Comparative Study of Imagery in Prophets Narratives in Two Versions of Ilkhanid Jami 'al-Tawarikh with Holy Scripts of Quran and Torah

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student, Department of Comparative and analytical history of Islamic art, Faculty of Art, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran, Corresponding Author.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Art, faculty of Art, Shahed University,Tehran,Iran.

Abstract

 
 
The Manuscript of the Rashidi Jami 'al-tawarikh, written by Khajeh Rashid al-Din Fazlullah, is a history book belonging to the Ilkhanid period. among its imageries are paintings with the themes of the history of the prophets that have many historical and artistic values. Paintings of the Jami 'al-Tawarikh Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the Royal Asian Society in London (Nasser Khalili Collection) are important copies of this invaluable manuscript. Many studies have been done on the paintings of these collections, but the findings of those studies have not been comprehensive enough. Because in some sources of introduction and certificate of the paintings, wrong information has been provided which has caused invalid results. Also, the number of statistical population is limited and as a result the research results are not reliable and therefore, the necessity of conducting study has been required.
Research purposes include identifying the fidelity in the adaptation of the illustrations of the prophets' biographies in the Manuscripts of Jami al-Tawarikh to the text of the Holy Qur'an, the Torah, and the Bible, and identifying the factors of the influence of Torah on.
Research questions are: 1-To what extent are the paintings of the prophets' stories in the Ilkhanid Jami 'al-tawarikh manuscripts faithful to the text of the Qur'an and the Holy Book of the Torah? In present research, library, documentary and visual information have been studied with a descriptive-analytical and comparative method. Cases studied include 18 paintings of the Jami 'al-Tawarikh Manuscripts related to the subject of the adventures and biographies of the prophets in the library of the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Asian Society in London.
Results show that, in the paintings, there is no complete adherence to a particular text of the Qur'an and the Torah and the paintings seem to have been created with the intervention of the artist. For example, there are no mentions of the camel of Prophet Saleh (pbuh), the throwing of Prophet Abraham (pbuh) into the fire, the transformation of the fire into a flower garden, and the resurrection of Prophet Jeremiah (pbuh), in the Torah; and there are significant differences between the illustrations of the Prophet Davids' (pbuh) judgment between two brothers, resting of Prophet Jonah (pbuh) under a pumpkin plant after being rescued from the whale belly in the manuscripts compared to the descriptions of Torah. Also there is no mention of Prophet Jacob (pbuh) and his family(simultaneous marriage of two sisters), the killing of Awj ibn Anq by Prophet Moses (pbuh), the death of Prophet Moses (pbuh) on Mount Naboo, and Prophet Joshua (pbuh) in the Qur'an and these paintings are mostly illustrated according to the text of the Torah. There are also some contradictions between the illustrations and the holy texts; for example, in the painting of Joseph and Potiphar, in the Qur'an, Joseph's shirt is torn from behind his head, while in the painting it is torn from the front. In the case of Noah's Ark, according to the texts of the Qur'an and Torah, Prophet Noah brought together a pair of all kinds of animals in the ark, which the painters did not pay attention to. In the painting of the discovery of the box carrying Prophet Moses (pbuh) from the Nile, it is also mentioned in the Qur'an that the mother of Moses (pbuh) put him in a box and released him in the Nile River. In both texts, Moses’ (pbuh) sister is the intermediary between the mother and Moses (pbuh) to nurse the child. According to these contents, the box of Prophet Moses (pbuh) has been drawn in accordance with the text of the Qur'an and the bathing of Pharaoh's daughter's maids instead of his own bathing is similar to the text of the Torah with some differences, which implies that the artist knew both texts. In the painting of Prophet Moses (pbuh) and his followers crossing the Red Sea and Pharaoh's troops drowning in the sea, in both holy texts, Aaron is the companion of Prophet Moses (pbuh) and the painter has paid attention to this as well. The painter has drawn the Prophet's staff in accordance with the Qur'an, but in the representation of the Prophet pointing to the sea, he has depicted it in accordance with the text of the Torah. The painting of hearing God's voice by Prophet Moses (pbuh) and 70 wise men is more consistent with the text of the Qur'an. Regarding the painting of Qarun sinking into the ground in the presence of Prophet Moses (pbuh), it should be said that both holy texts mention this event.
In the Qur'an, Qarun sinks to the ground in his house with his treasures and riches and in the Torah, Qarun is swallowed up in the earth with his family and accomplices in their tents. There are no tents or houses in this painting and in this case, the artist did not adhere to the texts of either Qur'an or Torah. In the painting, among the swallowed ones, the image of children and adults can be seen, which corresponds to the text of the Torah. Also, the type of illustration of the story of Prophet Joseph (pbuh) and his brothers is in accordance with the texts of the Qur'an and Torah. In the Qur'an and Torah, brothers go to Prophet Joseph to receive food and provisions. In the painting, Joseph is depicted with a decorated throne, which shows that he is of high authority in Egypt and it is consistent with the narration in both holy texts. In the painting of Prophet Moses (pbuh) being informed about his people's calf worship and issuing their punishment, Prophet Moses (pbuh) is depicted with an upset face and the posture of his body and hands convey worry. Regarding the subject of calf worship by the people of Prophet Moses (pbuh), it is mentioned in the Qur'an and the Torah that the Prophet became very angry when informed, and therefore the illustration is consistent with the text of both holy books. It should be noted that the text of the Qur'an provides less details about the events and history of the divine prophets than the Torah and because of this, perhaps the artist has used the text of the Torah to depict the events as best and as accurately as possible

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References

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