Shahnama narrative on the pot; a case of Bijan and Manijeh

Pictorial representations of ancient Iranian oral narratives became prevalent gradually during middle ages of Islamic period in some of major ceramic workshops of Iran and Central Asia. The paper focuses on one of such narratives which has been originated from Khwaday-Namag (Shahnama) and represented on the outer side of a pottery dated to 6th century AH، recovered somewhere located in Rey or Kashan and now is kept in Freer Gallery، Washington. The pot was decorated by glazed painting technique، probably in one of Rey or Kashan workshops. The body of pottery has been wheel-made and covered by a white slipping on its external surface. At the first firing it has been covered by a transparent glaze to be fired and prepared for be painted on the surface with enamel stuff. Enamel paintings had appeared in blue، green or brown after the final firing. Enameled pottery (also called rainbow or gilt pottery) has been a new kind of pottery-making developed during Seljuk period. Ferdowsi began to compose shahnama probably during 370-371 H. (980-981 AD) and apparently his work has been finished in 401H. although the composition was not appreciated by Mahmoud Ghaznavi. Since the narratives of Shahnama were rooted in cultural milieu of Iranians through long ages of its oral history and collective memories، it is not surprise to see parts of it represented or reproduced in variety of media، such as ceramic cups of early Islamic period. The Bijan and Manijeh story has been narrated on the cup in three horizontal bands with twelve sequential scenes. The scenes have been divided by two vertical parallel lines so that every frame had its own independent meaning. Main themes of each of the bands are as follow: First band: Love acclaiming of Bijan to Manijeh; Second Band: Bijan being captivated by the servants of Manijeh and Garsivaz; Third Band: Bijan being descended into the well to be salvaged by Rustam. The narrative begins in First band of upper part of the cup to be ended in third band located in the lower part of it. Substantial part of the contents of paintings on the surface of this kind of pottery were inspired by stories of Shahnama، Khamsa-ye Nezami، among the other literary sources of the time. The principal matter of the paper is constituted by comparative description and explanation of the visual narrative based on Ferdowsi’s versified version of Khwaday-Namag oral tradition. Importantly، There would be a relative synchronization [a period of 2-3 centuries] between both of Ferdowsi’s written narration and potter’s visual one of the story; Such a temporal correspondence could has significant implications for the study of resurrection of ancient Persian cultural traditions and wisdoms in middle ages of Islamic Iran. The paper concerns to restatement of Shahnama’s Bijan and Manijeh according to which 12 characters painted on the pot would be a subject of formal analysis to make a comparison between them and the original written narrative