نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسنده

• محمدرضا غیاثیان

استادیار گروه مطالعات عالی هنر، دانشکده هنر و معماری، دانشگاه کاشان، کاشان، ایران

چکیده

داستان زندگانی شخصیتی به نام عوج بن عنق که ریشه در اسرائیلیات داشت، از سده‌های آغازین اسلامی به تألیفات مسلمانان راه یافت. در متون اسلامی، عوج به عنوان یک کافر معرفی شده که رودرروی پیغمبران الهی ایستاد و بنابراین نمادی از دشمان دین راستین در طول تاریخ است. بلندای او به قدری بود که ماهی دریا را می‌گرفت و در برابر آفتاب بریان می‌کرد و می‌خورد. در زمان نوح (ع) آب سیل تا زانوی او بالا آمد و در نهایت با ضربه‌ای که موسی (ع) با عصای خود به قوزک پای او زد هلاک شد. افسانۀ عوج مورد استقبال گستردۀ نگارگران ایرانی در سده‌های میانی قرار گرفت. صحنۀ نبرد موسی (ع) با عوج در کتب تاریخی، قصص الانبیاء، عجائب ‌المخلوقات و فالنامه‌ها مصوّر شده است. این نوشتار از طرفی به دنبال بررسی ریشه‌ها و سیر تکامل افسانۀ عوج در فرهنگ اسلامی است و از طرف دیگر به تحلیل روند تکامل بازنمایی عوج در هنر سده‌های میانی ایران می‌پردازد. یافته‌ها حاکی از آن است که منشأ این افسانه را باید در تلمود و نه کتاب مقدس جستجو کرد. اگرچه قدیمی‌ترین نگارۀ شناخته شده از عوج در هنر ایران به سدۀ هفتم م./سیزدهم ه. بر می‌گردد، اما مهم‌ترین دوره در تثبیت تصویر عوج، دورۀ جلایری است.

کلیدواژه‌ها

• عوج بن عنق
• اسرائیلیات
• موسی (ع)
• قصص الانبیاء
• نقاشی ایران

عنوان مقاله [English]

The Evolution of the Images of ʿUj ibn ʿAnaq in Persian Painting (13th-16th Centuries)

نویسنده [English]

• Mohamad Reza Ghiasian

assistant professor, Islamic Art Dept., Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

چکیده [English]

The story of the giant ʿUj, which was rooted in Israʾiliyyat, has penetrated into the works of Muslim authors since the early Islamic period. The earliest sources of these legends were a group of mostly converted Jews. In Islamic texts, ʿUj is regarded as an infidel confronted with the prophets, and thus symbolises the adversaries of the true religion throughout history. He was so tall that at the time of the Flood, the water only reached up to his knee. When he was hungry, he plunged his hand into the sea and brought out fish which he could roast by holding them in front of the sun. He was killed by a strike of Moses’ staff to his ankle bone.
This legend received much attention from the Persian artists of the medieval period. Images of ʿUj beside Noah’s ark, and especially his combat with Moses can be found in books on history, Qisas al-anbiya, Ajaʾib al-makhluqat and Falnama. This paper surveys the origins and development of ʿUj’s legend in Islamic culture, and on the other hand, analyses the evolution of the iconography of ʿUj in Persian art. What have been penetrated into the Islamic texts are those narratives which are rooted in the Talmud not the Bible. In the Bible, ʿUj, who was left of the remaining Rephaim, is described as a giant of realistic dimensions, while in the Talmud he became a figure of monstrous proportions.
The oldest known illustration of ʿUj in Islamic art, which dates to 1280, shows a bearded giant, wearing short trousers, while striding to the left. In the early fourteenth century, a part of the sun was added to the iconography of ʿUj that indicates the attempt of the artist to represent his stature comparable with the height of the sun. It seems that the most important epoch in establishing the iconography of ʿUj was the Jalayirid period. For the first time, the Jalayirid artist depicted the half-naked ʿUj with a short skirt, black beard and an oval rock around his neck. This icon was frequently utilized in the Persian painting of the following centuries. The depiction of ʿUj, who wears a short skirt, is reminiscent of the traditional representation of demons in Central Asian art.
The interest of the Timurid artists in depicting the giant ʿUj is evident from the fact that they added his figure into the iconography of Noah’s Ark. They portrayed ʿUj standing beside the ship with a fish in his hand. Most of the Timurid images to the combat between Moses and ʿUj follow the iconography that was established under the Jalayirids. In the sixteenth-century paintings, the gestures of ʿUj are based on those of the earlier centuries, and the height of ʿUj is still four time larger than Moses. However, the exception is the Falnama paintings, which show Moses’ stature approximately half that of ʿUj. Based on Safavid aesthetic, in the background of these illustrations, an urban landscape or a group of onlookers was added to the paintings.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

• ‘Uj ibn ‘Anaq
• Isra‘iliyat
• Moses
• Qisas al-anbiya
• Persian Painting