The Bier of Iskandar (Alexander the Great), folio from the Great Mongol Shahnama (Il-Khanid dynasty, Tabriz, Iran), c. 1330, ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 57.6 x 39.7 cm (Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1938.3). Speakers: Dr. Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Steven Zucker.
[0:00] [music]
Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:05] We’re in a storage room in the Freer Gallery of Art, looking at one of the most important illustrations coming out of the Islamic world.
Dr. Massumeh Farhad: [0:15] It is considered one of the greatest paintings of the medieval period from Iran. It belongs to a copy of the “Shahnama.”
Dr. Zucker: [0:23] That simply means the “Book of Kings,” the history of the kings of the area that we now call Iran.
Dr. Farhad: [0:29] The “Shahnama” is considered the great epic of Iran, and the one text that identifies and unifies Iranians. The “Shahnama” was completed in the year 1010 by the poet Firdawsi. It consists of some 50,000 verses. It is probably one of the longest epics ever written.
[0:50] It is divided into 50 reigns of the kings of Iran, beginning at the beginning of time, ending with the fall of the Sasanian dynasty and the Arab conquest.
[1:02] Of course, the rulers of the beginning of time are mythical rulers, then we begin to get historical or quasi-historical figures. And it is Alexander, the Greek ruler, who begins the historical part of the “Shahnama.”
Dr. Zucker: [1:20] What we’re seeing here is a scene of mourning, of the death of Alexander the Great.
Dr. Farhad: [1:25] It is odd to find him in the “Shahnama.” Alexander invaded Iran and burnt down Persepolis, the Achaemenid palace.
Dr. Zucker: [1:35] He’s really being mourned here, and that’s in part because even though Alexander had invaded, by the time that this manuscript is produced, Alexander has been fully embraced.
[1:45] Look at the sense of emotion in these figures. We have Alexander’s casket laid out almost as if it was a human body. We see the back of a female figure who is laying across, you can even feel her agony, her despair, even though we’re only seeing her back.
Dr. Farhad: [2:01] According to Firdawsi, when Alexander died, his coffin was put on display in an open landscape. What the artist does here is he confines it into this space where perhaps it’s easier to show the intensity of the emotion because it circulates around the coffin with these onlookers who are in great agony. They are weeping, they are praying.
[2:29] We have the figure of Aristotle bending over, he looks as if he’s crying, he’s holding a handkerchief. Then, of course, there is the figure of Alexander’s mother, who has thrown herself on the coffin. The agitated, very angular folds of her robe, which has sort of fallen off, embody the agony that she’s going through.
Dr. Zucker: [2:53] The artist has been careful to make clear to us how important Alexander is through the symmetry of the architecture and its lavish decoration.
Dr. Farhad: [3:03] This interior has every possible luxury object. In fact, it is a wonderful visual testimony of the types of object that existed at that time. You have these monumental candles with their flames and black smoke. You have this great lamp hanging over the coffin of Alexander. You have carpets. You have textiles. You have tiles.
[3:29] In many ways, it underscores the importance of Alexander and his wealth.
Dr. Zucker: [3:34] We have these powerful human emotions. But at the center, we have a coffin. It becomes a kind of stand-in for human mortality.
Dr. Farhad: [3:43] The issue of mortality is central to Firdawsi’s “Shahnama” because, throughout the story of Alexander as he moves east and west in search of more territory, he’s also looking for immortality. He looks for the Water of Life. He passes the Valley of Darkness.
[4:06] Throughout the narrative, Firdawsi keeps reminding Alexander that, despite all your wealth, despite all your power — which is beautifully summarized in this painting, that Alexander, you are mortal like anyone else. The issue of Alexander’s mortality becomes almost a foil for Firdawsi’s epic.
[4:30] Firdawsi ends his text by the following: “I’ve reached the end of this great history. And all the land will fill with talk of me. I shall not die, these seeds I’ve sown will save my name and reputation from the grave. And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim, when I have gone, my praises and my fame.”
[4:52] What becomes interesting is that every new ruler, after the conquest of Islam in Iran, one of the first things that they commissioned was a copy of the “Shahnama.”
Dr. Zucker: [5:04] To become part of that historical legacy.
Dr. Farhad: [5:07] That is exactly what the Mongols did with commissioning the Great Mongol “Shahnama.”
Dr. Zucker: [5:12] The Mongols did tremendous damage in Iran when they first established themselves. It’s interesting that this particular manuscript, which has such an emphasis on Alexander, may have been used to create a correspondence between Alexander, who himself was a conqueror, and the Mongols, who had conquered Iran.
Dr. Farhad: [5:30] This manuscript has the largest number of illustrations of the Alexander cycle. There are 12 that have survived. When you think of Alexander as a world conqueror, he is the perfect model for the Mongol Ilkhanids when they conquered Iran.
Dr. Zucker: [5:51] That the Mongols could establish themselves with a kind of legitimacy by calling on the tradition of Alexander.
[5:57] [music]
