This week’s Khalili Memorial lecture was entitled ‘The Cosmic Cup in Medieval and Later Persian Art’. Since there’s not enough space in one posting to go through everything that Dr Marianna Shreve Simpson talked about, this week’s blog will concentrate especially on the Shahnameh story of Bizhan and Manizheh (here in verse, here in prose), as shown on two 12th century wine vessels.
The best known of these is the Freer beaker. This was created in Kashan in the late 12th century. It is only 12cm high, so the three levels of painted narrative (plus the upper and lower bands) are much smaller-scale than the images appear on the internet or in lecture theatres. Click here and here to see two different views of the paintings.
If you could hold the beaker in your hand, and twirl it round in your hand (incidentally recreating the ‘all-seeing’ action of legendary rulers like Jamshid when they used these ‘cosmic’ vessels) you would be able to see the story of Bizhan and Manizheh literally unfolding.
In this tale, the king Kai Khusrau was asked to help some Iranians whose land was being ravaged. The warrior Bizhan volunteered to slay the boar who were causing all the problems (see images here and here), but was more than a little distracted by the fair Manizheh along the way, and ended by being captured by Afrasiyab (the ‘evil’ ruler of Turan: here, killing Nawzar). When the men with Bizhan falsely told Kai Khusrau that the warrior had been killed by the boar, the Iranian king refuse to believe this, and vowed to find where Bizhan was in one of the cosmic or all-seeing cups that Dr Shreve Simpson was talking about:
. . Then will I
Call for the cup that mirroreth the world,
And stand before God’s presence. In that cup
I shall behold the seven climes of earth,
Both field and fell and all the provinces,
Will offer reverence to mine ancestors,
My chosen, gracious lords, and thou shalt know
Where thy son is. The cup will show me all.
And of course the cup worked perfectly. Kai Khusrau saw Bizhan “chained and prisoned . . attended by a maid of noble birth” (Manizheh); and sent for Rustam, who immediately headed off to rescue Bizhan from the pit he was trapped in. Click here and here to see two classic pit-rescue images.
This week’s blog is the first of two about Dr Marianna Shreve Simpson’s recent lecture on ‘cosmic cups’: cups with which to see the whole world. First, the Shahnameh story of Bizhan and Manizheh (just in case you don’t already know it – you need it as background), and the Freer beaker; next week, Dr Shreve Simpson’s even more fascinating ideas about composite fakes.
If you want to hear Dr Shreve Simpson (on another topic: for those who were there last night), she is speaking on manuscripts in Shiraz on 23 January. And on 4 Feb, there is a symposium on the Saljuqs. Both of these are in London.
I’m always hoping some of you will read more of the Shahnameh – Bizhan and Manizheh’s story is here in verse, and here in prose. Enjoy!
Armin kindly just emailed me to say:
Dear Caroline,
Just thought I’d say I do enjoy your postings!
How nice of him! It’s lovely when I get feedback
Caroline