No. 10 Eskandar (Alexander the Great) visits the Ka‘ba Ferdowsi, Shahnameh Timurid: Shiraz, c.1435–1440 Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 22-1948, fol. 18v
The story of Alexander the Great, called Eskandar in the Shahnameh, is an important chapter in the epic. On his way from India to North Africa he made a stop in Mecca, which may be seen as a rite of passage in his long journey towards self-discovery. Eskandar paid his respects to the Ka‘ba, the House of Abraham, which Ferdowsi describes, as ‘the place of worship before any others existed … where God causes you to worship and to remember him.’ Here, Eskandar watches as a pilgrim reaches for the door handle of the Ka‘ba; in later versions Eskandar himself is depicted as a pilgrim. For other illustrations from the same manuscript see Nos. 6, 7, 40, 41 and 42. No. 10 • Next Section
