『海の老人』の図像成立をめぐって
「千夜一夜物語」の挿絵と人魚図像
1996 年 39 巻 1 号 p. 127-148
詳細
1996 年 39 巻 1 号 p. 127-148
The purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency between the story of Sindbad the Sailor and the illustration of the Old Man of the Sea. This miniature, which is supposed to depict the Old Man of the Sea and Sindbad the Sallor, does not belong to the manuscript on the so-called “The Arabian Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla)”, but is an astrological work by Abü Mâ'shar al-Balkhî kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Ms. Or. 133). This manuscript Kitâb al-Bulhân, which was copied in 1399, consists of 176 folios with 83 miniatures, and the illustrations were painted during the reign of the last ruler of the Jalâyrid dynasty, Ahamad ibn Uways (ruled 1382-1410). These miniatures could be classified into six parts according to their contents, and the illustration in question belongs to the legendary part. However, it has no text but only the inscription “shaykh al-bahr (the old man of the sea) wa…”. Therefore, T. W. Aronld and the author of the monograph Il Kitâb al-Bulhân di Oxford, Stefano Carboni insisted that the story of Sindbad the Sailor lies in the background of this illustration.
It is indeed that several miniatures in the part originated in the legend of Sindbad the Sailor or Sindbad cycle, however, the figure of the old man is definitely inconsistent with the story. The lower half of his body was depicted fish-tailed. To conclude the story, he would need his own strong legs. The same type of the illustration can be recognized in MS. suppl. turc 242 (fol. 79v.) kept in Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
From the aspect of literary history, it is clear that the fabulous monster the Old Man of thd Sea originated as a Persian (or Indian) monster Duwâl-Pâ. Lane, one of the translators of “The Arabian Nights”, argued that this fabulous monster was inspired from an orangoutan, or as the curious island people mentioned in Kitâb 'Ajâ'ib al-Makhlûqât by Qazwînî, thus, the name the Old Man of the Sea itself was not so important.
From the view point of art history, the figures of these monsters were completely different from that of the Old Man of the Sea on Or. 133.
Tracing the term to its origin, as M. Gerhardt mentioned, it seemed to be derived from the Greek, halios gerôn. Consequently, the study of the history of the illustrations of halios gerôn made it clear that the miniature painter who depicted the folio referred to the traditional figure of the Old Man of the Sea which had been spread all over the Mediterranean world since ancient time.
