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Art of the Islamic world 640 to now
Unit 2: Lesson 2
Medieval period- Arts of the Islamic world: the medieval period
- The Great Mosque (or Masjid-e Jameh) of Isfahan
- The Great Mosque of Isfahan
- Folio from a Qur'an
- Pyxis of al-Mughira
- Pyxis of al-Mughira
- A Pink Qur'an
- Dado Panel, Courtyard of the Royal Palace of Mas’ud III
- The Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat, Egypt
- Two royal figures (Saljuq Period)
- Coronation mantle
- The Alhambra
- The Alhambra
- Alexander, the Mongols, and the great epic of Iran
- Basin (Baptistère de Saint Louis)
- Ilkhanid Mihrab
- Bahram Gur Fights the Karg (Horned Wolf)
- Bahram Gur in a Peasant’s House, Ilkhanid Dynasty
- Mamluk Qur’an
- Madrasa and Friday Mosque of Sultan Hasan, Cairo
- Conservation: The Nasrid plasterwork collection at the V&A
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Alexander, the Mongols, and the great epic of Iran
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) This video focuses on one particular painting within one particular 14th century manuscript now commonly called the Great Mongol Shahnama. This is only one of many versions of the Shanama, the great epic of Iran. 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. Visit the Freer Gallery.
Want to join the conversation?
- So, it mattered not that one was Macedonian (Alexander) the others Persian, then Mongol, then Arab, and back to Persian, the POWER of the rulers is what unites them to each other and to the constructed history. Is that not similar in various autocracies in the 20th and 21st centuries? It doesn't matter that this person was "different", the ruler now has appropriated the power.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(Upbeat piano music) - [Narrator] 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. - [Instructor] It is considered one of the greatest paintings of the medieval period from Iran. It belongs to a copy of the Shahnama. - [Narrator] That simply
means, the Book of Kings. The history of the kings of
the area that we now call Iran. - [Instructor] 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. 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. Of course, the rulers of
the beginning of time are mythical rulers and then we begin to get historical, a quasi-historical figures. And it is Alexander the
Greek ruler who begins the historical part of the Shahnama. - [Narrator] And what we're
seeing here is a scene of mourning of the death
of Alexander the Great. - [Instructor] It is odd to
find him in the Shahnama. Alexander invaded Iran
and burnt down Persepolis, the Achaemenid Palace. - [Narrator] And 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. Look at this sense of
emotion in these figures. We have Alexander's casket laid out almost as if it was a human body. And you see the back of a female figure, who is laying across her, you can feel her agony, her despair, even though we're only seeing her back. - [Instructor] 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, we have the figure of
Aristotle bending over. He looks as if he's crying,
he's holding a handkerchief, and then of course there is the
figure of Alexander's mother who's 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. - [Narrator] The artist has
been careful to make clear to us how important Alexander
is through the symmetry of the architecture and
its lavish decoration. - [Instructor] 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, and in many ways, it underscores the importance of
Alexander and his wealth. - [Narrator] We have these
powerful human emotions but at the center, we have a coffin. It becomes a kind of
stand-in for human mortality. - [Instructor] And 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, and 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. And the issue of Alexander's mortality becomes almost a foil for Firdawsi's epic. 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. 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. - [Narrator] To become part
of that historical legacy. - [Instructor] And that is
exactly what the Mongols did, with commissioning the
Great Mongol Shahnama. - [Narrator] Now, the Mongols
did tremendous damage in Iran when hey first established themselves. And 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. - [Instructor] This manuscript
has the largest number of illustrations of the Alexander Cycle, and there are 12 that have survived. And when you think of
Alexander as a world conqueror, he is the perfect model
for the Mongol Ilkhanates when they conquered Iran. - [Narrator] That the Mongols could establish themselves
with a kind of legitimacy by calling on the tradition of Alexander. (Upbeat piano music)