Author
Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Mūsá al-Dīrī
Publication Date
10 Shawwal 821 (AH, Hijri)
Publication Place
Cairo? -
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
264 x 170 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 10885
Record ID
vdc_100028632255.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
10 Shawwal 821 (AH, Hijri)
Notes
Intermediate recension (intermediate) of a zoological encyclopedia by Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Musa al-Damīrī (Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Musa al-Damīrī, d. 1405). The work, arranged in alphabetical order, deals not only with strictly zoological material, but also with lexical and legal considerations of animals, their medical uses and appearances in proverbs, hadith and dream interpretation.
The copy was completed, for the scribe's own use, on 10 Shawwāl 821/10 November 1418 by Shihab Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Raslān ibn Naṣīr al-Kitābī al-Bulqīnī al-Shāfi‘ī (Shahab Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Raslan ibn Nasir al-Kitabi al-Balqini al-Shafi‘i), descendent of a well-known and influential Cairene family of Shāfi‘ī legal scholars and judges (see see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 224r, lines 14-16 and 30-33, transcribed below; and Petry,
The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages
[Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1981] pp. 11–11. 232-40). The scribe tells us that he copied the text from two manuscripts. The first portion of the text, up to the letter
ẓā’
, he copied from a manuscript of Shaykh Taj al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Samannūdī al-Muqri’, known as Ibn Tamrīyah Tamriyah, d. 1433), who was Qur‘ān reciter (
muqri’
), preacher (
khatīb
) at the Bashtāk Mosque in Cairo and associated with al-Damīrī (see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 224r, lines 18-19, transcribed below; and Ibn Hajar al-ʻAsqalānī,
Inba' al-ghumr bi-anba' al-'umr
, ed. by Hasan Habashi, vol. 3 [Lajnat Iḥyā al-Turāth al-Islāmī : al-Qāhirah, 1972] p. 529). The second portion of the text, from the letter
‘ayn
to the end of the work, he copied from a copy copied from the author's autograph copy (see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 224r, lines 19-20, transcribed below) in a volume at Mecca. The copy was collated with the author's autograph copy read by the legal scholar (
faqīh
) Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn ‘Ubād ibn ‘Alī al-Mālikī al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī al-Zarzarā’ī (Zayn al-Dīn 'Ibād ibn 'Ali al-Malikī al-Ansari al-Khazrajī al-Zarzarā'ī, d. 1443; see Suyūṭī,
Bughyat al-wuʿāh and ṭabaqāt al-lughawīyīn wa-al-nuḥāh
, ed. by Muhammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm [(al-Qāhirah): Maṭbaʿat ʿĪsá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1964-65] vol. 2, p. 26 [no. 1341]), and the collation was completed on 14 Dhū al-Qa‘dah 810/11 April 1408 (see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 224r, lines 24-27, transcribed below).
The upper cartouche on the illuminated title page (f. 2r) contains the title of the text (Book of the Life of the Middle Animal) and the lower cartouche contains the name of the author (للشيخ العلامة كمالدين الدميري). Between these two catouches is a
shamsah
in which there is an erased inscription.
Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-3):
Praise be to Allah, Who has honored the kind of man with the smallest heart and tongue and the virtue above other animals.
It is the blessing of logic and explanation and the benefit of the mind that weighs the judgments of measurement in the best scale.
Ends (f. 224r, lines 10-13):
... هذا ما أنتهى إليه
الغرض مما achieves in this الشأن الأكتفاء وتم ملك النحل الذي أستخرج الله من
Playing with honey and candles and making one of us shine and eventually healing and leading to the king of the beast
Whoever takes the courage and counts on Allah Almighty and sufficient and Allah sent Muhammad the Prophet Mustafa
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 224r, lines 14-33):
It is attached to himself and, God willing, he will be less than Obaid Allah and submit them to mercy
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Raslan ibn Nasir
الكتابي نسبًا البلقيني الدًا الشفعي مذهبًا غفر الله تعالى له ولوالده
And whoever looks at it and prays for forgiveness for all Muslims and those who comment on it
Copies from the first to the last chapter of the torch from the Sheikh's version
Al-Fadel al-Khatib Taj al-Din al-Samnoudi al-Shahir Babin Tamriyah and Man Bab
Look at the last book from the copy of the translation from the author's copy (may Allah have mercy on him).
المجلدة بمكة المشرفة The glory of Allah and its greatness with us (?)
In this series our account appears to mention the author of the copy mentioned in
The latter, for example (?) is a mature counterpart to the author's line
Reciter Sheikh Zain al-Din Ebadah (!) Al-Maliki al-Ansari
Al-Khazraj and Kan Al-Mamsk from Muhammad whento our covenant
May Allah have mercy on him according to the strength in the fourteenth day of the month of Qa'dah
Twenty-seven years are the only gaps from suspension
This is the blessed version on Wednesday
The tenth of Shawwal
Sana'a 821
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Edinme Kaynağı
Presented by Jane D. Wood, 14 July 1928
Köken
Partially covered seal, without date (f. 2r)
Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī ibn Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī, his inscription, without date
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Editions of long recension:
Damīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá,
Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā
, ed. by Muḥammad Quṭṭāh al-ʻAdawī, 2 vols (al-Qāhirah: Bulāq, 1868)
Damīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá,
Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā
, ed. by Aḥmad Ḥasan Basaj (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻilmīyah, 1994)
Damīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá,
Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrá
, ed. by Muḥammad ʻAbd al-Qādir al-Fāḍilī, 2 vols (Bayrūt: al-Maktabah al-ʻAṣrīyah, 2005)
Translation of long recension:
Damīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá,
A̲d-Damîrî's Ḥayât al-ḥayawân, a zoological lexicon
, trans. by A.S.G. Jayakar, 2 vols (London: Luzac, 1906-08)
Studies:
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʻAsqalānī, Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī,
Inbā’ al-ghumr bi-anbā’ al-‘umr
, ed. by Ḥasan Ḥabashī, 5 vols (Lajnat Iḥyā al-Turāth al-Islāmī: al-Qāhirah, 1969-98)
Kamāladdīn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ad-Damīrī (d. 808/1405) and his Kitāb Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān : Texts and Studies
, ed. by Fuat Sezgin et al., (Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 2001)
Petry, Carl F.,
The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages
(Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1981)
Sezgin, Fuat,
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums
, vol. (Leiden: Brill, 197#), pp
Somogyi, Joseph de, 'Index des sources de la Ḥayât al-ḥayawân de ad-Damîrî',
Journal asiatique
133 (1928), pp. 5-128
Somogyi, Joseph, 'Ad-Damīrī's Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān: An Arabic Zoological Lexicon',
Osiris
9 (1950), pp. 33-43
Suyūṭī,
Bughyat al-wuʿāh fī ṭabaqāt al-lughawīyīn wa-al-nuḥāh
, ed. by Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, 2. vols ([al-Qāhirah]: Maṭbaʿat ʿĪsá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1964-65)
Ullmann, Manfred,
Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam
(Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 39-40
