Sikandar Goes on a Pilgrimage to the Kaaba, from the Shahnama of Firdausi

Description

Although today Mecca in Saudi Arabia is known worldwide as the destination of Islamic pilgrims from around the globe, its history as a holy place dates from very ancient times. It is the site of the Ka’aba, a rectangular brick shrine reputedly built by the Biblical Abraham (in Arabic and Persian, Ibrahim) and his son Ishmael (Isma’il). Muhammed was born and raised in Mecca, and made it one of the great centers of Islam; the first of the Islamic mosques, the great Al-Haram Mosque, surrounds the Ka’aba.
Here Sikander (Alexander) appears just outside the Ka’aba: he is the gray-haired and slightly stooped figure wearing a crown, while all his attendants wear turbans. The minaret at the upper left may allude to the Al-Haram Mosque, which is mentioned in Firdausi’s text, even though is it was erected centuries after Alexander’s time. Thus this episode, like the previous one, serves to fold Alexander into a unified and harmonious Persian-Islamic world.
Now in a little while, when all the troops
Were satiate of wealth, a sudden impulse
Came on Sikander, and he greatly longed
To journey to the Ka’aba. . . .
Sikander
Departed with his diadem and treasures
To look upon the house of Ibrahim,
Who bare no little toil to build that shrine,
Which God hath named Baitu’l Haram . . .
He visited afoot Baitu’l Haram;
The seed of Isma’il rejoiced in him.
At every step of Caesar’s* pilgrimage
His treasurer showered dinars.
Warner, VI, 119–21
* Caesar is used indiscriminately in the Shahnama to refer to rulers of western kingdoms. The use of this term and the epithet “Ruman” for Alexander in the previous episode remind readers of his Mediterranean origins, at the same time that the narrative content of the tale integrates him into Middle Eastern culture.
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Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "A Medieval Masterpiece from Baghdad: the Ann Arbor Shahnama"
August 14 through December 19, 2004