Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Or 6493

Record Id:

032-003464773

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003464773

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100088052934.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100100864304.0x000002

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Or 6493

Title:

Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān كتاب حياة الحيوان

Damīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá دميري، محمد بن موسى

Scope & Content:

A zoological encyclopaedia by Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Mūsá al-Damīrī (كمال الدين محمد بن موسى الدميري, d. 1405). The work, completed in draft in 773/1371-2 and arranged in alphabetical order, deals not only with strictly zoological material, but also with legal considerations about animals, their medical uses and appearances in proverbs, hadith and dream interpretation.

The present copy was completed at the beginning of Rabīʿ II 841/October 1437 at the Madrasah al-Sharafīyah in Aleppo, Syria, by Muḥammad ibn Ibrahīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Sallāmī (محمد بن ابرهيم بن محمد بن عبد الله بن يوسف السلامي; see colophon, f. 357v, line 15, transcribed below).

Reading notes of Ibrahīm ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Mullā Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Mullā (إبرهيم بن أحمد بن الملا محمد الشهير بابن الملا), many dated Ṣafar 1014/June-July 1605, are found on ff. 4r, 75r, 122v, 174r, 180v and 357v (underneath the colophon).

A marginal note on f. 6v records the endowment of the volume by al-Ḥājj Sulaymān ibn Ḥājj Ismaʿīl ibn Farhād (الحاج سليمان ابن حاج إسمعيل بن فرهاد) to the ‘the madrasa he built in the mosque known as the congregational mosque of al-Ḥājj al-Ḥusayn, which is located in the citadel (?) of Kirkūk [Iraq]’ (المدرسة التي بناها في الجامع الشهير بجامع الحاج الحسين الواقعة بقلعة [؟] كركوك), in 1226/1811.

Begins (f. 4v, lines 2-7):

قال الشيخ الإمام العلامة حجة الأدب ولسان العرب جامع إثبات

الفضائل بركة المسلمين ابو البقاء محمد كمال الدين بن موسى بن عيسى الدميري

الشافعي سقي الله ثراه وجعل الجنة مأواه

الحمد لله الذي شرف نوع الإنسان بالأصغرين القلب واللسان وفضله على

سائر الحـيوان بنعمتي المنطق والبيان ورجحه بالعقل الذي وزن به قضايا

القياس في أحسن ميزان...

Ends (f. 357v, lines 9-12):

...هذا ما أنتهى إليه الغرض

مما يحصل به في هذا الشأن الاكتفاء وختم بملك النحل الذي استخرج الله من لعابة الشمع

والعسل وجعل أحدهما ضياء والآخر شفاء وابتدئ بملك الوحش الذي منه الشجاعة

تقتفي وحسبنا الله تعالى وكفي آخر كتاب حياة الحيوان

Colophon (f. 357v, lines 13-17):

فرغ من كتابته يوم الأربعاء مستهل شهر ربيع الآخر سنة إحدى وأربعين وثمانمائة

بالمدرسة الشرفية بحلب المحروسة فقير عفو الله تعالى

محمد بن ابرهيم بن محمد بن عبد الله بن يوسف السلامي عفا الله عنه

والحمد لله وحده وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم

وحسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Qatar Foundation Partnership Programme

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-003464773", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Or 6493: Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān كتاب حياة الحيوانDamīrī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsá دميري، محمد بن موسى" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003464773

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003464773

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. i+359+i

Digitised Content:

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100088052934.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1437

End Date:

1437

Date Range:

Rabīʿ II 841

Calendar:

Hijri qamari

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Eastern laid paper

Dimensions: 272 x 170 mm leaf [175 x 113 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah; 23 lines per page; vertical spacing 13 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh; the scribe is Muḥammad ibn Ibrahīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Sallāmī (محمد بن ابرهيم بن محمد بن عبد الله بن يوسف السلامي; see colophon, f. 357v, line 15).

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in red

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum binding

Condition: Good; visible transferred marks from envelope flap of previous binding (ff. 1-5)

Marginalia: Corrections, commentaries, and collation notes throughout in red and black ink.

Seals: F. 6v; Brown British Museum seal (ff. 3r, 358v, 359v)

Custodial History:

Many ownership inscriptions on ff. 2r-6v, including:

al-Ḥājj Sulaymān ibn Ḥājj Ismaʿīl ibn Farhād (الحاج سليمان ابن حاج إسمعيل بن فرهاد): his endowment statement, with date Sunday 10 Jumādá I 1226/2 June1811 recording the endowment of the manuscript to the ‘the madrasa he built in the mosque known as the congregational mosque of al-Ḥājj al-Ḥusayn, which is located in the citadel (?) of Kirkūk [Iraq]’ (المدرسة التي بناها في الجامع الشهير بجامع الحاج الحسين الواقعة بقلعة [؟] كركوك), and his seal with date 1226/1811-2 (f. 6v);
Muḥammad Ḥasbī Zādah (?) ([محمد حسبي زاده [؟): his inscription with date 1178/1764-5 recording his purchase of the manuscript from the bookdealer (or bookbinder) al-Sayyid ʿAṭ[āʾ] Allāh (السيد عط الله الصحاف, f. 1r);
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥājj (محمد ابن الحاج): his inscription with date 1075/1664-5 (f. 4r);
Ibrahīm ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Mullā Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Mullā (إبرهيم بن أحمد بن الملا محمد الشهير بابن الملا): his ownership inscription with date early Ṣafar 1014/ June 1605 (f. 357v).

Source of Acquisition:

Purchased from Ibrahim Elias Gejou, 7 April 1903

Administrative Context:

Aleppo, Syria

Finding Aids:

Ellis, A.G. and Edward Edwards, A Descriptive List of the Arabic Manuscripts Acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894 (London: British Museum, 1912), p. 47.

Publications:

Editions of large 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 large 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:

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)

Somogyi, Joseph de, 'Index des sources de la Ḥayât al-ḥayawân de ad-Damîrî', Journal asiatique 133 (1928), pp. 5-128

Somogyi, Josef, 'Ad-Damīrī's Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān: An Arabic Zoological Lexicon', Osiris 9 (1950), pp. 33-43

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