Author
al-Malik al-Mujāhid 'Alī ibn Dāwūd
Publication Date
Early 17th century (CE, Gregorian)
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
230 x 146 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 3830
Record ID
vdc_100099038760.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
Early 17th century (CE, Gregorian)
Notes
A treatise on the selection, management, and training of horses, and on horse physiology and the treatment of diseases. The present copy is incomplete, ending abruptly at a section on elephants from the final chapter on other beasts of burden.
The text was originally written ca. 1330 by al-Malik al-Mujāhid ʻAlī ibn Dāwūd (الملك المجاهد علي بن داوود), Rasulid Sultan of Yemen (reg. 1321-62). The title appears at the end of the author's introduction (f. 5r, lines 16-17), while the author is named in an added title on f. 2r. The author states that the work is based on his personal knowledge and experience with horses and not only on written sources, as other treatises were.
The work is divided into an introduction and six chapters (أقوال):
Introduction (ff. 2v-5r);
Chapter one, on what is said about the virtues of horses in the Qur'an (القول الأول فيما جاء في فضائل الخيل في الكتاب العزيز; ff. 5r-12r);
Chapter two, on the characteristics, constitution, colours, marks and names [of horses] القول الثاني في صفاتها وخلقها وألوانها وشياتها وأسمائها; ff. 12r-48r);
Chapter three, on pregnancy, breeding and raising of [horses] (القول [الثالث] في ذكر حملها ونتاجها وتربيتها; ff. 48r-71r);
Chapter four, on illnesses, their causes and treatments and on the disease which affected them in 727[/1326-7] in Yemen (القول الرابع في ذكر أمراضها وأسبابها ومداواتها وذكر العلة التي حدثت بها في سنة سبع وعشرين وسبعمائة بإقليم اليمن; ff. 71r-91v);
Chapter five, on the names of famous horses from the Jāhilīyah and the Islamic era ( القول الخامس في ذكر أسماء الخيل المشهورة في الجاهلية والإسلام; ff. 91v-112r);
Chapter six, on foreign breeds of horses, draught horses and mules (في ذكر خيول العجم والبراذين والبغال; ff. 112r-128r).
The front and back folios of this volume (ff. 1r-2r and 128v) are annotated with numerous ownership notes, magic squares with Solomonic symbols, and poetry.
Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-4):
الحمد لله اللطيف بخلقه المتكفل لهم قبل السؤال بسابغ رزقه أحمده
على نعمه وهو خير في أنعم واستمره في فضله وهو القادر الأعظم
المحكم لمخلوقاته ومصنوعاته وهو أجل في صنع وأحكم...
Ends (f. 128r, lines 14-17):
إن الفيل جوهر يموت في السنة التي يموت فيها السلطان الملك
المطهر (!) قبل أن يمرض الفيل بزمان طويل فمات الفيل في تلك السنة
ولم تطل مدة الخليفة بعد ذلك وقيل إن عمر الفيل ثلثمائة سنة
وقالوا ظهر فيل في أيام المتوكل فعاش أربعمائة سنة والله أعلم
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Bulma Yardımcıları
Rieu, Charles,
Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum
(London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 816, pp. 553
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from Eduard Glaser (1855-1908), 13 July 1889 (No. 118)
Köken
Undeciphered ownership note, with date Jumādá I 1177/November-December 1763 (f. 1r);
ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz ibn Muḥammad (عبد العزيز بن محمد): his ownership note, with date 1173/1759-60 (f. 2r);
Note with date 14 Dhū al-Qaʻdah 1114/1 April 1703 (f. 2r)
Yaḥyá ibn ʻUmar (يحيى بن عمر) : his ownership note, with date 1034/1624-5 (f. 2r);
Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-R... [name element lost through trimming] (محمد ابن عبد الر...): his ownership note (f. 2r);
Qāsim ibn ʻAbd al-Rabb (قاسم ابن عبد الرب): his ownership note (f. 72r).
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Edition:
Al-Malik al-Mujāhid ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd ibn Yūsuf ibn ʻUmar al-Rasūlī al-Ghassānī,
al-Aqwāl al-kāfīyah wa-al-fu
ṣ
ūl al-shāfiyah fī al-khayl
, ed. by Yaḥyā Jabūrī (Bayrūt: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1987)
Study:
Shehada, Housni Alkhateeb,
Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam
(Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2013), pp. 148-56
