Dragons as Sites of Knowledge Formation Through al-Tannin

Overview

This object is folio 73v from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence, attributed to the artist and scholar Zakariya al-Qazwini, created in Wasit, Iraq, in 1280.¹ It depicts a coiled dragon with a long, serpentine form, covered in spikes, appearing like a sea creature. While the original author of this manuscript was Qazwini, it has been replicated many times since its inception, in different styles and by different artists, as an enduring symbol of Persian culture. The dragon entity depicted on this folio is known as al-tannin (literally ‘the dragon,’ or ‘the sea monster’), a fearsome creature Qazwini lists under existing sea creatures, naming its eating habits and habitat as though it were a real creature in a common motif of Islamic literature. Unlike a narrative-based depiction, this folio presents the dragon as a creature of legitimate intellectual study, situating it within a larger system of cosmological organization.

A Categorizable Oddity

Here, al-tannin sits in a unique position of understanding. Unlike in “Bowl with Dragon’s” or “Isfandiyar’s Third Course: He Slays a Dragon,” the dragon here is neither a force of astrological importance nor a beast to be slain. Instead, it is presented the way one would present any naturally occurring zoological creature, listing its attributes and popular folklore surrounding it. This serves to demystify the creature, making it living, observable, and categorizable, rather than a largely symbolic force, like al-Jawzahr. This move places the creature within a larger tradition in Islamic intellectualism to locate mystical creatures within a system of knowledge and categorization. As art historian Persis Berlekamp notes in Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam, Qazwini’s intention in including the creature amongst other ‘real’ creatures serves as a distinct intent of knowledge formation.² Berlekamp argues that Qazwini’s intention was for readers to note that “no matter how unlikely an oddity might seem, much is to be gained from seeking and acknowledging whatever truth it contains,” reinforcing this folio’s place amidst larger Islamic scholarship engaging with the mystical as a legitimate source of knowledge formation regardless of its fictional nature.³

A Mongol Connection

Qazwini’s depiction of al-tannin is unique in that, as art historian Persis Berlekamp notes, it is one of the earliest examples of “Chinese-style” dragon iconography that can be seen in art from this region.⁴ He further argues that this imagery was so unique to the population of the time that it would have been understood as fundamentally Eastern and different.⁵ Berlekamp further suggests that to an audience of readers who lived twenty years after the Mongol conquest of Baghdad, a ferocious beast from the East coming to ravage both land and sea would have been an easy metaphorical connection to make with al-tannin.⁶ In the imagery engaging with lived experience, the folio represents a constant theme along the Silk Road, in which visual forms were constantly transformed to represent cultural shifts, intellectual frameworks, and historical reality.

Bibliography

• “The tannin”. The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence of Qazwini. Wasit, Iraq, 1280. 30.5 x 20.2 cm (full folio). Munich, Staatsbibliothek, MSS cod. arab.464, fol. 73v.

• Berlekamp, Persis. Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.