Persian Art – Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum https://blogs.ashmolean.org/easternart An Ashmolean Museum Blog Thu, 02 Nov 2017 11:11:09 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 107759075 Persian and Indian Playing Cards https://blogs.ashmolean.org/easternart/2017/11/02/persian-and-indian-playing-cards/ Thu, 02 Nov 2017 11:11:09 +0000 http://blogs.ashmolean.org/easternart/?p=550 Continue reading ]]> Card games are amongst the most popular games in the world. Tracing the history of playing cards however is difficult, due to their perishable nature and ephemeral quality. It is believed that playing cards originated in China, later spreading westward into Iran, India and Egypt. The early history of cards in Europe is related to contacts between Egypt and North Africa with Italy and Spain during the 13th-14th centuries.

Two of the most popular games in Iran were the ganjifa (or ganjafa/ganjafeh) and as (or as nas). The name ganjifa (‘playing cards’) comes from the Persian word ganj which literally means ‘treasure’. The Persian ganjifa was played with 96 cards consisting of eight suits. Unfortunately early Persian cards have not survived, but the game became popular in India from where we still have many extant examples.

Ganjifa was brought from Iran into India and popularised during the early Mughal period (early 16th century), although an earlier transmission via Turkmen princes in the Deccan during the 15th century is also possible. Indian cards are typically circular (although some rectangular decks have been produced), and they are usually kept in painted wooden boxes with a sliding lid. The standard Indian version of the ganjifa was the eight-suited Mughal ganjifa (Figure 1). Its suits are similar to the Persian ones, consisting of the crown (taj), silver coin (safed), sword (shamsher), servant (ghulam), harp (chang), gold coin (surkh), document (barat), and merchandise (qimash). Each suit contains ten numeral cards (1 to 10) and two court cards: the king (mir) who is usually depicted enthroned (Figure 2), and the minister (wazir) who is usually depicted on horseback.

Figure 1: The Mughal ganjifa, with cards from the taj suit in the foreground. Rajasthan, India, 19th century. Cards: Paper, painted and lacquered, diam. 3.8 cm; box: wood, painted, 5.5 x 12.8 x 5.2 cm. Presented by the Church Missionary Society, 1966. Ashmolean Museum (EA1966.69) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Figure 2: The king (mir) of the harp (chang) suit in the Mughal ganjifa. Rajasthan, India, 19th century. Paper, painted and lacquered, diam. 3.8 cm. Presented by the Church Missionary Society, 1966. Ashmolean Museum (EA1966.69) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The dasavatara version of the ganjifa is a Hindu variation introduced later, that has ten suits and 120 cards instead (Figure 3). Each suit represents one of the ten incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu, commonly Matsya (the Fish), Kurma (the Turtle), Varaha (the Boar), Narasimha (the Man-lion), Vamana (the Dwarf), Parashurama, Rama (hero of the Ramayana), Krishna, the Buddha, and Kalkin (the Horse, the future avatar). The structure and rules of the game are roughly the same as with the Mughal ganjifa. There are ten numeral cards and two court cards in each suit, with the king (raja) depicted enthroned while the minister (pradhan or mantri) is shown either on horseback or seated on a smaller throne.

Figure 3: Dasavatara ganjifa, Sawantwadi, India. c. 1900. Cards: paper, painted and lacquered, diam. 10 cm; box: wood, painted, 12.2 x 13.6 x 12 cm. Ashmolean Museum (EAX.2078) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The Mughal Gallery of the Ashmolean Museum currently hosts a beautiful deck of dasavatara ganjifa from 19th-century Sawantwadi in Maharashtra, western India (Figure 3). The cards, measuring 10cm in diameter, are made of painted and lacquered paper. They are housed in a brightly painted wooden box. In Sawantwadi ganjifa sets, instead of being depicted enthroned, the king (raja) cards often show the avatars of Vishnu engaging in action. For instance, in the Ashmolean deck the king card of the Matsya suit depicts Vishnu emerging from the mouth of a fish, while grabbing the hair of a demon who was hiding in a conch shell (Figure 4).

Figure 4: The king (raja) card of the Matsya suit in the dasavatara ganjifa. Sawantwadi, India, c. 1900. Paper, painted and lacquered, diam. 10 cm. Ashmolean Museum (EAX.2078) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The other card game is the poker-like as or as nas, popular in Iran between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 20th century. It was played with five suits of five identical cards, each bearing creative motifs depicted under a lacquer finish: ace or lion (as), king (shah), queen (bibi), soldier (sarbaz) and courtesan (lakkat). The ace (as) cards often feature felines fighting a dragon, and sometimes the sun with a human face is added on the top of the card. An Ashmolean example from 19th-century Iran depicts the sun in the form of a mustachioed man, whose image recalls official portraits of the Qajar ruler Naser al-Din Shah (1831-96) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The ace/lion (as) card in the as. Iran, 19th century. Paper, painted and lacquered, 6 x4 cm. Presented by Miss E. M. Buller, 1958. Ashmolean Museum (EA1958.282) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Both ganjifa and as cards were hand-painted and covered with a heavy lacquer finish in order to protect them from damage due to constant handling.

Further reading:

• Diba, Layla, ‘Persian Playing Cards: A Courtly Art’, in eds, Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel, Asian Games: The Art of Contest (New York: Asia Society, 2004), pp. 232-9.

• Hopewell, Jeff, ‘Ganjifa: The Traditional Playing Cards of India’, in eds, Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel, Asian Games: The Art of Contest (New York: Asia Society, 2004), pp. 240-51.

• Hopewell, Jeff, ‘Ganjifa: India’s Contribution to the World of Playing Cards’, in ed., Andrew Topsfield, The Art of Play: Board and Card Games of India (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2006), pp. 91-105.

• Leyden, Rudolf von, ‘Oriental Playing Cards’, Journal of the Playing Card Society 4, Supplement 4/1D (1976): pp. 1-37.

• Leyden, Rudolf von, Ganjifa: The Playing Cards of India, with contributions by Michael Dummett (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982).

• Roschanzamir, Mahdi, ‘Card Games’, Encyclopædia Iranica, 1990, IV/7, pp. 802-3; available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/card-games-ganjafa-bazi-waraq-bazi

• Roschanzamir, Mehdi, ‘Ās’, Encyclopædia Iranica, 2002 (last updated 2011); available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/as-1

 

– Federica Duva and Farouk Yahya

 

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The Universe in a Coffee Cup https://blogs.ashmolean.org/easternart/2016/04/11/the-universe-in-a-coffee-cup/ https://blogs.ashmolean.org/easternart/2016/04/11/the-universe-in-a-coffee-cup/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:47:50 +0000 http://blogs.ashmolean.org/easternart/?p=180 Continue reading ]]>

Walking in the Islamic Middle East Gallery at the Ashmolean Museum, visitors may encounter a set of objects of impressive finesse and intricacy (fig. 1). Comprising a lidded cup, saucer and spoon, this small gold enamelled coffee set is not only a triumph of skill and inventiveness, but also a unique lens through which a whole cultural and metaphysical context can be observed.

Fig.1 Set with Astrological Decoration, Iran, early 19th century, gold, enamelled. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax on the Estate of Basil Robinson and allocated to the Ashmolean Museum, 2009 (EA2009.2-4) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Fig.1 Set with Astrological Decoration, Iran, early 19th century, gold, enamelled. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax on the Estate of Basil Robinson and allocated to the Ashmolean Museum, 2009 (EA2009.2-4) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Used for imperial regalia and diplomatic gifts since the Safavid period (1501-1736), the technique of gold enamelling became quite popular under the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925), the time when this and other comparable surviving enamels were produced. Luckily, in this case an elaborate poem distributed in elongated cartouches reveals the identity of its recipient, Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797-1834), an ambitious leader and formidable patron of the arts.

In the verses bordering the saucer Fath ‘Ali Shah is compared to the Sun, acknowledged as ‘the cause of creation and the way of heaven’ and celebrated as a source of cosmic order thanks to which ‘the seven planet stars have attained their stability’. Immediately below, the decorative programme responds to the verses with personifications of the planets in a sequence of roundels: at 1 o’clock is the Moon, with its disk; at 3 o’clock Saturn, resembling a Hindu deity with multiple arms and attributes; at 5 o’clock Jupiter, unusually represented as a young kneeling woman; at 6 o’clock Mars, holding warlike attributes; at 8 o’clock the Sun; at 10 o’clock Venus, the harp-player; and, finally, at 11 o’clock the learned Mercury.

Fig.2 Personifications of the six planets and the pseudo-planet Jawzahr, ‘the dragon’ (EA2009.3) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Fig.2 Personifications of the six planets and the pseudo-planet Jawzahr, ‘the dragon’ (EA2009.3) © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The astral symbolism continues on the cup and its lid in both word and image (fig. 3). The poetry on the cup is especially ingenious in its use of puns and metaphors. It compares the reflection of the cup’s holder to a glowing Moon, a frequent paragon of beauty in Persian poetry, and declares the heavens and the zodiac ‘in the grasp of the Sun’, as by holding the cup the august ruler would symbolically have the universe in his hands. To fulfil this vision, the signs of the Western zodiac have been densely stacked on the outer surface of the vessel, alternated with personifications of the six main constellations: Cassiopeia, Perseus, Arcturus, Andromeda, Sirius and Serpens. To emphasize Fath ‘Ali Shah’s universal authority further, the lid carries another set of zodiacal signs drawn from the East Asian tradition and probably filtered to Iran through its past Mongol rulers and extensive contacts with China.

Click to view slideshow.

One image remains enigmatic. This is the one on the saucer’s central medallion and depicting the pseudo-planet Jawzahr, or ‘the dragon’. At times considered the eight planet, Jawzahr was responsible for lunar and solar eclipses. In the present rendition, however, entangled with a hybrid human figure featuring two heads and three bodies, its ultimate meaning remains obscure. By referring to transitory processes and the passing of time, and because of the figures’ transformation and circular arrangement, the composition may be hinting at the cyclical nature of time and ideas of rejuvenation and renewal. Both would be suitable for a ruler like Fath ‘Ali Shah who aspired to bring Iran back to its former glory.

Intended for the ‘Lord of Conjunctions’ (sahib qiran), a title that appears in historical narratives associated with Fath ‘Ali Shah and several Islamic rulers, it is no surprise that an astrological theme was chosen for the decoration of such a personal object. The term sahib qiran, increasingly adopted in royal titulature after Tamerlane (died 1405) but also used by previous Mongol and Turkic rulers, called for auspicious planetary conjunctions in relation to the reigns of specific individuals. Its addition to other imperial epithets imbued political legitimacy and authority with cosmic and universal references.

Hence, far from indicating the ruler’s ‘superstitious’ nature and actually reflecting the range of cultural associations informing royal ideology in the Persianate world, this set ultimately confirms the relevance of divinatory sciences and occult practices in Islamic courts. A more detailed historical exploration of these themes and their impact on Islamic visual and material culture will be undertaken with the exhibition Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural, which opens at the Ashmolean Museum this coming October.

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