referring generally to the idea of two parts
ter "is one, and two, and three" is to give this sun the
of a single whole, and specifically, to the two parts of
value of three, and perhaps this is why it is inscribed
one whole alchemical operation, represented by the
with the word for "three."
single tablet divided into two halves:
In the sixteenth-century Arabic diagram, the two
"The earth is of two substances and the water is of two
sides of the tablet are labeled simply "first operation"
natures." That is the operation of the "whiteness" andand "second operation." These labels are clear, but
the "redness," and it is one operation. They have called
they obscure the idea of parts constituting a single
it two operations. Do you not see that the first opera-
whole. The more complex inscription by the Silvery
tion ["the whiteness"] is from five-two above and three
Water calligrapher at the upper left of the tablet is
below; and the second operation, "the redness," is from
based on the idea that the numerological values of
five-three above and two below? So the operation of
"the whiteness" is the first half-it is first. And the
the tablet and its parts are in flux.
operation of "the redness" is the second half. It is one
The ultimate identity of the singular and the plu-
ralinwas, after all, the core theme of alchemical thought.
operation. They have called it the two operations,
accordance with what I have portrayed, just as the sage
Base metals could become gold because the numer-
drew it.92 ous metals of the world were ultimately of one essen-
tial substance. Hirmis/Hermes, the father of alche-
The connection between the statement "Five is from
my, had an identity of three-in-one. Metals, planets,
two" and the reference to the two natures of water
people, and everything else were connected by a
appears again in a short passage included just after
universal sympathy of matter. Within the Islamic Neo-
the introductory allegory in the 1339 manuscript but
platonic framework that formed a broad intellectual
omitted from other manuscripts of the text. This backdrop for Islamic alchemy, everything in the world,
passage also refers to the triple nature of water. including
It planets and metals, had emanated from a
reads:
single source. Since separate things were ultimately
54 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
would have more merge,

unified, they could fully faced the viewer of the manu-
collap
ly, and transform; this was the b
script. In the painter's revised version, the sage's lower
the legitimacy body
of is oriented towards the audience mentioned
alchemy ultim the
allegory,
In the allegory, but from the
Ibn waist up he faces Ibn conc
Umayl Umayl's
audience-the
logical discussion of readerstheof the book-and reveals the
tablet b
tablet to them. This was anresoundin
mentous coincidence, innovative and somewhat
significance: risky solution, given that the subjects in author-po

traits were conventionally usually shown from eith
The total is ten, according to the number of those [nine]
the front or the side, but not both. The distinctive
eagles and the [one] black earth!9"
style of the figure, the way he presents the tablet like
Indeed! The finality and apparent transparency of this a book, and the chair on which he sits nevertheless
conclusion seem somehow to confirm the deep im- ensure that he remains clearly identifiable as an au-
port of Ibn Umayl's voyage through the temple, the thor type. In the end, the painter was able to pro-
authority of the sage whose representation he encoun- duce an image that operates simultaneously as alle-
ters, and the validity of the tablet itself. The sentence gorical illustration, frontispiece, and pictogram. All
reverberates through the cumulative effects of the vari- these layers give the painting a density of meaning
ous roles of the Silvery Water painting vis-a-vis the that suggests through its very richness the legitimacy
text-as allegorical illustration, author-portrait fron- of alchemy.
tispiece, and pictogram, all of which work together Ibn Umayl comments on the purpose of the im-
to legitimize the claim that the manuscript holds the age of the tablet as follows:
secrets of alchemy.
It is no accident that the final answer to the series I have expounded all these things to you-may God
continue to preserve your honor-and I have explained
of sums is ten. In the system we now call "base ten,"
them in the poem that follows [The Letter from the Sun
which was of course the system then in use, ten is
to the Moon]. This was through the grace of God to-
not only ten units of one, but also a single unit of
wards me-may His name be sanctified!-so that you
ten. The initial numerological building blocks of the
may pause at this97 and meditate upon it.... I have also
tablet are symbols of one and of two in one, whichexplained and elucidated the matter of those ten forms.
ultimately resolve into a single unit of ten. The I tab-
have expressed them plainly after my poem, after pass-
let's complex numerology continuously fluctuates ing on from such open explication as is possible in po-
between singularity and plurality. Ten, being bothetry, so that what was hidden by that learned one should
ten units of one and one unit of ten, representsbecome
this apparent to you.98
fluctuation between singularity and plurality in a way
that other numbers, such as nine or twelve, do not. Since historical sources yield very few explicit discus-
The imagery of the Silvery Water painting, like the sions of the role of images in Islamic painting, this is
unusual inscriptions upon it, can be seen as a medi-a remarkable passage. Modern scholarship maintains
tation on the whole text that eloquently expresses that the role of images in Islamic scientific manu-
this theme. The painting expresses the painter's lay-scripts is didactic: that the images are meant to ex-
ered interpretations of al-Ma' al-waraqi, just as the plain and teach the knowledge most essentially con-
inscriptions on the painting express the calligrapher'stained in the text. Here an author of a text containing
layered interpretations of the tablet. The Silvery Water an image (in many manuscripts just the diagram of
painter had to find a way to give the reader of thethe tablet) tells us that the image contains knowledge
manuscript direct access to the pictogram of the tab-and requires extensive explication in words. If the
let without compromising his simultaneous presen-role of the image is didactic, it is not didactic in the
tation of sage-as-author and of an allegory includingusual sense: it does not explain, clarify, or remind.
other figures in the temple. The posture of the sage/To learn from this manuscript is to grapple with its
Hermes figure, particularly the repainting of his legs, puzzles, and the image of the tablet is the core, the
shows how the painter has wrestled with the formalessence, of those puzzles.
conflict posed by the two audiences of the tablet. The Yet even as a puzzle, the most important function
sage's proper right knee, now bent inwards towards of any image of the tablet Ibn Umayl describes is to
the gutter, was originally positioned so that the sagelegitimize alchemy by holding out the promise that
its secrets exist. The Silvery Water painting as a whole In the century following the Mongol conques
enhances this underlying purpose; by depicting dis- cultural traditions from East and West merged an
collided
covery, it legitimizes the claim that there is indeed a on a daily basis. Prior to the conquest, the
discoverable secret. This was the foremost argument population in the eastern Islamic lands already form
that Islamic alchemists used to defend their art in a diverse society that included Persian-speaking Tur
words.99 The Silvery Water painter gave the argumentand Arabic-speaking Persians who studied translatio
its visual expression. of Indian and Hellenistic books. To this, the Mon-
gols added not only themselves, but also other eth-
CONCLUSION nic groups (from as far away as China) that they re-
settled in Islamic cities. Western Europeans also moved
When compared to three other closely related images,
to the new Mongol capitals. For individuals who lived
the Silvery Water painting stands out in two ways.
in this First,
violent era, reconciling these diverse traditions
it operates simultaneously and with exceptional
was often key con-to survival. The situation in Iraq was
particularly
sistency as allegorical illustration, author-portrait precarious in 1339, when the Ilkhanid
fron-
tispiece, and pictogram. Second, it showcases
dynasty that the had ruled from Iran was dissolving, and
different cultural strands within Islamic Hasan-i
alchemy as it a member of the Jalayirid family
Buzurg,
existed under Mongol rule in 1339. descended from a Mongol tribe, was establishing his
The consistency with which the Silvery own Waterbasepaint-
at Baghdad. Not only was the power struc-
ing operates sets it apart from the three tureother close- but Iraq, which had been ruled as
in transition,
ly related images considered above. Thea combination
province since the third quarter of the thirteenth
of allegorical illustration, author-portraitcentury,
frontispiece,
suddenly found itself the political center of
and pictogram is clearly suggested in Ibn Umayl's
an upstart dynasty hoping to take advantage of the
text, which stages an encounter with an architectur-
troubles of its predecessor. Produced in and for an
al, painted, and sculpted author-portrait mentioned
unstable world that was forced to struggle to recon-
in the allegory and also describes an image-within-
cile colliding cultural, artistic, and intellectual tradi-
an-image. Two of the other representations tions, theconsid-
Silvery Water painting legitimized alche-
ered here, the Aurora Consurgens painting and
my, the by
partly 1622
showcasing the various different cultural
printed frontispiece, visually express aspects of this
strands within Islamic alchemy in a manner that im-
combination, but not with the comprehensiveness of
plied their ultimate compatibility while recognizing
the Silvery Water painting. The Aurora Consurgens
their differences. This purpose could easily be applied
painting presents the image-within-the-image but
retroactively to is
the words in Ibn Umayl's commentary,
not a frontispiece. The 1622 print depicts the at
written author-
a very different historical moment:
figure with a hinged, book-like tablet, within a frame
You see their differences of expression, but yet the mean-
suggested by the allegory, but both the illustration
ing is one.101
of the allegory and the depiction of the symbols on
the tablet seem secondary. The success with In the yearwhich1339, when the Silvery Water painting
the Silvery Water painter combined these was being
threeproduced,
lay-the controversy that surround-
ed alchemy
ers of relationship to the text in a formally was very much alive in Islamic intellectu-
appealing
image may offer insight into how and why al life.
it Ibn Taymiyya, whose voluminous and influen-
remained
an object of interest beyond its originaltialcontext.100
writings included attacks on the occult sciences
in general
Another distinctive aspect of the Silvery and on alchemy in particular, had died
Water
only a decade
painting is the degree to which the painter earlier, in 1328. His student, Ibn Qayyim
showcas-
al-Jawziyya
es the different cultural strands of Islamic (d. 1349), who also wrote against alche-
alchemy;
my, was
he reveals a clear awareness of its heritage instill
the active.102
tra- Meanwhile, 'Izz al-Din Aydamir
ditions of pre-Islamic Egypt and of its al-Jildaki
connections(d. 1342 or later) and others were writing
new alchemical
with Chinese alchemy. Even as his painting claims textsaand commentaries.103 When Is-
lamic alchemists
legitimate place for non-Islamic traditions within Is- defended their art in words, their
lamic culture, it clearly differentiates between what was that the secret of alchemy
foremost argument
is Islamic and what is not. must exist, because it had once been known. There-
56 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
fore, despite serious challenges,

philosophical concepts according to the author Qusta b. Luqa the
(d.
tinued, hope must remain 912), see The Encyclopedia of Religion,that
s.v., "Soul. Islamic the
concepts."
rediscovered. Through its elaborate
4. My thanks to Wheeler Thackston, who helped me read this
the text, at the levels
inscription. of allegorical
thor-portrait frontispieces, and
5. Carboni, "Synthesis," pp. 222-23, pictog
fig. 271; Grube, Persian
Water painting communicates
Painting in the Fourteenth Century, pp. 18-19, fig.the
4; Grube, s
"Kalilah wa Dimna": 491-507, p. 497, to
troduces a visual dimension fig. 7. In our
support of u
this attribution, I would add the observation that, like the
a debate that has so far been studie
stylistic properties of the painting, the preponderance of
of its verbal expression.
Arabic in a manuscript that In so
also includes doing
Persian further
particularly compelling example
suggests the province of Iraq. The inclusion of a few ofpas- t
ship between painting
sages in the manuscriptand intelle
in Persian points to lands in the
eastern Islamic eastern half in
lands of the Islamic
the world that were under Mongol
first cen
rule. domination, where Persian was then emerging as the ma-
jor literary language. Yet the fact that the bulk of the text is
in Arabic suggests the province of Iraq, where, at least in
Harvard University the first century of Mongol rule, cultural continuity with the
Cambridge, Massachusetts pre-Mongol past seems to have been stronger than in other
lands under Mongol rule. Much more remains to be said
on this issue, but for evidence of cultural continuity in Iraq
immediately following the conquest, see Marianna Shreve
NOTES
Simpson, "The Role of Baghdad in the Formation of Per-
sian Painting," in Art et societe dans le monde iranien, ed.
Chahryar
Author's note: I have been fortunate to receive the help of manyAdle (Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations,
people during the preparation of this article. I am grateful to and Keith Weissman, "Mongol Rule in Bagh-
1982): 91-116;
the libraries and museums that granted me permission dad,
toEvidence
pub- from the Chronicle of Ibn al-Fuwati: 656 to
lish works in their care, and particularly to Dr. Filiz Cagman of to 1301 C.E.," (Ph.D. diss., University of Chi-
700 A.H. /1258
cago, 1990).
the Topkapi Saray Museum. I also wish to thankJulia Bailey, Nikos
Chrissidis, Jeffrey Hamburger, Ioli Kalavrezou, 6. Jean
WithinMonroe,
the text block, the calligrapher has used different
Gfilru Necipoglu, Christine Philliou, Andris Riedlmayer,scripts Eliza-
as he switches among the various kinds of texts in
beth Ross, David Roxburgh, and Wheeler Thackston for
Arabic theArabic poetry, and Persian prose. Yet the tran-
prose,
various ways their criticism and assistance have enriched this these different scripts are sometimes gradual
sitions between
article. All mistakes are of course my own. rather than abrupt, and the examination of particular let-
ters in the different texts indicates that they are all the work
1. The manuscript, Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, A. same
of the 2075,
hand.
contains 79 folios. The painting, on fols. 2b-3a, measures
7. For all three interrelated texts, see Muhammad bin Umail
a total of 14.5 x 21.0 cm. The manuscript has been catalo-
Three Arabic Treatises on Alchemy, Arabic edition of the texts
gued in Fehmi Edhem Karatay, Topkapz Sarayz Miizesi by M. Turab 'Ali, published in one volume with H. E
Kittifp-
hanesi Arappa Yazmalar Katalogu, vol. 4 (Istanbul, 1962), cat. and M. Hidayat Husain, "Excursus on the Writ-
Stapleton
no. 8717, p. 392. See notes 66-67 below for a more exten-
ings and Date of Ibn Umail with Edition of the Latin Ren-
sive description of the short texts at the end of the manu-
dering of the Ma' al-waraqi," Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of
script. Bengal 12, 1: 1-213. A. 2075 was not among the manuscripts
2. Scholars have noted that it is surprising to see this long body consulted for this edition, but the full introductory allegory
type at such an early date, because the best-known examples as it appears there (A. 2075, fols. lb-2a) has been transcribed
are found in Jalayirid manuscripts dating from the end of and published by Fuat Sezgin, "UfJ macma'at ar-rasa'il," Islam
the fourteenth century. Stefano Carboni, "Synthesis: Conti- Tetkikleri Enstitfisif Dergisi: Review of the Institute of Islamic Studies
nuity and Innovation in Ilkhanid Art," in Linda Komaroff 2, 2-4 (1958): 231-256, pp. 244-45. As compared to the 'Ali
and Stefano Carboni, eds., The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly edition, a few lines of RisZlat al-shams ili al-hilidl appear in a
Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353 (New York: The different order in A. 2075. And as in one of the five manu-
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002), pp. 222-23, fig. 271; scripts consulted by 'Ali, the section of prose published on
Ernst J. Grube, Persian Painting in the Fourteenth Century: A pp. 51 and 52, as well as several of the short poems, is not
Research Report, vol. fasc. 4, supp. no. 17, Istituto Orientale de included in the commentary in A. 2075.
Napoli 38 (1978), pp. 18-19, fig. 4; idem, "The Kalilah wa 8. Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im
Dimna of the Istanbul University Library and the Problem Islam. Abt. 1, Erg.-Bd. 6, Abschnitt 2, Handbuch der Orientalistik
of Early Jalairid Painting," in Akten des VII. Internationalen (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972), n. 1, p. 219. My thanks to Nikos
Kongresses ffir Iranische Kunst und Archudologie, Miinchen, 7.- Chrissidis, who translated the Greek terms in the note for
10. September 1976 (Berlin: D. Reimer, 1979), p. 497, fig. 7. me.
3. For a discussion of the similarities and distinctions between 9. The term "mercury-sulfur" is a loose designat
al-nafs and al-rfuh, including an analysis of these terms as not clear exactly what chemical substances (if any
discussed. Georges C. Anawati, "Arabic Alchemy," in Ency- (World of Islam Festival Publishing Company, 1976), p. 19
clopedia of the History of Arabic Science, ed. Roshdi Rashed 25. Benaki Museum, Athens, inv. no. 9281, 197 x 90 cm. Pub-
(London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 853-85, p. 866; EI2, s.v., "al- lished in Mikhail Piotrovsky, ed., Zemnoe iskusstvo, nebesnaia
Kimiyi'." krasota: iskusstvo islama: Earthy [sic] Art, Heavenly Beauty: Art
10. Julius Ruska, "Der Urtext der Tabula Chemica," Archeion 16 of Islam (St. Petersburg: Slavii, 2000), cat. no. 105.
(1934): 273-83. Idem, "Studien zu Muhammad Ibn Umail 26. Qur'an 12: 21. In one of the appended texts of the 1339
al-Tamimi's Kitaib al-Mdi' al-Waraqi wa'l-Ard an-Najmiyah," Isis manuscript, the "Dream of Tughra'i," the maker(s) of the
24, 2 (1936): 310-42. manuscript took up the idea that the legitimacy of alchemy
11. See Antoine Faivre, The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Al- within Islam could be linked to the sanctioned interpreta-
chemical Magus, trans.Joscelyn Godwin (Grand Rapids, Mich.: tion of dreams and stories. In that text, Tughra'i receives
Phanes Press, 1995). the ability and responsibility to study alchemy while convers-
12. Zentralbibliothek Zfirich, ms. Rh. 172, fol. 3a. Barbara Obrist ing with the Prophet Muhammad in a dream.
has analyzed this painting with reference to Ibn Umayl's text27. Stricker, "Prison," pp. 118-35. Stricker argues further that
and has published it in color in Les debuts de l'imagerie the Prison of Yusuf should be specifically identified with a
alchemique (14e-15e siecles) (Paris: Le Sycomore, 1982), pp. Temple of Imhotep/Asklepios at Memphis (pp. 107-18). This
189-208, fig. 49. is an interesting suggestion because, as Ullmann notes,
13. Vol. 5 of Zetzner's Theatrum Chemicum, Argentorati, 1622. Yuhanna b. al-Bitriq supposedly found the KitaZb sirr al-asrsar
Stapleton and Husain, "Excursus," p. 146: present location (The Book of Secrets) in that very temple. (Ullmann, Natur-,
unknown. p. 219, n. 3).
14. Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, ms. arabe 2610, fol. 3a.
28. 'Ali,
As an example of the place of alchemy in the thinking of
Three Treatises, pl. 2b; trans. 'Ali, pl. 1. broader systems offalsafa (philosophy), it may be noted that
the Ikhwan al-Safa' considered alchemy a means to elimi-
15. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 2-4; Sezgin, "Macmt'at," p. 244, lines
17-20. Published translations of the introduction include nate harm and poverty. EI2, s.v., "al-Kimiya'." On the de-
Stapleton and Husain in 'Ali, Three Treatises, pp. 119-21 bate over the place of philosophy and the "foreign sciences"
(English); Ruska, "Studien," pp. 311-13 (German); andgenerally in Islamic thought, see Majid Fakhry, A History of
B. H. Stricker, "La Prison deJoseph," Acta Orientalia (1942): Islamic Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press,
101-137, pp. 101-105 (French). For translation of all passages 1970).
from the allegory, I have used the existing translation by
29. Obrist interpreted this as a contemporary expression of the
Stapleton and Husain, making adjustments as necessary.cult I status of alchemy in ancient Egypt, where the priests
have called attention to significant changes of meaning. In- of the temples had a monopoly on such crafts as dyeing,
scriptions and quotes from parts of the A. 2075 manuscript and where the materials of the alchemical process were kept
in the temples. Obrist, Debuts, pp. 202, 204.
other than the introduction are my translations unless other-
wise noted. 30. Stapleton and Husain in 'Ali, Three Treatises: "keepers" (p.
16. Birb' is spelled without hamza in the inscription over119);
theStricker, "Prison": "les chercheurs de tr6sors" (p. 101);
door, but with hamza in the text of the manuscript. Stapleton
Ruska, "Studien": "Forscher oder ... Schatzgrdtber" (p. 311,
and Husain translated birba' as "pyramid," but Stricker, n. 4).
"Prison," Ruska, "Studien," and Fares agree that it
31.isA.an
2075 fol. ib, lines 4-6; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 244, lines
ancient temple. Bishr Fares, "Figures magiques," in Aus 20-22. der
Welt der islamischen Kunst: Festschrift fiir Ernst Kiihnel32. A. 2075 fol. 44a; 'Ali, Three Treatises, p. 69. English transla
(Berlin,
1959), pp. 154-62. tion from H. E. Stapleton, G. L. Lewis, and F. Sherwood
17. 'Ali, Three Treatises, p. 1; see EI2, s.v., "Bfisir or Abasir."
Taylor, "The Sayings of Hermes Quoted in the M'" al-Wara
18. Faivre, Eternal Hermes, pp. 89-92. of Ibn Umail," Ambix 3, 3-4 (April 1949): 69-90, p. 82.
19. Julius Ruska, Tabula Smaragdina (Heidelberg, 1926) pp. 33. 138-
Obrist, Debuts, p. 210.
39; Faivre, Eternal Hermes, pp. 93-94. 34. Ibid., p. 195.
20. This figure, in the Islamic world and in Europe, was35. a com-
Thomas Allsen, Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Em
posite of the Latin Mercury/Greek Hermes and the Egyp- pire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 7
tian God Thoth; see Faivre, Eternal Hermes. In Islamic tradition
36. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 6-8 and in the margin; Sezgin, "Ma
he was also identified with other individuals, the most im- md'at," p. 244, lines 22-24. The last sentence is in the mar
portant of whom in the present context are Enoch (Akh- gin of A. 2075, in the same hand as the body of the text
nukh) and Idris. EI2, s.v., "Hirmis." but not in Sezgin's transliteration. It is found in the pub
21. EI2, s.v., "al-Kimiy`'." Nathan Sivin describes a similar lished
situ- 'Ali edition, p. 1. I follow Fares in his translation o
ation in the history of Chinese alchemy. He comments sanamthat as "idol."
"the issue was not progress in knowledge but regaining
37. Allsen, Commodity, p. 91.
ancient wisdom." Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Alchemy.
38. British Library Or. 14140, 'Aji'ib al-makhliiqait wa-gharf'ib
Chinese alchemy." mawjisdat, ca. 1300, probably Mosul; LNS 9 MS, frontispie
22. For Islamic alchemy see EL12, s.v., "al-KimiyU'." For the for
sameMu'nis al-ahrar fi daqa'iq al-ash'ar, 1341, probably Isfahan
idea in other alchemical traditions, see The EncyclopediaCarboni,
of "Synthesis," figs. 257, 259, 261.
Religion, s.v., "Alchemy." 39. PP3, Keir Collection, England, probably Tabriz, 1330s. Rob
23. EI2, s.v., "al-Kimiya'." Hillenbrand, "The Arts of the Book in Ilkhanid Iran," in
24. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Science: An Illustrated StudyKamoroff and Carboni, eds., Legacy of Genghis Khan, fig. 18
58 PERSIS BERLEKAMP
On the peculiar position ofbook

similated into Islamic Alexander,
culture, as described by Hoff- s
man, "Author
"Ambiguite de l'image Portrait," p. 15.
d'Alexandre chez F
des traditions sassanides
62. The current dans le
position of the imageLivre des
on fol. 3a is misleading R
le Grand dans les because several of the folios
litteratures that originally preceded it have
occidentales et
341-354. (Paris: Centre been lost. des Sciences
Obrist, Debuts, pp. 188 and 276-77. de la
40. See fols. K3, K28, K29,
63. Philosophiae Chymicaeand K33
4: Ventustissima from
Scripta, Frankfurt 1605.
in Sheila S. Blair, A Published in Ruska, "Studien."
Compendium of Chron
Illustrated History 64.
of Three the
other images might be additional(Oxford,
World examples, but I have
41. Fares, "Figures magiques," p. they
not had the chance to determine whether 158.are now or
42. My thanks to Jeffrey Hamburger
ever were positioned in books in such a way that they served a
sharing their thoughts on
as frontispieces. the
(1) Fares, style
"Figures of
magiques," offers an th
43. Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1179, fol. intriguing reference to a sketch in a manuscript dated 1218
lb.
(1803-4) of Jildaki's commentary on Ibn Umayl, Lawdmi'
44. For such a figure, see fol. Ir of Vienna, Osterreichische al-afkrir al-mudiyya (The Splendors of the Lasting Ideas).
Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2554. (Fol. Ir directly follows fol. Ahmad Taymur describes this sketch as an inartistic image
Iv.) See Reiner Haussher, comm., and Hans-Walter Stork, depicting nine eagles with outstretched wings, below which
trans., Bible moralisie: Codex Vindobonensis 2554 der Osterreichi- people point at a seated idol. Ahmad Taymur, al-Taswir 'inda
schen Nationalbibliothek, Glanzlichter der Buchkunst, Bd. 2 al-'Arab (Cairo, 1942), pp. 44, 185. (2) Obrist has published
(Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlaganstalt, 1992). a fifteenth-century illustration of Hermes with his tablet,
45. Laurence Lockhart, "The Relations between Edward I and which, according to her very plausible suggestion, may have
Edward II of England and the Mongol Il-Khans of Persia," served as a model for the seventeenth-century frontispieces
Iran 6 (1968): 23-31. mentioned above. It is now found in a manuscript that con-
46. The identification of the figure in the allegory with Hermes tains a cycle of alchemical illustration (Manchester, John
is widely recognized. Rylands Library, ms. Germ 1, fol. 5b); see Obrist, Dibuts, fig.
47. Ruska, Tabula; Fares, "Figures magiques," pp. 89-92. 98. (3) A similar composition, but surrounded by an elabo-
48. EI2, s.v., "Hirmis." rately populated frame, appears in another alchemical
49. Stapleton, Lewis, and Taylor, "Sayings." manuscript with watercolors, made between 1577 and 1583.
50. Obrist, Dibuts, p. 200. Faivre, Eternal Hermes, pl. 11: Germanisches Nationalmuseum,
51. It is, however, mentioned in some parallel versions of the Ms. 16752.
allegory, such as that of Crates. Obrist, Dibuts, p. 200. 65. The scribe identifies the passage on fols. 65a-66b as, "the
52. Ibid.
words of Ibn Umayl, that we found in one of the copies of
53. The painter may be playing on the ambivalent statushis ofbook,
idols Al-mi' al-naqiy wa-al-'ard al-najmiyya (The Pure Wa-
as objects that are easily confused with truth. Michael ter Camille,
and the Starry Earth)." Later, on fols. 71b-75b, there ap-
"Idols in Society," chap. 6 of The Gothic Idol: Ideology andpear
Image-
some more poems by Ibn Umayl, including his al-Qasida
Making in Medieval Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University al-nufniyya.
Press, 1989), pp. 242-97. If so, his implicit criticism of asources are represented by the anonymous text
66. Ibn Umayl's
simplistic equation of form and meaning echoes Ibn on 'Umayl's
fols. 66b-67b, Mukhtasar min kitab mushaf kashf al-asrar
impatient criticism of people who read alchemical texts lil-Araslit-
'inda su',l Ta'isdurus (An Abridgment from the Book of
erally. He particularly criticizes followers ofJabir b. the Hayyan.
Disclosure of Aras's Secrets upon the Inquiry of Theodoros);
A. 2075 fol. 64a; 'Ali, ed., Three Treatises, pp. 102-3.and by a passage attributed by the scribe to the Egyptian
54. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 8-9; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 244, mystic lines
and alchemist Dhu al-Nun al-Masri (d. 861), presented
24-26. in Persian translation on fols. 76b-79a. The text on fols. 66b-
55. Habibeh Rahim comments, "The elixirs ... were the alche- 67b has not been published but is known in other manu-
mist's medicines." The Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Alchemy. scripts. See Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des Arabischen Schriftums,
Islamic alchemy." Band 4 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971), p. 69. Ullmann, Natur-,
56. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 12-13; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 244, lines p. 190, mentions another title that presents the dialogue be-
29-30.
tween Ares and the Byzantine King Theodoros: Mushaf al-
57. On Islamic Neoplatonism and philosophy, see Fakhry, His-
haydt. The dialogue was mentioned in numerous alchemi-
tory of Islamic Philosophy. cal texts including al-Ma' al-waraqi. In A. 2075 fol. 76a, Dhu
58. On the development of the Islamic author-portrait frontis- al-Nun's name is given in the Arabic accusative form, Dhd
piece type from the late antique, and the resulting conno- al-Niin, which explains his identification in the Karatay cata-
tations of Islamic author-portrait frontispieces, see Eva logue as "Abfi'l-Fayz Zannin." On this author, see Ullmann,
Hoffman, "The Author Portrait in Thirteenth-Century Ara- Natur-, pp. 196-97 and 392.
bic Manuscripts: A New Islamic Context for a Late Antique
67. The scribe of A. 2075 included a ru'ya (dream) of Tughra'i
Tradition," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 6-20. on fols. 68b-69a, and also his untitled qasida of thirty verses,
59. See note 20, above. rhyming with the letter rV'; this follows from fols. 69a to 70b.
60. Hoffman, "Author Portrait," p. 9. Tughra'i was a high-ranking administrator under the Seljuks
61. Ibn Umayl's evident familiarity with the author-portrait fron- and wrote several works on alchemy, the most famous of
tispiece genre interestingly falls towards the beginning of which was Kitib haqa'iq al-istishhad (The Book of the Truths of
the period when the classical author portrait was being as- the Quotations), a response to Ibn Sina's attack on alchemy.
EI2, s.v., "al-Tughra'i;" Mu'ayyid al-Din Abi Isma'il al-Husayn garb as is the sage/ Hermes sculpture, or else the four fig-
b. 'Ali al-Tughra'i, Haqui'iq al-istishhad, ed. Razzuq Faraj ures below her should represent four other specific sec-
Razzuq (Baghdad: Dar al-Rashid li-al-Nashr, 1982). The poem ondary alchemical authorities. It is not clear from the
is not to be found in the published Diwan of Tughra'i. Abi commentary who these four would be.
Isma'il al-Husayn b. 'Ali al-Tughra'i, Diwan, ed. 'Ali Jawwad87. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 18-19; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 245,
al-Tahir wa-Yahya al-Jaburi (Baghdad: Wizarat al-I'lam al- lines 6-7.
Jumhftriyya al-'Iraqiyya, 1976). As for the continuation of 88. The phrase wa-shu'd al-wahid ('Ali, Three Treatises, p. 2, line
the alchemical tradition after Ibn Umayl's death, this is rep- 10) does not appear in the A. 2075 manuscript.
resented in passages by Mu'ayyid al-Din al-Tughra'i (d. 515/ 89. A. 2075 fol. ib, line 19-fol. 2a, line 6; Sezgin, "Macma'at,"
1121). In the Karatay catalogue, this text is identified as p. 245, lines 7-14.
90. Obrist, Dibuts, counted the faces in the bottom circle and
Mukhtasar Risdlat fi al-Kimiya [sic] (The Abridgment of the Treatise
on Alchemy) of Tughra'i. However, it is identified as Ru'ya at suggested that the three faces at the bottom should be
the top of fol. 68b and among the inscriptions listing the added to the two suns at the top.
contents of the manuscript on fol. la; and as Ru'ya at the 91. The painter apparently decided to give an overview of the
bottom of fol. 69a. In the text, Tughra'i specifies that this intersecting rays of the suns and their effect on the moon
was a vision of sleep (fol. 68b line 5). from the point of view of an observer in the sky. This would
68. Obrist, Dibuts, 186-87. explain why the crescent shape in the painting is in shadow
69. Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Alchemy. Elixirs." rather than illuminated. The tradition of visualizing the
70. A. 2075 fol. 2a, lines 8-10; Sezgin, 'Macma'at," p. 245, lines celestial bodies from both the earth and the sky was well
17-19. established.
71. Obrist, Dibuts, p. 195. 92. A. 2075 fol. 32b, lines 15-18; 'Ali, ed., Three Treatises, p.
72. Hoffman, "Author Portrait," p. 12. 50, lines 11-15.
73. The painting, from manuscript A III 2127 in the library 93. of
A. 2075 fol. 2a, line 17: min al-dhakar wa-al-'untha. Sezgin,
the Topkapi Palace, is published in color in Richard Etting- "Macma'at," p. 245, line 28, omits 'untha.
hausen, Arab Painting (Geneva: Skira, 1962), pp. 68-69. 94. A. 2075 fol. 2a, lines 17-19; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 245,
74. Obrist, Dibuts, p. 202. last paragraph. The passage does not appear in the 'Ali,
75. As in the 'Ali edition, Three Treatises, not dawwdib as in the Three Treatises edition.
transcription appearing in Sezgin's "Macma'at." 95. A. 2075 fol. 58a; 'Ali, Three Treatises, p. 92.
96. A. 2075 fol. 2a, lines 6-7; Sezgin, "Macmd'at," p. 245, lines
76. khutidt bi-al-qalam al-birbawi. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 12-13;
14-15.
Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 244, lines 29-30.
77. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 13-17; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 244,97. li-taqif 'alayhi.
line
30-p. 245, line 4. 98. A. 2075 fol. 2a, lines 7-8, 10-12; Sezgin, "Macmacat,
78. The Encyclopedia of Religion, s.v., "Alchemy. Chinese alchemy." 245, lines 16-17, 19-21.
79. Historical Dictionary of Taoism, s.v., "Inner Alchemy." 99. EI2 s.v., "al-Kimiya'."
80. Allsen, Commodity; idem, Culture and Conquest in Mongol 100. The manuscript made its way into the Ottoman library,
Eurasia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). and we know that it circulated after it got there because
81. Chih-ch'ang Li, The Travels of an Alchemist: The Journey of the of an Ottoman inscription at the beginning (2 pages be-
Taoist Ch'ang-ch'un from China to the Hindukush at the Sum- fore fol. la) that says, "It is the book that Zeyrek Aga
mons of Chingiz Khan, Recorded by His Disciple, Li Chih-ch'ang, checked out" (Ieriiden Zeyrek Aga gikardugs kitdbdur). My
trans. Arthur Waley (New York: AMS Press, 1979). thanks to Giilru Necipoglu, who read and translated this
82. E.g., A. 2075 fol. 15a, line 12; 'Ali, Three Treatises, p. 21, lines Ottoman inscription for me. Zeyrek Aga and other indi-
15-16. viduals who checked books out from the Ottoman library
83. A. 2075 fol. ib, lines 17-18; Sezgin, "Macma'at," p. 245, lines are discussed in a dissertation-in-progress by Emine Fet-
4-6. vaci.
84. A. 2075 fol. 3b, line 8; 'Ali, Three Treatises, p. 3, line 101.
15. A. 2075 fol. 11b; 'Ali, Three Treatises, p. 15
85. Obrist, Dibuts, pp. 21-33, analyzes how this idea affected 102. the
John W. Livingston, "Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: A Fourteenth-
iconography of alchemical images in the West. Century Defense against Astrological Divination and Al-
86.The possibility that this figure might represent Maria thechemical Transmutation," Journal of the American Oriental
Jew, who belonged to a "second tier" of early alchemical Society (Jan.-Mar. 1971): 96-103. For more sources on the
authorities after Hermes, does not seem viable. Maria is controversy see EI2, s.v, "al-Kimiya'," and Georges C.
mentioned in the commentary, but if the figure in the paint- Anawati, "Arabic Alchemy," pp. 853-85.
103. Ullmann, Natur-, pp. 237-42.
ing is Maria, then either she should be dressed in "antique"

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Painting as Persuasion: A Visual Defense of Alchemy in an Islamic Manuscript of the

PAINTING AS PERSUASION: A VISUAL DEFENSE OF ALCHEMY IN

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