‘Ayyārān play an important role in a number of Persian prose romances. Only in a few instances such figures entered polite literature where, as can be expected, they were not easy at home. The transplantation from prose romance to romantic mathnavī resulted in a major transformation of the ‘ayyār figure. The changes, however, were not only due to the incorporation into a different genre but also reflected the supplanting of the ‘ayyār by the shāṭir that took place in the real world.
The paper analyses the changes in character and function of the ‘ayyār in the mathnavī Jamāl va Jalāl as it is preserved in the manuscript O Nova 2 at the Library of Uppsala University. It is based upon visual evidence as well as on textual, thereby taking into account that the 33 miniatures in O Nova 2 represent an early-16th-century interpretation of a text which was most probably composed in the early 15th century.
The author, Muhammad Nazlabadi, explicitly states that Jamal’s efforts to find his beloved Jamal describe the mystical quest, and that the ‘ayyār with the telling name Faylasuf symbolises love (‘ishq). This Faylasuf still successfully deals with the perils encountered on the journey as this happens in the prose romances. However, he is no longer provided with the support net of comrades that made him an independent actor but has to rely on help from Jamal and other fairies as well as on his new ability as a sorcerer.
While the text transforms the ‘ayyār into a kind of fairy the illustrations don’t visualise his daring actions but portray him nearly exclusively as the omnipresent servant: running in front of his prince, taking care of the horse, unloading pack animals. Still not formally dressed he appears on most miniatures as a shāṭir.
