who foresees Khosrau’s wife Shirin (Sweet), her horse, Shabdiz (Midnight),
and the court musician Barbad, afigure based on the seventh-century
Sasanian Shah Khosrau’s court musician Pohlbad. The day after Khosrau
dreams of his grandfather, his boon companion Shapur tells him of the
mighty Queen Mahin Banu of Armenia and her niece, the incomparable
Shirin, and her steadfast steed Shabdiz. The men hatch a plot to attract
Shirin through Shapur’s artistry, praised for its realism:“O emperor! When
I color the drawing of my pen, Mani wishes to destroy his paintings in
envy! The head of thefigure I paint moves; the wings of the bird,fly!”^65
Shapur boasts by associating his skill with Mani and Jesus. He promises to
fetch Shirin as fast as if he had the legs of wild donkeys and the wings of a
bird–an image reminiscent of theflying equine form of Buraq that
associates the beloved with the place of worship. Not content with the
force of his art or his speed, he promises to extract her with power and
magic, likefire from iron and a jewel from stone–as in alchemy. Both
metaphors for love, worship and alchemy frame the romance within
familiar Sufitropes.
Shapur speeds away. En route, he discovers a cave hidden under a
hermitage with a giant statue of a horse. The description suggests a
fictionalized rendition of the monumental fourth-century Sasanian car-
vings at the Taq-e Bustan, which depict the coronation of Khosrau II above
the carving of him on his horse. [Figure 9] Nizami uses the site to attribute
mythical powers to Shabdiz as the offspring of a mare who climbed
through a small hole in the rock and rubbed herself against the stone
horse in order to gain heavenly speed. The historical references temper
an Islamized consideration of the function of images through an extra-
Islamic context where wineflows and images proliferate. The poetic inter-
face provides examples of how images function in the world, and the
potential dangers of such engagements.
Shapur discovers Shirin idyllically summering with her handmaidens.
He paints Khosrau’s portrait and hides it in a tree. As the party naps after
drinking wine, Shirin spots the portrait and has her maidens fetch it. [Plate
11 ] She can neither look away nor allow herself to put it to her breast. The
maidens remove it, convincing her that demons placed it in the forest. Each
day for three days, Shapur paints and hides it anew. Each time Shirin falls
increasingly in love, such that“the bird of her soul began toflutter from
excitement, so that she could no longer speak.”^66 Thus Shapur’s promise,
that a bird he drew would take wing, becomes a metaphor not for the visual
(^65) Nizami, 1980 : 30. (^66) Nizami, 1980 : 38.
The Ambivalent Image 205