Another Look at the Woman Gazing at her Reflection

         

When I first wrote about this Ottoman manuscript folio, I focused on the ways that it represents the role of the scribe and the importance of writing as an art in the Middle Ages. Looking at it again, however, I realize that it exemplifies many other aspects of the Medieval world that I have learned about in the past few weeks. As I revisit the “Woman Gazing at her Reflection” I will focus on the object as a representation of poetry and a symbol of material wealth, as well as discuss some of the visual aspects of the folio as a work of art.

            These pages are from a manuscript of the Rawda al-Ushshaq or “Garden of Lovers” recorded by Arifi, the official court historian of Suleyman the Magnificent. The story itself is an Islamic tale modeled after the Ferdowsi’s Shahnama in meter and style. The first pages of the manuscript are an introduction about the prophet followed by section dedicated to praising the ruler. This particular folio contains one of only three paintings in the entire manuscript, and it depicts Alexander the Great (left) looking at the unnamed woman gazing at her reflection in a pool of water (right). According to the story, it is in this moment that Alexander is inspired to invent a mirror out of glass.

            The sheer elegance of the way this folio looks says a lot about the value of poetry in the Middle Ages. It features gold and blue pigments, and it uses paper rather luxuriously with the pictures and writing taking up only about half of each page. Manuscripts like this one took months to produce in workshops of scribes and artists working tirelessly to create a book of incredible value. These books were reserved for the royal class and they were more a symbol of wealth and power than objects for reading. In this way, poetry was not only a cultural tradition but in cases like these, a sort of delicacy. The poet, in turn, was also a highly regarded figure as is recounted in Nizami Aruzi’s Four Discourses. The anecdotes featured in the Second Discourse tell tales of poets who served the royal class and were honored with great fame and material wealth.

            It is worth noting that the poet’s job was not to create new and original poetry as we might assume in the modern day. The Rawda al-Ushshaq must have been a story that was told and retold several times before Arifi created this manuscript. There is no definite creator of the tale and the Garden of Lovers that Arifi recorded must be an amalgamation of versions told by poets and orators through the ages. The poem was not even totally original in the first place– its style mimics the Shahnama. This sort of copying and reworking is common in Medieval Islamic poetry. To innovate would be to challenge divine power, so the poet’s job was to reuse verses already circulating in his culture. The Shahnama in particular is one of the most prominent works of Persian poetry ever written and I imagine that multiple poems have been modeled after it.

            Apart from the content of the script, there are some interesting points about the imagery and aesthetics of the folio that I did not notice when I first looked at it. One thing is the posing of Alexander the Great. He is pictured with his finger in his mouth, which I have learned is a symbol of amazement. This makes sense since this is the scene where he has a revelation about mirrors. However, this pose is commonly seen in background figures or minor characters who represent spectators of the scene. The fact that a major character is depicted with this pose raises the question of whether the finger biting means the same thing in both cases. The text in the painting is also a curious aspect of the piece. While the rest of the text is written in neatly separated boxes, this page contains text that is integrated with the illustration. This makes me wonder what this text might say. What makes it special? Is it a verse from the story or is it something else?

            Revisiting the Woman Gazing at her Reflection has made me realize that this folio is much more than a scribal object. It is also a poem, an object of wealth and power, and a work of art. It tells not only the story of the Rawda al-Ushshaq but also many stories about the Medieval Islamic world.