The trope of the image as proof proliferated even more widely as an
indicator of belief in Islamic prophecy for foreign rulers.The News of Tiwal
by al-Dinawari (828–896) tells of an emissary from the caliph Abu Bakr to
the king of Rum, aiming to convert him to Islam or declare war. After
asking him about Islam, the ruler dismisses him for a day. When they meet
again, an attendant brings in an object with many compartments, each
containing a cloth portrait–first of the Prophet Adam, then of Noah, and
finally of Muhammad himself. When the envoy responds by weeping, the
king asks if it is the true image of the Prophet. Upon receiving confirma-
tion, the king shows him the portraits of Abraham, Moses, David,
Solomon, and Jesus, explaining that the box came to him through the
lineage of Alexander the Great.
Variants of this story persisted into the sixteenth century. Around 890–
895, it appeared in the geography of ibn al-Faqih, entitledThe Book of
Lands(Kitab al-Buldan). Citing a lost 916 source by Abu Zahd Hassan
from Siraf (on the Persian Gulf), in Masudi’s mid-tenth centuryGolden
Meadows(Muruj al-Dhahab), the story is transferred to China, where the
images appear on a scroll. The prophets are identified by their attributes
rather than their likenesses, and some are described as making a hand
gesture reminiscent ofmudras, suggesting that the story might describe the
type of Tang era (618–917) scroll designed for Buddhist proselytization. In
mid-eleventh century books entitledSigns of Prophethood (Dala’il al-
Nubuwwah) by Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Bayhaqi (d. 1043)
and Abu Nu’aym al-Isfahani (d. 1058), the story was retold naming the
ruler as Emperor Heraclius of Rome.^5 This variant was further elaborated
in the latefifteenth-centuryGarden of Purity (Rawzat al-Safa) by the
Timurid historian Muhammad ibn Khvandshah ibn Mahmud.^6
The trope also associates Adam with images. In his history, al-Tabari
relates that Adam saw in the right hand of God his own picture along with
“all his progeny and there was written down with God the term (of life) of
each man).”^7 A similar Jewish legend relates that God revealed the names
of the prophets, teachers, and other religious leaders and heroes to come on
a curtain hung in front of God.^8
Yet such use of the image as proof ultimately could also be suspect, as
shown in the trope’s inversion in the biography of Jalal al-Din Rumi by
Aflaki (c.1286–1360). He tells the story of Gurji Khatun, forced to leave
Konya for Kayseri because she has fallen out of favor with her husband, the
(^5) Grabar, 2003. (^6) Roxburgh, 2001 : 172. (^7) al-Tabari, 1998 : 26.
(^8) Ginzberg, 1946 : 61; Grabar, 2003 : 26.
The Image as Proof 187