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100 6 From Adam to Süleyman Visual Representations of Authority in ʿĀrif’s Shāhnāma-yi Āl-i ʿOs ˉ mān Fatma Sinem Eryılmaz In the spring of 1558, the court eulogist ʿĀrif was ready to present the first complete volume of his dynastic literary project Shāhnāma-yi Āl-i ʿOs ˉ mān (The Shāhnāma of the House of ʿOs ˉ mān) to his patron and king Süleyman (r. 1520–1566), the tenth sultan in the dynastic line of Osman.1 ʿĀrif’s was a universal history project consisting of five volumes.2 The first volume, entitled Anbiyānāma (The Book of Prophets), narrates in Persian verse a selection of stories of the biblical antediluvian prophets, including Adam (Ādam), Seth (Shīsh), Enosh (Anūsh), Cainan (Kanʿān), Mahalaleel (Mahlāʾīl), Jared (Barad), Enoch (Idrīs), and Noah (Nūh ˙ ).3 The narrative also mentions leading figures from Iranian mythic history, such as kings Kayumars (Kayūmars ˉ ), Zahhak (D ˙ ah ˙ h ˙ āk), and (especially) Jamshid (Jamshīd).4 In fact, as the title of ʿĀrif’s project indicates, the literary and, to a lesser extent, visual program of Shāhnāma-yi Āl-i ʿOs ˉ mān adopted the Persian poet Firdawsī’s (d. 1020) classic rendering of Iranian mythic history in his Shāhnāma written at the beginning of the eleventh century. In Anbiyānāma, two of the ten miniatures depict selected moments from the reign of the great Iranian King Jamshid: Jamshid with the old lady and Jamshid being slain in two.5 Aspiring to write a second Shāhnāma, the great classic of the Islamicate cultural world, more than five hundred years later was a rather daring—if not arrogant—feat for a writer. Adapting an epic that chronicles the mythic past of a rivaling eastern neighbor in order to glorify Ottoman lineage and its contemporaneous descendants could have been considered downright haughty. Leaving the possible judgment of their Safavid contemporaries aside, what concerns us here is the visual and literary descriptions of the ideal ruler in Anbiyānāma. I have argued elsewhere that the Ottoman Shāhnāma of ʿĀrif portrays Sultan Süleyman as an ideal ruler, divinely selected and favored to lead, guide, and legislate humanity, over whom he also had the right to exercise jurisdiction.6 In this essay, I argue that the foundations for the image of Süleyman as a quasi-prophet-king were established in word and image in the first volume of ʿĀrif’s Anbiyānāma. From Adam to Süleyman | 101 Adam’s Authority If Anbiyānāma has a primary hero, it is certainly Adam. After the twelve introductory folios, fifteen of the remaining thirty-five explain the story of Adam from God’s blowing of his soul into Adam’s body to his death. Three of the ten miniatures in the visual program of the book were also dedicated to moments in Adam’s life. They depict Adam giving the first sermon,7 Eve giving Adam the grain of Paradise,8 and the sacrifice of his sons Cain and Abel.9 The visual representation of Adam’s leadership in the first two of these three images in Anbiyānāma will be the first analytical focus of this essay. In the second chapter (sūra) of the Qurʾan it is written that God announced to the angels his intention to create a viceroy. When the angels showed their dismay by questioning his decision to create a human being who would cause war and bloodshed on earth and to place him over the angels—who have always glorified and adored him—God reminded them that surely he knew things that the angels did not. God then taught Adam the names of all things and ordered him to teach these names to the angels.10 The knowledge of names—given to him by God—provided Adam a higher status than the angels, who had not been shown the same divine favor; Adam’s act of teaching these names to the angels, thereby sharing the knowledge given to him by the divine source, confirmed this supremacy.The first miniature of Adam in Anbiyānāma is a representation of this supremacy (fig. 6.1). In the miniature, a flying angel brings an already crowned Adam a bunch of grapes on a tray while the other angels are standing or kneeling before him respectfully. Adam...

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