exclaims,“I have fallen so in love with this picture that one would take me
for an idolater!”Rooted inHadith, however, Shapur’s humble answer
enables her enjoyment of the image:“Each picture created by an artist
can only give a sign, for it remains without life. I have only been taught the
art of signs, but the clothing of the soul can only be woven otherwise!”^67
Even a lover of images, he seems to say, does not riskshirk.
In Persian, the word for‘sign’(nishan) is the same as that for‘target’, and
thus also for‘engaged,’and with these words Shirin sets offlike an arrow,
riding her trusty steed Shabdiz, which no other horses can match. At dusk,
she stops at a lake to bathe. Too impatient to wait at home, Khosrau has set
out northward to meet her. The image of him spying the unclothed
princess bathing became one of the most frequently illustrated scenes in
the repertoire of Islamic manuscript painting. [Plate 12] The popularity of
Nizami’sKhamsa, including this poem, ensured that numerous similar
images were made, both for this work and for later retellings, most
famously that by Amir Khosrau, who adopted the protagonist’s name as
his sobriquet. The image offers titillation. Like Khosrau, the viewer gets to
secretly witness Shirin bathing. In turning the page, we emulate his chaste
turning away. Far from causing worship or idolatry, the image forces the
viewer to move past simple physical lust. This visual effect corresponds to
the function of the gaze in the poem. When Khosrau encounters the naked
princess bathing, he recognizes her beauty but looks away respectfully. He
looks inwardly to his intended Shirin, whom his eyes do not recognize in
the water. Likewise, she dresses, thinking only of her prince. Like Shapur’s
portraits, his dream serves as a signal diverting attention. Rather than icons
attracting devotion, both the dream and the painted image serve as trans-
formative yet ephemeral signals.
Comparison of this gaze with that in the Greek myth of Artemis and
Actaeon elucidates disparate associations between looking, sexuality, and
danger. While hunting, the mortal Actaeon accidentally sees Artemis,
goddess of the hunt, bathing. In a fury, she threatens to silence him by
turning him into a stag. When he protests and is transformed, his own dogs
attack him. While the narrative hinge of both stories–the revelation of the
divine (goddess/beloved) to mortal eyes–is similar, the consequences
diverge. In the Greek myth, having been acknowledged, transgressive
sight requires the punishment of silence or death. If the primary taboo is
the unbidden revelation of the divine, then the second is its narrative
(^67) Nizami, 1980 :47–48; Weis, 2009 : 76.
The Ambivalent Image 207