A new interpretation of some drawings from the Hazine (Istanbul) and Diez (Berlin) albums illustrating the tortoise and the heron (or crane)

Nine ink drawings on as many pages — seven preserved at the Topkapı Sarayı Library in Istanbul (from H. 2152, 2153, and 2160) and two at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin (from the Diez Albums), respectively — illustrate a tortoise apparently fighting with one or two herons (or cranes). Instead, a narrative context is suggested herein, dating back to the Indian oral literature, which derives from the Chinese one, and later encountering the Pañcatantra and the Islamic versions narrating the tale of the tortoise and the two geese, thus in some cases producing an iconographic-narrative synthesis of the two traditions. If the hypothesis is correct and the drawings actually do depict such a scene, the fact that the images follow a version of the tale that was little known in the Islamic world but probably more widespread in the Eastern world could contribute to the attribution of the drawings, as the bird species depicted — typical of central and southern Asia — would seem to confirm.