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Power and Politics of Representation: Picturing Elite Women in Ilkhanid Painting
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 September 2021
Abstract
The first half of the fourteenth century was a discrete period in Ilkhanid Iran during which paintings that pictured elite Mongol women in their true courtly milieu, participating in courtly life and in their contemporary place within societal hierarchies, were produced. It will be argued that a correlation existed between the power wielded by these women in Mongol socio-economic and political spheres and their depictions as formative, important members of the ruling elite; and that the decrease, and ultimate halting, of such representations coincided with changes in their political, cultural and social power. Using Ilkhanid enthronement scenes in the Diez and Istanbul albums to illustrate how visible and prominent the Khātūns were, a fact corroborated by written testimonials of visitors to the Mongol courts, this paper then examines how such images became symbols of legitimacy for later Il-Khans as well as later Persianate rulers in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. It will be argued that the image of an enthroned royal Ilkhanid couple carried the weight of political and dynastic legitimacy, and that the inclusion of the Mongol Khātūn was integral to this symbolic importance.
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- Information
- Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 32 , Special Issue 4: Studies in Honour of Barbara Brend , October 2022 , pp. 762 - 791
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Asiatic Society
Footnotes
Thank you to Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Eleanor Sims, Elaine Wright, Alison Ohta and Emily Shovelton for reading and commenting on early drafts of this paper, and to the anonymous reviewers for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
‡
The original version of this article was published with errors in the captions for Figures 8 and 9. A notice detailing this has been published and the errors rectified in the online and print PDF and HTML copies.
References
1 An abbreviated list of some of the more recent of these includes the following, and see also their associated bibliographies: Frye, R., ‘Women in Pre-Islamic Central Asia: The Khatun of Bukhara’, in Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety, (ed.) Hambly, G. (New York, 1999), pp. 55–68Google Scholar; Soucek, P., ‘Timurid Women: A Cultural Perspective’, in Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety, (ed.) Hambly, G. (New York, 1999), pp. 199–226Google Scholar; Komaroff, L. and Carboni, S. (eds), The Legacy of Ghenghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1352 (New York, 2002)Google Scholar; Nicola, B. de, ‘The Economic Role of Mongol Women: Continuity and Transformation from Mongolia to Iran’, in The Mongols’ Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran, (eds) de Nicola, Bruno and Melville, Charles (Leiden and Boston, 2016), pp. 79–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Nicola, B., Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206–1335 (Edinburgh, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 De Nicola, ‘The Economic Role of Mongol Women’, pp. 79–105; De Nicola, Women in Mongol Iran.
3 On 3 May 2014, I presented a paper at the Courtauld Institute of Art for a study day accompanying the exhibition Court and Craft: A Masterpiece from Northern Iraq. In preparing my paper, ‘Women, Luxury and Status: Images of Courtly Ladies in 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts in the Persianate World’, I approached Barbara Brend for the first time for advice and assistance which she, of course, so generously gave. This article is the ultimate result of that initial research and so it seems only fitting that it is my contribution to honour Barbara.
4 As this study will focus on ‘real’ female representations during and just after the Ilkhanid era (1256–1335), the representations of women as generic ‘types’ (such as a servant, a dancer, a musician, a mother, a daughter) and as characters from literary and poetic works are not included in this discussion.
5 See note 1.
6 As described by Ipsiroglu, the boqtaq ‘…looked like an inverted boot. It was 2 feet high and ended square at the top like the capital of a pillar. Rich ladies wore this light head ornament of bark covered with costly silk and adorned at the top with the tail feathers of the wild drake, peacock's feathers, and precious stones. It was held firm with a hood, which had an opening for this purpose at the top, and was fast tied under the chin.’ See M. S. Ipsiroglu, Painting and Culture of the Mongols, translated by E. D. Phillips (London, 1967), p. 29.
7 Diez A fols. 70–72, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; TSMK H.2153, Topkapı Palace Museum. A full list of the paintings with these types of representations that are known to me is given in Appendix I.
8 K. Rührdanz, ‘Illustrationen zu Rašīd al-Dīns Ta'rīkh Mubar̄ak-i Ġāzānī in den Berliner Diez-Alben,’ in L'Iran face à la domination mongole, (ed.) D. Aigle (Tehran, 1997), pp. 295–306. See also note 23 below, and C. Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era in the Berlin Diez Albums’, in The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents, (eds) J. Gonnella, F. Weis and C. Rauch (Leiden and Boston, 2017), p. 232.
9 Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era in the Berlin Diez Albums’, p. 232.
10 O. Pancaroğlu, ‘The Emergence of Turkic Dynastic Presence in the Islamic World: Cultural Experiences and Artistic Horizons, 950–1250,’ in Turks: A Journey of 1000 years, (ed) D. Roxburgh (London, 2005), p. 77.
11 See, for example, a mina'i bowl from Kashan, c. 1200, in The David Collection, Copenhagen, 34/1999 (https://www.davidmus.dk/en/collections/islamic/dynasties/seljuks/art/34-1999), and a lustre bowl from the same collection dated 600 ah, also from Kashan, 45/2001 (https://www.davidmus.dk/en/collections/islamic/dynasties/seljuks/art/45-2001); a mina'i bowl from Iran made in the late 12th to early 13th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.1.1643 (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/461158); and another mina'i bowl from Iran made in the late 12th to early 13th century in the Freer Gallery of Art, F1938.12 (https://asia.si.edu/object/F1938.12/); all accessed 18 August 2020.
12 A notable exception to this is a large lustre dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983.247, made in Kashan in the first quarter of the 13th century, which depicts a wedding procession (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453209; accessed 18 August 2020).
13 See Ashmolean Museum, EA1956.108, for a lustre dish made in Kashan in the late 12th century, described as depicting two women (http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1956.108) and EA1956.52, another lustre dish from Kashan made in the late 12th century, described as a seated female (http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1956.52); both accessed 18 August 2020.
14 British Museum, 1866,1229.61, brass, engraved and inlaid with silver and copper, made in Mosul and dated Rajab 629 ah (April 1232). Details of these particular roundels can be found at https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1866-1229-61; accessed 18 August 2020.
15 Two double-page enthronement scenes: Diez A, Fol. 70, S.21–22; TSMK H.2153, fol.166r (left) and fol.23v (right); Four single pages originally from double-page enthronement scenes: TSMK H.2153, fol. 53v and fol. 148v; Diez A Fol. 70, S.10 and S.23. For complete information on these manuscript folios, see Appendix I.
16 Diez A, Fol. 71, S.48 and S.52. For complete information on these manuscript folios, see Appendix I.
17 Diez A Fol.71- p. 41, no.4; p. 42, no.4; p. 42, no.6; p. 45, no.5 (of just the Khātūn); p. 46, no.6; p. 63, no.1; p. 63, no.2; p. 63, no.3; p. 63, no.5; p. 63, no.6; p. 63, no.7; Diez A, fol. 73, S. 47, no. 5; Abu Rayhan al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, No. 1620, fol. 109. For complete information on these manuscript folios, see Appendix I.
18 Diez A Fol. 70, S.18, no. 1/top image; Diez A, Fol. 72, S.11. For complete information on these manuscript folios, see Appendix I.
19 Komaroff and Carboni (eds), The Legacy of Ghenghis Khan, p. 30, fig. 27. The painting is in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.
20 One of these was found in the Turfan foothills, Valley III, Cave 3, Xinjiang, China, and is now in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum for Indische Kunst, III 8618; published in D. Roxburgh (ed), Turks: A Journey of 1000 years (London, 2005), p. 58, cat. 14, and in Y. Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, in The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents, (eds) J. Gonnella, F. Weis and C. Rauch (Leiden and Boston, 2017), p. 258, fig. 9.6B. The other wall painting is from Qocho, Xinjiang, and is now in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Bac3 869; published in Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’ p. 258, fig. 9.6A.
21 Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’ pp. 255–256, fig. 9.4.
22 Ibid., p. 255.
23 Rührdanz has shown that these three types of images each served a particular role within the text. The small enthronement scenes were used to illustrate the beginning of genealogical tables of each ruler in the Tarīkh-i Ghāzānī; the double-page enthronement scenes were placed at the beginning of the second part of the account of each ruler; and single page enthronement scenes were used to illustrate specific announcements, feasts or receptions. See E. Wright, ‘Patronage of the Arts of the Book Under the Injuids of Shiraz’, in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, (ed) L. Komaroff (Leiden and Boston, 2006), pp. 260–261, citing Rührdanz, ‘Illustrationen zu Rašīd al-Dīns Ta'rīkh Mubar̄ak-i Ġāzānī in den Berliner Diez-Alben,’ pp. 295–306.
24 U. Onon (translator and editor), The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chingghis Khan (New York, 2001), p. 43.
25 De Nicola, Women in Mongol Iran, p.73. The revenues she received from these lands in Mongolia and Northern China, combined with the support of her husband's family after his death, allowed her act in a more independent manner than she could have otherwise, so much so that she was able to refuse marriage requests sent to her.
26 Komaroff and Carboni (eds), The Legacy of Ghenghis Khan, p.30.
27 De Nicola, Women in Mongol Iran, p. 73.
28 Ibid., pp. 65–89.
29 Ibid., pp. 105–110; Lane, G., Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth Century Iran: a Persian Renaissance (London, 2003), pp. 105–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30 De Nicola, Women in Mongol Iran, pp. 109–114.
31 P. Jackson, ‘Courts and Courtiers iv. Under the Mongols’, Encyclopaedia Iranica, VI/4, pp. 364–366, orig. published 1993; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/courts-and-courtiers-iv (accessed 20 August 2020). For information specifically on female ordos, see B. de Nicola, ‘Ruling from Tents: the Existence and Structure of Women's ordos in Ilkhanid Iran’, in Ferdowsi, The Mongols and Iranian History: Art, Literature and Culture from Early Islam to Qajar Persia. Studies in Honour of Charles Melville, (eds.) R. Hillenbrand, A. C. S. Peacock and F. Abdullaeva (London, 2013), pp. 126–136.
32 De Nicola, ‘The Economic Role of Mongol Women’, pp. 91–92.
33 De Nicola comments on the fact that Mongol women sought out more expensive goods, which in turn further stimulated trade. This was common practice even while the tribes moved across the steppes, but once the Ilkhanids were a settled entity, this practice escalated quickly, increasing the wealth and accumulated goods of the ordos to great levels. See De Nicola, ‘The Economic Role of Mongol Women’, p.84.
34 Ibid., p. 95.
35 Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era in the Berlin Diez Albums’, p. 232.
36 Ibid.
37 Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 255.
38 W. Rubruck, The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253–55, translated and edited by William Woodville Rockhill (London, 1900), p. 172.
39 M. Polo, The travels of Marco Polo, (ed.) Marsden, 1908; intro. by P. Smethurst (New York, 2005), p. 153.
40 J. Pfeiffer, ‘“Not every head that wears a crown deserves to rule”: Women in Il-Khanid political life and court culture’, in Court and Craft: A Masterpiece from Northern Iraq, (ed.), R. Ward (London, 2014), p. 25.
41 Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325–1354, translated and edited by H. A. R. Gibb, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1962), pp. 480–481. As the premier wife, Taitughli (Täi-Dula) was placed immediately to the right of the Khan.
42 Ibid., p. 480.
43 Ibid., pp. 480–481. Ibn Battuta also comments again on the fact that Mongol women were unveiled.
44 Ibid., p. 482.
45 Ibid., p. 482.
46 Ibid., pp. 485–489.
47 See De Nicola, Women in Mongol Iran, pp. 38–41 for examples of women in the Mongol courts—both historical figures and those who are names within the Jāmi‘ al-Tavārīkh of Rashid al-Din—and the integral roles they played in the running of their clan, in interventions in military actions, in the religious sphere, and as key figures in the establishment of genealogical links between tribes.
48 Gilli-Elewy, H., ‘On Women, Power, and Politics During the Last Phase of the Ilkhanate’, Arabica 59 (2012), p. 718CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
49 Ibid.
50 De Nicola, ‘The Economic Role of Mongol Women’, p. 94.
51 Ibid., p. 98.
52 Ibid., p. 94.
53 As de Nicola writes: “In the period that began with the struggle for power between Baidu (d. 1295) and Ghazan Khan (r. 1295–1304) and the subsequent conversion of the latter to Islam, noblewomen in the Mongol court maintained certain privileges and their prominent role in society….Similarly…some women continued their economic participation in trade and to enjoy revenues coming from taxation into the fourteenth century. However, the rise of Ghazan Khan to power initiated a centralising process that affected the autonomy and economic independence of women by changing the way that ordos, which represented the core of the ladies’ wealth, were controlled”. Ibid., p. 97.
54 Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era’, p. 240.
55 Gilli-Elewy, ‘On Women, Power, and Politics’, p. 722.
56 Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era’, p. 232.
57 Pfeiffer, ‘“Not every head that wears a crown deserves to rule”’, p. 25.
58 Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 546–1905; http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O67418/basin-unknown/.
59 Metalwork Bag, Mosul, Northern Iraq, 1300–1335, 0.1966.GP.209, The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London. The Courtauld bag and details of its decoration, including the court scene, are found in R. Ward (ed.), Court and Craft: A Masterpiece from Northern Iraq (London, 2014), pp. 76–99, cat. 1 (see pp. 86–88 for details of the enthronement scene); https://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collection/decorative-arts/islamic-metalwork/the-courtauld-metal-bag.
60 Wright, ‘Patronage of the Arts of the Book’, p. 265.
61 Ibid., p. 268.
62 MW.122.1999, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.
63 Left page of double-page frontispiece, LNS 9 MS, fol.2r, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya, Kuwait, National Museum, Kuwait City; published in black and white in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, (ed) L. Komaroff (Leiden and Boston, 2006), p. 567, fig. 35; L. Komaroff and S. Carboni (eds), The Legacy of Ghenghis Khan, p. 214, fig. 262, cat. No. 9.
64 Left page of double-page frontispiece, fol. 5r of reconstructed manuscript, Shāhnāma; LTS 1998.1.1.3, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Museum of Asian Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C, on loan from the Ibrahimi collection; published in black and white in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, (ed) L. Komaroff (Leiden and Boston, 2006), p. 568, fig. 36.
65 Inlaid Brass tray, Iran, probably Fars, c.1300–1350, Museum of Fine Arts, Tbilisi, 48/1; L. Komaroff, ‘Paintings in Silver and Gold: The Decoration of Persian Metalwork and its Relationship to Manuscript Illustration’, Studies in the Decorative Arts 2 (1994), p. 9, fig 10; Wright, ‘Patronage of the Arts of the Book’, p. 260.
66 J. Allan, ‘The Candlestick of Abu Ishaq Inju in the Homaizi Collection’, in Kuwait Arts and Architecture, a Collection of Essays, (eds) Arlene Fullerton and Géza Fehérvári (Kuwait, 1995), p. 69.
67 M. Shreve Simpson, ‘In the Beginning: Frontispieces and Front Matter in Ilkhanid and Injuid Manuscripts’, in Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, (ed) L. Komaroff (Leiden and Boston, 2006), p. 234.
68 Ibid., p. 235.
69 Wright, ‘Patronage of the Arts of the Book’, p. 260.
70 A line drawing of the scene by Christine Ingersoll is in Komaroff, ‘Paintings in Silver and Gold’, p. 10, fig. 7; the tray and a detail of the enthronement scene is in R. Ward (ed.), Court and Craft: A Masterpiece from Northern Iraq (London, 2014), pp. 133–135, cat. 20.
71 Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 261.
72 Enthronement scene, from an Anthology for Iskandar Sultan, Shiraz, 1410–11, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, L. A. 161, fol. 260v. See Appendix 2 for publication information.
73 Bibliothèqe nationale, Supple. Persan m3, fols. 227v-228; Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 263, fig. 9.11.
74 Raza Rampur Library, P. 1820, M.K.85, fols. 54v-55, c.1350–1400, painting c.1590–95; Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 265, fig. 9.12.
75 See Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 263. Some images were created when the manuscript was originally copied in the latter half of the fourteenth century, and others added c.1470–90. The next additions were added at the Mughal court c.1590–95 during the reign of Akbar. See Y. Rice, ‘Mughal Interventions in the Rampur Jāmiʿ al-Tavārīkh’, Ars Orientalis (2012), p. 153.
76 See, for example, the painting of Guyuk Khan and his consort enthroned, added to the Raza Library Jāmiʿ al-Tavārīkh, c.1470–90 (Raza Rampur Library, P. 1820, M.K.85, fols. 78v-79); Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 265. fig. 9.13.
77 Rice, ‘Mughal Interventions in the Rampur Jāmiʿ al-Tavārīkh’, p. 152–153; there are 82 illustrations in total in the manuscript (p.152).
78 Kadoi, ‘The Mongols Enthroned’, p. 267.
79 Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era’, p. 223.
80 Ibid., p. 224.
81 Ibid., p. 239.
82 This theme has been explored by others. See Melville, ‘The Illustration of the Turko-Mongol Era’, p. 239 and note 69.
83 Kadoi states that there are 10 ‘Mongol-style couple enthronement scenes’ in MS P. 1820 in the Raza Library. She gives them as fols 43v-35, 54v-55, 70v-71, 78v-79, 94v-95, 124v-125, 154v-155, 174v-175, 214v-215, 232v-233. See Kadoi ‘Mongols enthroned’ in The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents, p. 264, note 75.
84 Whereas Melville, Blair and Rice all refer to page numbers when referencing P.1820 in the Raza Library, Rampur, Kadoi refers to folio numbers. I have therefore kept the respective terminology and numbering system used by each author when they are referenced in this Appendix.
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