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Or 10885

Record Id:

032-003309600

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003309600

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100028632255.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100048233169.0x000002

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Or 10885

Title:

Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-wusṭá كتاب حياة الحيوان الوسطى

Damīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá دميري، محمد بن موسى

Scope & Content:

Intermediate recension (وسطى) of a zoological encyclopedia by Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Mūsá al-Damīrī (كمال الدين محمد بن موسى الدميري, 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 Shihāb Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Raslān ibn Naṣīr al-Kitābī al-Bulqīnī al-Shāfi‘ī (شهاب أحمد بن محمد بن أبي بكر بن رسلان بن نصير الكتابي البلقيني الشافعي), descendent of a well-known and influential Cairene family of Shāfi‘ī legal scholars and judges (see see colophon, 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. 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 Tāj al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Samannūdī al-Muqri’, known as Ibn Tamrīyah (تاج الدين محمد بن أبي بكر بن محمد السمنودي المقرئ الشهير بابن تمرية, d. 1433), who was Qur‘ān reciter (muqri’), preacher (khaṭīb) at the Mosque of Bashtāk (جامع بشتاك) in Cairo and associate of al-Damīrī (see colophon, f. 224r, lines 18-19, transcribed below; and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʻAsqalānī, Inbā’ al-ghumr bi-anbā’ al-‘umr, ed. by Ḥasan Ḥabashī, 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, 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 (زين الدين عباد بن علي المالكي الأنصاري الخزرجي الزرزرائي, d. 1443; see Suyūṭī, Bughyat al-wuʿāh fī ṭabaqāt al-lughawīyīn wa-al-nuḥāh, ed. by Muḥammad 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, f. 224r, lines 24-27, transcribed below).

The upper cartouche on the illuminated title page (f. 2r) contains the title of the text (كتاب حياة الحيوان الوسطى) and the lower cartouche contains the name of the author (للشيخ العلامة كمال الدين الدميري). Between these two catouches is a shamsah in which there is an erased inscription.

Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-3):

الحمد لله الذي شرف نوع الإنسان بالأصغرين القلب واللسان وفضله على غير الحـ[ـيوان]

بنعمتي المنطق والبيان ورجحه بالعقل الذي وزن به قضايا القياس في أحسن [ميزان]

Ends (f. 224r, lines 10-13):

... هذا ما أنتهى إليه

الغرض مما يحصل به في هذا الشأن الأكتفاء وختم بملك النحل الذي استخرج الله من

لعابة العسل والشمع وجعل أحدهما ضياء والآخر شفاء وابتدئ بملك الوحش

الذي منه الشجاعة تقتفي وحسبنا الله تعالى وكفي وصلى الله على محمد النبي المصطفى

Colophon (f. 224r, lines 14-33):

علقه لنفسه وإن شاء الله تعالى من بعده أقل عبيد الله وأفقرهم إلى رحمة

المعترف بالتقصير الراجي عفو ربه القدير أحمد بن محمد بن أبي بكر بن رسلان بن نصير

الكتابي نسبًا البلقيني بلدًا الشافعي مذهبًا غفر الله تعالى له ولوالده

ولمن نظر فيه ودعا له بالمغفرة ولجميع المسلمين وكان تعليق ذلك من

نسختين فمن الأول إلى الآخر باب الظاء المشالة من نسخة الشيخ

الفاضل الخطيب تاج الدين السمنودي الشهير بابن تمريّة ومن باب

العين إلى آخر الكتاب من نسخة نقلت من نسخة مؤلفها رحمه الله

المجلدة بمكة المشرفة شرفها الله تعالى وعظمها معانا (؟)

عليها مجررة حسبما يعرض لذكر ذلك كاتب النسخة المذكورة في

آخرها بما مثاله (؟) بلغ مقابلة على خط المؤلف وكان

القارئ الشيخ زين الدين عباده (!) المالكي الأنصاري

الخزرجي وكان الممسك له محمد كاتبه يعهدهما

الله رحمته حسب الطاقة في رابع عشر ذا (!) القعدة الحرام

سنة عشر ثمانمائة انتهى وكان الفراغ من تعليق

هذه النسخة المباركة في يوم الأربعاء

العاشر من شوال المبارك

سنة 821

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003309600

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003309600

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. ii+225+i

Digitised Content:

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100028632255.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1418

End Date:

1418

Date Range:

10 Shawwāl 821

Calendar:

Hijri qamari

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 264 x 170 mm leaf [210 x 135 mm written]

Foliation: Eastern Arabic foliation in black ink; British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah; 35 lines per page; vertical spacing 17 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh; the scribe is Shihāb Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Raslān ibn Naṣīr al-Kitābī al-Bulqīnī al-Shāfi‘ī (شهاب أحمد بن محمد بن أبي بكر بن رسلان بن نصير الكتابي البلقيني الشافعي; see colophon, f. 224r, lines 15-16)

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and some words filled in red

Decoration: Illuminated title page, with central shamsah

Binding: British Museum half-leather binding in red

Condition: Minor insect damage, lower margins repared towards front of volume

Marginalia: Marginal notes, many by the hand of the main scribe; see in particular ff. 54r and 116

Seals: f. 2r

Custodial History:

Partially covered seal, without date (f. 2r)

Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī ibn Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī, his inscription, without date

Source of Acquisition:

Presented by Jane D. Wood, 14 July 1928

Administrative Context:

Cairo?

Publications:

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

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Damīrī, Kamal al-Din Muḥammad ibn Mūsá, writer, called Al-Damiri, 1341?-1405

Subjects:

Islamic law
Zoology --Pre-Linnean works