Of serpents and dragons in Islamic art and related animals : an iconograpical study / Abbas Daneshvari.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Daneshvari, Abbas, author.

Series:

Bibliotheca Iranica. Islamic art and architecture series ; 13.

Bibliotheca Iranica. Islamic art and architecture series ; no. 13

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dragons in art.

Serpents in art.

Islamic art and symbolism.

Physical Description:

xxii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Edition:

Expanded and revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Costa Mesa, CA : Mazda Publishers, [2021]

Summary:

In the medieval Muslim world, the dragon was the most frequently represented fabulous beast. This applied across styles and media and in both sacred and secular contexts. Yet its prominence is marked by seemingly contradictory representations. Like Plato's "Pharmakon, "; the dragon was imbued with antithetical meanings: as it stood for both the darkness of the eclipse and the light of God, the satanic and the divine, the transcendent and the earthly. The "yin" and the "yang" of Islam were embodied in the dragon, whose fire was the hell of destruction and also the blessed light of the divine. The dragon thus represented one of those exceptional and mysterious symbols that explained the more baffling phenomena such as creation, chaos and order, furthermore signifying amalgamations of dichotomous forces whose balance made life and the understanding of life possible ... -- Book Description

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. One Background Information

ch. Two Names, Types And Attributes

ch. Three The Intrepid Hero

ch. Four Astrocosmological Symbolism Of The Dragon

ch. Five Dragons At The Navel Of The Earth

ch. Six Hybrid Representations Of Dragons And Serpents

ch. Seven Dragons, Opium And Le Livre De La Theriaque

ch. Eight Dragons In The Cult Of The Saints.

Notes:

Series information from publisher's Web site.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1568593910

9781568593913

OCLC:

1237309127