BIBLIOTECA DI SILENO
diretta da
michele r. cataudella e giovanni salanitro
LA VETERINARIA ANTICA
E MEDIEVALE
TESTI GRECI, LATINI, ARABI E ROMANZI
ACuRAdI
vINCENZOORTOLEvAE MARIAROSARIApETRINGA
Atti del II Convegno internazionale
Catania, 3-5 ottobre 2007
Volume pubblicato con il contributo del
Dipartimento di Studi archeologici, filologici e storici dell’Università di Catania
©2009 LUMIÈRES INTERNATIONALES Lugano
E-mail: lumieresinternationales@yahoo.it
pROpRIETàARTISTICAELETTERARIARISERvATApERTuTTIIpAESI È vietata la traduzione, la memorizzazione elettronica,
la riproduzione totale e parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo, compresa la fotocopia, anche ad uso interno o didattico
Impaginazione e progetto grafico a cura di Athenaion
Copertina a cura di Milena Bobba
Transmission of Greek and Arabic veterinary literature
*VERONIKA GOEBEL -MARTIN HEIDE Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
1. Introduction.
The Arabic literature on equitation, hippology and veterinary medicine increased between the 5th and 15th centuries AD. These treatises generally co-vered the whole field of equestrian knowledge and consisted of furūsīya, the equestrian art, al-Cail, the hippology, and the principles of the care of horses and farriery, called bay+ara1. One of the oldest Arabic treatises dealing with hippology and hippiatry is the Kitāb al-furūsīya wa-l-bay+ara ascribed to MUCAMMAD IBN YA‘qub IBN A}iḤIZaM AL-ḪUTTaLi, who served in the second
half of the ninth century as equerry at the court of caliph al-Mu‛ta&im,
al-Mutawakkil or al-Mu‛ta#id2. The treatise is considered to hold a key position
in the transmission of hippiatric knowledge from the Greek Hippiatrica to the Arabic literature. A comparatively large number of Arabic manuscripts has been handed down3.
* The authors are grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for the
finan-cial support of the project “Zur Kontinuität des hippiatrischen Erbes der Antike im arabischen Sprachraum des Frühmittelalters” (Antrag PE 424/7-1; 7-3).
1 F. Viré, Faras, in B. Lewis - C. Pellat - J. Schacht (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of
Islam, 2, Leiden 1965, 784-787.
2 H. Ritter, Le parure des Cavaliers und die Literatur über die ritterlichen Künste,
«Der Islam» 18, 1929, 116-154.
3 The critical edition is forthcoming: M. Heide, Das Kit
āb al-Bay+ara von M
U-CAMMAD IBN YA‘qub IBNA}iḤIZaM AL-ḪUTTaLi. The following manuscripts were
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2. The Kitāb al-furūsīya wa-l-bay+ara.
The manuscripts of the Kitāb al-bay+ara comprise between 105 to 211 pages. They were written in Middle Arabic and range in date from the 13th to the 18th century AD. The oldest manuscript is housed in the British Library (Or 1523) and can be dated to the year 620 of the Hijra, or 1223 AD. We had no access to three copies of the Kitāb al-furūsīya wa-l-bay+ara from the libra-ries of India, Iraq and Bursa4. Additional copies from Leiden, Istanbul, and Vienna are likely not attributable to ibn a}īḤizām5, whereas one manuscript
(Pocock. 360), previously ascribed to Theomnestos, was identified as the work of ibn a}īḤizām6. In 1936 Björck already stated that “very important
material would be hidden in the manuscript sections”7. Copies in Persian, Turkish, Armenian, and Georgian language are known as well as retransla-tions from Armenian into Arabic8.
Those manuscripts which are preserved completely can be divided into four parts: A general introduction with diverse quotations from the Qur’an, poetry or religious literature9 is followed by a second part about the colours,
4 Bankipore nr. 114, Awad Iraq Museum nr. 7-8, Bursa Hüseyin Çelebi 833 (M.
Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam, Leiden/Köln 1970, 220; A. Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica,Göttingen 1966, 162).
5 Leiden 299 (3) Warn., Aya Sofia 3607, Wien 1478, 1479 (Heide, op. cit.,
Einlei-tung).
6 R. G. Hoyland, Theomnestus of Nicopolis,
Ḥunayn ibn IsCāq and the beginnings
of Islamic veterinary science, in R.G. Hoyland - Ph. F. Kennedy (ed.), Islamic Reflec-tions, Arabic Musings: Studies in Honour of Alan Jones, Cambridge 2004, 150-169.
7 G. Björck, Griechische Pferdeheilkunde in arabischer Überlieferung, «Le
Mon-de Oriental» 30, 1936, 1-12, here 8.
8 Ritter, op. cit., 116-154; J. von Somogyi Die Stellung ad-Dam
īrīs in der
arabi-schen Literatur, «Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes», 56 1960, 192-206; J. Dum-Tragut, Kilikische Heilkunst für Pferde. Das Vermächtnis der Armenier, Hildesheim 2005, 31-33 (three manuscripts are known, which were translated from Armenian into Arabic: British Library MS Or. 3133, National Library of Medicine Bethesda MS A4, Library Gotha MS 2087 and Heide, op. cit., Einleitung (Chester Beatty Library 3889)).
9 In almost each manuscript the scribes hinted to the fact that the Kit
āb al-bay+ara
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qualities and congenital defects of the horse and finally leads to the hippiatric part, which is in most cases subdivided into the description of the ailments and the prescriptions for their cure.
The hippiatric part, the Kitāb al-bay+ara, dedicates about 150 paragraphs to aetiologies and symptoms and about 400 paragraphs to therapeutic proced-ures. Whereas in two copies10 both sections have been intertwined, the symp-toms or maladies and their treatments are kept separately in most manu-scripts. The latter approach will be taken for the critical edition.
The first section which deals with the aetiologies and symptoms is di-vided into two chapters: The first chapter is entitled “The defects, which hap-pen to the horse” and totals 27 diseases, touching mainly problems of the ex-tremities. The second chapter is called “Characteristic features of the horse diseases and their symptoms”. It covers §§ 28 to 186 and focuses on the de-scriptions of diseases of all fundamental organs such as systemic diseases (e.g. example glanders) or diseases of the digestive system (e.g. colic). The section about the therapies contains the prescriptions and several longer lists of recipes. The headlines of these recipes usually refer to the diseases, but sometimes descriptions of their symptoms are lacking.
The paragraphs exhibit a rather uniform structure: Each headline men-tions the name of the disease, its localisation, and sometimes even a few symptoms. The description of these diseases is comparatively short and has mostly a prognosis attached. Whereas the authors of Late Antiquity explained the origin and pathogenesis of an ailment by means of the humoral theory, ibn a}īḤizām had a tendency to shorten this part. Sometimes he mentioned
the causes of a specific disease only in the prescriptions, as e.g. a certain dis-ease called “Hamar” corresponding to the Greek term krithiasis. Apsyrtos wrote that the name of the disease is deduced from the following incident: When a horse eats barley after running, the barley cannot be digested and spreads under the skin and into the body11. Ibn a}ī Ḥizām however, started
his description of the same malady with the following symptoms: The horse is breathless, it is disturbed and suffers from arthralgia12. In two recipes ibn
1972, 11 ff.; J. von Hammer-Purgstall, Das Pferd bei den Arabern, «Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Classe» 7, 1856, 147-204, here 201.
10 Chester Beatty Library: Arab. 3073 and Fatih Library: Fatih 3609.
11CHG I, II: E. Oder - C. Hoppe (ed.), Corpus Hippiatricorum Graecorum, vol. I,
Hippiatrica Berolinensia, Leipzig 1924 and vol. II, Hippiatrica Parisina, Cantabri-giensia, Londinensia, Lugdunensia,Leipzig 1927; here CHG I, 49.
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a}īḤizām recommends to avoid feeding of barley13, an indication that he was
aware of the dietary cause of laminitis. This abridgement does not indicate a lack of understanding of the humoral theory, but rather betrays the intention of the author to write a manual with the practitioner in view.
To a certain extent, this assumption is affirmed by the clear style of the language: Illustrative comparisons were used, for example, to describe the size of a swelling, which ibn a}īḤizām compared to an apple. Likewise, he
compared the consistence of an unguent to clay. The same metaphorical dic-tion, however, is found in chapters that derive from the Arabic Theomnestos and from the Greek Hippiatrica. In the paragraph about the “dry glanders” all authors agree that the specific cough caused by this malady sounds similar to a horse that has choked on a small bone14.
The way the therapies are dealt with in the Kitāb al-bay+ara can be com-pared to other hippiatric treatises from Late Antiquity. The indication in the headline is usually followed by an enumeration of the ingredients and their quantities, as well as the preparation, the mode and site of application. The selection of substances seems to be guided by the principles of the humoral theory. Some ingredients, however, are apparently of Arabic origin, as the fat of the camel hump (§ 1b) or borax-salt from Kirman (§ 1e). About 400 dif-ferent herbals, minerals and animal drugs could be counted. In the translation the Arabic terms will be presented together with their Greek and German equivalents, in the veterinary commentary their function and effects will be analysed. From a modern perspective, the combinations of drugs employed in the Kitāb al-bay+ara may be regarded as useful even today. Some of these substances are still recommended in recent veterinary pharmaceutical works, like coriander for the treatment of indigestions15. For each disease ibn a}ī Ḥizām provides a selection of different, partly complementary therapeutic
measures, starting with therapies for less severe cases and ending with treat-ments for patients with advanced stages.
3. The Greek sources of the Kitāb al-bay+ara. 3.1. Theomnestos.
Up to now it has been opinio communis that the texts of the Greek authors
13 Heide, op. cit., §§ 33b, c.
14 CHG I, 25; P. Kämpf, Die Kapitel über Erkrankungen im Brustraum und
Huf-rehe im Corpus Hippiatricorum Graecorum, Diss. med. vet.,München 1984, 35; S. Saker, Die Pferdeheilkunde des Theomnest von Nikopolis in arabischer Übersetzung, Diss. phil., Marburg forthcoming, ch. 3, 25-29; Heide, op. cit., § 29a.
15 J. Reichling - R. Gachnian-Mirtscheva - M. Frater-Schröder - R. Saller - A. Di
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of Late Antiquity known from the Corpus Hippiatricorum Graecorum served as a basis for the early phase of the Arabic hippiatric tradition16. The Arabic translation of the hippiatry of Theomnestos seems to mark the starting point of the Greek influence on early Arabic hippiatric literature17. Theomnestos is estimated one of the most experienced authors of Late Antiquity18. Two Ara-bic manuscripts have been handed down, each with 96 chapters19. Beginning with a short introduction, the most important diseases and symptoms such as glanders, headache, fever, cough, pain of all essential organs and serious maladies like tetanus and bites of snakes and other animals are described as well as different cures. The cures are mentioned immediately after the de-scriptions of the diseases. Theomnestos’ book closes with twenty chapters, containing recipes for all kinds of ailments20. All in all 88 chapters of the Arabic Theomnestos correspond to the manuscripts B, M, C of the Greek
Hippiatrica and 62 chapters correspond especially well to the M recension. In the M recension of the Greek Hippiatrica, however, only 72 excerpts have been ascribed to Theomnestos21. This difference of 24 chapters between the Arabic version of Theomnestos and the M recension could refer to the com-piler of the Greek Hippiatrica, who had left out these passages, because they overlapped with the texts of other authors22. In view of the various repetitions in this compilation and the presence of ten recipes in the M recension without parallels to the Arabic version, it seems more likely that more detailed ver-sions of Theomnestos’ treatises must have been available to the Greek
com-16 Björck, op. cit., 8.
17 Saker, op. cit., Einleitung. Since the 9th century AD an increasing inventory of
specialised works about the horse, his use for riding and hunting, and an important collection of veterinary literature has developed. The translation of Theomnestos trea-tise is dated to the middle of the ninth century (Ullmann, op. cit., 218).
18 J. Schäffer, Die Rezeptesammlung im Corpus Hippiatricorum Graecorum Band
I (Kapitel 129, 130; Appendices 1-9),Diss. med. vet., München 1981, 11; A. McCabe, A Byzantine Encyclopaedia of Horse Medicine, Oxford 2007, 181.
19 The translation and edition of the manuscripts Köprülü 959, Paris BN 2810 will
be published by Susanne Saker. Both manuscripts ascribe the translation of the Greek text of Theomnestos into Arabic to Ḥunain ibn IsCāq, but the terminology used for a number of diseases and drugs argue against this assumption (Saker, op. cit., Ein-leitung).
20 Only few diseases of the extremities were mentioned: The luxation of the
shoulder (ch. 50), the bruised heel (ch. 61), the remedies against joint disease, the hy-darthrosis of the fetlock joint and the distortion (ch. 86, 87, 93).
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piler and the Arabic translator.
There are not only some chapters which run parallel to the Greek Hippia-trica (e.g. the various recipes for pain of the liver23), there are also several references to other sources and to Theomnestos himself. All this indicates that the Arabic manuscripts are based on a compilation rather than on the ori-ginal treatise of Theomnestos. Susanne Saker differentiates between quota-tions of Nephon, Kassius, and Agathotychos, authors which were integrated in Theomnestos work formerly, and chapters, where the name of Apsyrtos is mentioned in the heading or which were ascribed to him with the words “also from him” such as in the chapters 28 and 29. In this case, Theomnestos’ name is mentioned in the following chapter to indicate the recurrence to his work24. This hints at an apparent integration of these quotations, which is known from the Greek Hippiatrica too: In the Greek Hippiatrica the chapter about heparalgia is entitled with “another of Kassius from the treatise of Theomnestos”25.
The work of Apsyrtos represents the principal source of Theomnestos’ treatise. Apsyrtos’ name, however, is only cited once in the chapter about mange, while Theomnestos rephrased the text of Apsyrtos several times without acknowledging him26. Apart from these verbatim adaptations the Arabic version quotes Apsyrtos eight times in the headings, which in the Greek compilation had been formulated as letters ascribed to him27. These apparent citations argue for an authored text, as do the introductions to new chapters as well as personal annotations, recurrent formulations and the uni-formity of the chapters28.
Already Björck suggested that ibn a}īḤizām employed mainly the
trea-tise of Theomnestos: “We assert confidently that Ibn abī Hazm had the
Ara-bic translation of the (in the Greek language only partly preserved) book of Theomnestos before him, made in the school of Hunain ibn IsCaq”29. He doc-umented this dependency by 37 parallels between the Greek Hippiatrica and
23 Saker ch. 28-31 and CHG I, 160-162. 24 Saker, op. cit.,Einleitung.
25CHG I, 161.
26 McCabe, op. cit.,202.
27 Exemplarily the title of chapter 15 is called “A description for diagnosing a
fe-verish horse according to Apsyrtos”. In the first sentence Theomnestos refers to Apsyrtos: “Already Apsyrtos has written about the feverish horse praiseworthy things, whose parts about diagnosis and treatment I will explain you” (Saker, op. cit,ch. 15).
28 Hoyland, op. cit., 159.
29 Björck, op. cit., 9. Hoyland recently confirmed this observation; see Hoyland,
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quotations of ibn a}īḤizām in the books of ibn al-‘Awwām, available to him
in the translation of Clément-Mullet. Furthermore, he compared the Greek
Hippiatrica with Perrons translation of the an-Nā&irī of ibn al-Mun{ir30.
To-day, the accordance of 80 chapters of the Arabic treatise of Theomnestos with the Kitāb al-bay+ara of ibn a}īḤizām can be evidenced. Ibn a}īḤizām, the
alleged author of the Kitāb al-bay+ara, integrated these chapters into his text without acknowledging any source. Although the translation of both treatises might have been made by the same school, there are some noteworthy lexical and syntactical differences: For example in Theomnestos text diarrhoea has been translated with {arab, whereas the Kitāb al-bay+ara labelled these symptoms as “bovine disease”. Furthermore, the number of paragraphs of the
Kitāb al-bay+ara exceeds the number of chapters in the Arabic treatise of Theomnestos considerably. One could therefore argue that additional sources of Greek origin must have been available to the author of the Kitāb
al-bay+ara, which were not handed down in any form as far as we could ascer-tain.
3.2. Hippiatrica.
More than 40 paragraphs from the Kitāb al-bay+ara show parallels to the Greek Hippiatrica, in particular to the texts of Theomnestos and Hierokles. These paragraphs are absent from the Arabic version of the treatise of Theomnestos. The first part of the Kitāb al-bay+ara, which specifies mainly diseases of the extremities, has almost no parallels in the Hippiatrica. This part of the Kitāb al-bay+ara, however, may depend on Greek sources as well31. This assumption is corroborated by the uniform structure of the whole book and the consistent lexical and syntactical style. In addition, one of the London copies lists five recipes of the first part and attributes them to a cer-tain “Byzantine hippiater named Aristotle”32, and in one paragraph ibn ahi Hizam refers to “old books” and “the Ancients”33. These treatises could have been written by authors that were not considered by the compiler of the Greek Hippiatrica but nevertheless were available to the author of the Kitāb
al-bay+ara.
Contrary to the first part of the Kitāb al-bay+ara, the second and the third parts display an increasing number of parallels to the Greek Hippiatrica as well as to the Arabic manuscripts of Theomnestos.
30 J.-J. Clément-Mullet, Ibn ’Awwâm: Le Livre de l’agriculture, Kitâb
al-Filâha, traduction de l’arabe de J.-J. Clément-Mullet, revue et corrigée, introduction de Mohammed El Faïz, Arles 2000; N. Perron, Le Nâcérî, Paris 1852-60.
31 Heide, op. cit., Einleitung.
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Different degrees of parallels can be differentiated: First of all, verbatim quotations, for example the description of dry glanders, were observed: The Greek text of Theomnestos in the Hippiatrica and the Arabic version starts this chapter with the pathogenesis according to the humoral theory. Ibn a}ī Ḥizām, however, quotes only the passage about the symptoms except for one
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Additionally to such close resemblances in contents, the Kitāb al-bay+ara also shows parallels in the structure. In the Kitāb al-bay+ara there are also several longer sequences of prescriptions without special symptoms, for ex-ample §§ 111b-z, which have already been observed in the Arabic treatise of Theomnestos (chapters 76-96) as well as in the M and B recension. They could refer to the pharmacopoea assembled in the manuals of Apsyrtos, Theomnestos, and Hierokles. This structure again corresponds to the one ob-served in other medical treatises34.
On the other hand, the structure of the Kitāb al-bay+ara differs from the Greek Hippiatrica and the Arabic treatise of Theomnestos in one major as-pect: Whereas in the latter sources the descriptions of the diseases are always presented together with the cures, almost all copies of the Kitāb al-bay+ara keep the diseases apart from their cures35.
Another particular feature, a case of “rearrangement” is found in the recipe for the disease called “‘Uqāl” (§ 15a): ‘Uqāl refers to a kind of
lame-ness of the hind leg of an animal, caused by a distorted femoral tendon. Mov-ing forward the animal adducts its leg closely to his belly. This description is similar to a disease known as the “cock’s gait”, which is characterised by an idiopathic and spasmodic adduction of one or both hind legs36. For the therapy of the ‘Uqāl, ibn a}ī Ḥizām recommends a recipe of a warming or
even heating medicine (§ 15b[2]), well known from Theomnestos’ famous story about tetanus, which affected the horses of emperor Licinius during the winter-passage over the alps. This remedy consists of 35 ingredients and was recommended for each kind of spasm caused by hypothermia. Ibn a}īḤizām
applies this therapy for treating the ‘Uqāl, in accordance with what its
origi-nal context might have been. Although the descriptions of tetanus in the
Kitāb al-bay+ara (§§ 58a-h, 72a-e) show a lot of parallels to the Arabic text of Theomnestos and the Greek Hippiatrica37, this particular recipe is missing here. Theomnestos, on the other hand, adds this recipe against spasm at the
34 G. Björck, Zum Corpus Hippiatricorum Graecorum. Beiträge zur antiken
Tier-heilkunde, Uppsala 1932, 27.
35 This separate arrangement could refer to earlier medical texts. Galen, for
exam-ple, wrote a separate volume on the pathology of different human body parts. The therapeutic measures are presented in a second volume. The Kitāb al-bay+ara has
sometimes references to human medicine. In the introduction its importance was equated to Galen’s qerapeutikh; mevqodo". The author of the treatise an-Nā&irī, which was written 500 years later and arranged more differentiated, used the same structure (Heide, op. cit., Einleitung).
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end of chapter 48. His short mentioning, that he had found this recipe “in books”, could be the key for understanding this rearrangement: Both authors, Theomnestos and ibn a}ī Ḥizām, used these old sources, but Theomnestos
added this recipe to tetanus, whereas the author of the Kitāb al-bay+ara con-sidered it more useful to treat a specific condition of the tendons.
Kitāb al-bay+ara Arabic Theomnestos Theme
§ 58a and § 72a some prescriptions are mentioned twice.This sort of double transmission is mainly observed in recipes originating from the Hippiatrica38. Interestingly these paragraphs transmitted twice show some peculiarities: The language of the first mentioning in the Kitāb al-bay+ara seems less elaborate compared with the later, more detailed doublet. The later paragraphs are usually similar but not identical to the Arabic copies of Theomnestos, whose text corres-ponds in turn more to an assumed earlier Greek version than to the Hippiat-rica. This process of polishing with progressing composition can be exempli-fied by the following paragraphs: The first text, “a recipe for the treatment of dyspnoea” (§ 61b) differs from its doublet (§ 148c) in the Kitāb al-bay+ara in several ways. First of all, the heading of § 148c reads “a recipe for the treat-ment of overexertion”. These two recipes correspond to chapter 25 of the Arabic text of Theomnestos, entitled “a recipe for orthopnoe from travelling and gallop”. A shorter version of Theomnestos’ recipe can be found in the M
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graph 61b continues after its superscription with the irrelevant phrase “infuse into a horse, whose condition corresponds to this case”, which is also men-tioned shorter in the Arabic text of Theomnestos “infuse into a horse which is in this condition”. The advice of § 61b, that wine and honey had not to be mixed with any medicine, is not in the doublet, but in the Greek and Arabic text of Theomnestos. On the other hand, § 148c mentions precisely that the water, which should be used to solve the saffron, should have a tepid tem-perature. The quantity is given in § 61b as mi%qāl, whereas in § 148c two
dif-ferent measurements are mentioned, namely the “ra+l” and a special amount, that can be taken with three fingers. Apsyrtos’ version exhibits two other in-formative details: the medicine had to be applied seven days and the amount of water, which had to be added two times, was specified as a kotyle40.
These examples evidence various degrees of reworking of these recipes. Closest to the original may be the quotation in the Kitāb al-bay+ara. It ap-pears smoothened remodelled in the Arabic version of Theomnestos. Finally a very polished and pleasing form occurs in the Greek Hippiatrica.
The similarities on the one side, and the differences in content, structure and form on the other side between the Kitāb al-bay+ara and the Greek
Hip-piatrica support the assumption, that the Kitāb al-bay+ara is based on an earlier collection of Greek hippiatric texts41. This hypothesis is affirmed by an homoioteleuton, which crept in between two paragraphs following each other in the Kitāb al-bay+ara (§ 62). The first version (§ 62b) is found in the Greek Hippiatrica as well as in the Arabic treatise of Theomnestos, the sec-ond (§ 62d) was possibly eliminated by a Byzantine compilator42.
One Arabic manuscript, Fatih 3609, betrays proximity in its way of ad-umbration to Byzantine-Greek manuscripts43.
4. Indian sources.
References to Indian savants, Indian physicians, and an Indian king are mentioned at the title and colophon of three manuscripts and in the hippological part of most of the manuscripts44. In two manuscripts the name
40 About Theomnestos’ adaption of Apsyrtos’ text see McCabe, op. cit., 202 ff. 41 Heide, op. cit.,Einleitung.
42 Heide, op. cit., Einleitung.
43 E. G. Grube, The Hippiatrica Arabica illustrata. Three 13th century
manu-scripts and related material, in A survey of Persian art, edited by A. U. Pope - P. Ackerman, Vol. XIV, Proceedings, The IVth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology, Part A, London 1967, 3138-3155.
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of “Čna”, an Indian savant, living in the 3rd century B.C., is cited45. After the
Islamic invasion of India hippological and hippiatric texts in Sanskrit were translated into Arabic or Persian. One other Indian source has been studied by Björck, who evidenced thirteen parallels between ibn al-‘Awwāms
agri-cultural compendium Kitāb al-filāCa and the treatise of Hippocrates In-dicus46. Although ibn al-‘Awwāms work coevally and extensively cites the
Kitāb al-bay+ara of ibn a}ī Ḥizām, we could not find any trace of
Hippo-crates Indicus in ibn a}īḤizāms’ work.
5. Ibn a}īḤizāms share to the Kitāb al-bay+ara.
On the titles or colophons of eight manuscripts ibn a}īḤizāms’ name is
mentioned more or less completely. Three manuscripts, however, do not refer to him at all, and two are ascribed to another author. In addition, the titles of eleven recipes refer to a certain hippiater named Abu Yūsuf47. Two times this
Abu Yūsuf is mentioned to be ibn a}īḤizāms’ father. At the title page of one
manuscript Abu Yūsuf forms part of ibn a}īḤizāms’ name. Ibn a}īḤizāms’
name is never mentioned in textu, so the degree of kinship between Abu
Yūsuf and ibn a}īḤizām remains unclear. The Nisba „al-Ḫuttalī“, the
indica-tion of ibn a}īḤizāms derivation, refers probably to Ḫuttal(an), a region on
the upper Oxus, today Amu Darya, whose brindled and deftly horses were well known48. Ibn a}
ī Ḥizām was equerry at the court of al-Mu‛ta&im,
al-Mutawakkil49 or al-Mu‛ta#id50. Under the rule of al-Mu‛ta&im, an excellent
horse expert51, the court moved in 223 A.H./838 A.D. from Bagdad to Samarra, where the stables of the horses of the caliph and his officers were located along the main street52. About the number and splendid decoration of these horses it is reported: “Il y avait d’un côté 500 chevaux avec autant de selles (markab) d’argent et d’or, de différentes espèces, sans couvertures. De l’autre côté il y avait 500 chevaux avec autant de housses en soie à dessins et de voiles. Chaque cheval était tenu par un homme de la classe des šākiriyya
45 Ritter, op. cit., 123; Heide, op. cit,Einleitung. 46 Björck, Griechische Pferdeheilkunde…, cit., 3. 47 Heide, op. cit.,Einleitung.
48 S. Digby, War-Horse and Elephant in the Dehli Sultanate. A study of military
supplies, Oxford 1971, 35; D. Alexander (ed.), Furusiyya, 2, Riyadh 1996, 192. 49 During the reign of al-Mutawakkil an “important and very effectively active
school of translation and scientific research” was established (Grube, op. cit.,3138). 50 Ullmann, op. cit.,217-220.
51 Viré, op. cit., 119.
52 F. Viré, I&+abl, in E. Van Donzel - B. Lewis - C. Pellat (ed.), The Encyclopaedia
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(soldats réguliers)”53. This great number of horses and their decoration might probably reflect the dimension of responsibility, with which an equerry like ibn a}īḤizām was entrusted.
One third of the paragraphs of the Kitāb al-bay+ara shows similarities to chapters of the Arabic treatise of Theomnestos and to the Greek Hippiatrica, but they were partly reworked and adapted to practical demands by an ex-perienced author as well as linked with back- and cross-references. The per-sonal recommendations, the ethical remarks about the veterinary profession and specifics like the very short descriptions and the practical character of the therapeutic methods without any superstitious elements54 strongly point to a horse expert, who could have added these remarks to the Kitāb al-bay+ara, using an early Greek compilation or different manuscript as a starting point. For example, ibn ahi Hizam rarely recommends the use of phlebotomy, whereas according to the humoral theory this method was an important com-ponent of the therapy of the Greek hippiaters55.
The names of most diseases or pharmaceutical substances refer to terms of Greek origin, but there are several diseases without equivalent, for exam-ple the eye disease called “RīC as-Sabal”, that is “wind of the loose-hanging
veil”, which means a film covering the eye (§ 127a). Some eye diseases and their cures likely may have been copied from human ophthalmological works, of which a considerable number has been translated into Arabic. This can be exemplified by a recipe against the stye, which grows on the lids. Its cure has been reformulated by using sources of human ophthalmology: “For this lid make a warm compress with white wax and take a fly, tear off its head and rub this area with its body. This will, God willing, help him”56. This therapy of the stye is known from the texts of Galen and especially of Ḥunain
ibn IsC=q, but not in the Greek Hippatrica. Ḥunain ibn IsC=q wrote his book
on the ten treatises of the eye using the texts of Paulus of Aegina and Galen. Later, this very same therapy is also found in the works of ibn a}īḤizām, to
be repeated at a later stage by ibn al-‘Awwām and ibn al-Mun{ir57.
53 M. Hamidullah, Nouveaux documents sur les rapports de l’Europe avec l’orient
musulman aux moyen âge, «Arabica»7,1960, 281-300.
54 Björck referred the “considerable number“ of recipes with magical character,
only found in the M recension, to a grimoire of Apsyrtos. They were nearly complete eliminated in the B recension (Björck, Zum Corpus…,cit.,30).
55 Theomnestos followed the dogmatic humoral theory and differentiated two
kinds of bile (Björck, Zum Corpus…,cit.,55). 56 Heide, op. cit., § 160d.
57 V. Weidenhöfer, Ophthalmology in the early Arabic hippiatric literature, in
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6. The influence of the Kitāb al-bay+ara on the later hippiatric literature. The influence of the Kitāb al-bay+ara on the transmission of the hippiatric knowledge is not only evidenced by the great number of handed down manu-scripts. It is also visible through extensive quotations in later Arabic litera-ture, for example in the Kitāb al-filāCa, composed by ibn al-‘Awwām. Ibn
al-‘Awwām supposedly lived in Seville in the second half of the twelfth century.
Already Björck assumed ibn a}īḤizām as mediator of its Greek sources and
Heide confirmed this assumption by evidencing 126 explicit parallels be-tween ibn a}īḤizām and ibn al-‘Awwām58.
Two famous, illustrated manuscripts which were ascribed to ibn al-ACnaf, housed in the library of Cairo and dating to the year 605 / 120959 are cur-rently collated for a critical edition at the University of Marburg. The first eight of a total of 30 chapters deal with hippology. Up to now we can say that the contents corresponds only in part to the Kitāb al-bay+ara. The text fea-tures, however, many Persian terms of drugs and has in addition some re-cipies to cure sheep, cattle, and camels60.
Another author, who benefitted indirectly from the hippiatric treatises of Late Antiquity by mediation of the Kitāb al-bay+ara, was Abū Bakr ibn
al-Mun{ir, veterinarian at the court of the Egyptian sultan an-Nā&ir ibn
Qalāwūn. About 20% of his work, written in the first third of the 14th century,
shows clear parallels to the Kitāb al-bay+ara61. A third of ibn al-Mun{irs de-scriptions seems to be independent of any known sources. However, the ana-tomical knowledge as well as the way the author structures his text betrays an enormous progress of hippiatric knowledge in comparison to earlier works.
In addition to these works, there are early translations of the Kitāb
al-bay+ara such as the Persian book “Do Faras Nameh”, dated to the 11th to 13th centuries, and an anonymous Armenian treatise written at the end of the 13th century.62 Further information about its distribution in the medieval Near East will be expected from the translation of Turkish and Persian manuscripts.
tory of Veterinary Medicine edited by F. R. Vázquez - J. M. M. Rodríguez - J. G. F. Álvarez, Leon 2006, 677-684.
58 Björck, Zum Corpus…,cit., 46-47. 59 Ullmann, op. cit., 220.
60 Personal information of M. V. Ritz.
61 K. Schwind, Die Pferdeheilkunde Abu Bakrs, Teil II. 2. Band, 5. Abschnitt,
pitel XI-XXXIV, 2. Band, 7. Abschnitt, Kapitel XXVIII-LVI, 2. Band, 8. Abschnitt, Ka-pitel I-LXXI. Übersetzung und Vergleich mit pferdeheilkundlichen Schriften der Spät-antike und des islamischen Mittelalters, Diss. med. vet., München 2006, 230.
62 E. Shirzadian, „Faras-Nameh“. Ein persischer Text über Pferdeheilkunde aus
TRANSMISSION OF GREEK AND ARABIC VETERINARY LITERATURE
307
Its influence on the European veterinarian tradition, however, seems to be marginally, although famous translations of Arabic scientific literature origi-nated especially from South Italy63. There is one manuscript, assumedly translated by Moses of Palermo, which contains the Latin treatise of Hippo-crates Indicus. Together with this treatise an anonymous Liber marescalcie
was transmitted64. The latter shows three parallels with the Kitāb al-bay+ara. They obviously have been taken from Arabic sources65.
7. Conclusions.
The Kitāb al-furūsīya wa-l-bay+ara can be considered as an important source of hippiatric knowledge during Late Antiquity, which is evidenced by the similarity of one third of its content with the texts of Theomnestos, Apsyrtos, and Hierokles. An even higher degree of dependency on Greek sources can be assumed, when analysing the contents and structure of the re-maining passages. They possibly refer to a Greek hippiatric collection, which antedates the Greek copy of Theomnestos’ book.
Ibn ahi Hizam, conceivably using a Greek compilation as a starting point, took up the hippiatric knowledge of the authors of Late Antiquity and added observations from his own experience to it. The result was a veterinary manual that fulfilled practical demands. Via the Kitāb al-furūsīya
wa-l-bay+ara the treatises of the Greek hippiaters were integrated to a hitherto un-known extant into the Arabic hippiatric literature from the Iberian Peninsula to the Near and Middle East. As seen from the current state of research, the European medieval hippiatric medicine seems to have been influenced by the Arabic tradition only on a very small scale, in contrast to its human counter-part.
Desiderata of research still remain, though, such as a detailed analysis of the possible human medical sources66 as well as the extant and form of vet-erinary reworking for each disease and recipe. With the final completion of our project a precise evaluation of the enrichment of hippiatric knowledge through the Kitāb al-furūsīya wa-l-baytara will hopefully be possible.
63 K.-D. Fischer, “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!”. Versions of Greek
Horse Medicine in Medieval Italy, «MHJ» 34, 1999, 123-138. 64 Björck, Griechische Pferdeheilkunde…, cit., 6.
65 Heide, op. cit.,§ 1b, f; G. Sponer, Die Pferdeheilkunde des Ipocras Indicus,
Diss. med. vet., Hannover 1966, 60.
66 Björck evidenced a few medical terms and parallels to human medicine and
