HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Kitāb al-Ḥayawān'' ( ar, كتاب الحيوان, , ''LINA saadouni'') is an
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
translation for hayawan (Arabic: , maqālāt). '' Historia Animalium'': treatises 1–10;
'' De Partibus Animalium'': treatises 11–14;
''
De Generatione Animalium The ''Generation of Animals'' (or ''On the Generation of Animals''; Greek: ''Περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως'' (''Peri Zoion Geneseos''); Latin: ''De Generatione Animalium'') is one of the biological works of the Corpus Aristotelicum, the col ...
'': treatises 15–19. Medieval Arabic tradition ascribes the translation to
Yahya Ibn al-Batriq Yaḥyā (or Yuḥannā) ibn al-Biṭrīq (working 796 – 806) was a Assyrian scholar who pioneered the translation of ancient Greek texts into Arabic, a major early figure in the Graeco-Arabic translation movement under the Abbasid empire. He tra ...
, but contemporary scholarship does not support this attribution. This Arabic version was the source for the Latin translation ''De Animalibus'' by
Michael Scot Michael Scot ( Latin: Michael Scotus; 1175 – ) was a Scottish mathematician and scholar in the Middle Ages. He was educated at Oxford and Paris, and worked in Bologna and Toledo, where he learned Arabic. His patron was Frederick II o ...
in Toledo before 1217. Several complete manuscript versions exist in Leiden, London, and Tehran), but the text has been edited in separate volumes corresponding to the three Aristotelian sources. The Egyptian existentialist philosopher
Abdel Rahman Badawi Abdel Rahman Badawi (Arabic: ) (February 17, 1917 – July 25, 2002) was an Egyptian existentialist philosopher, professor of philosophy and poet. He has been called the "foremost master of Arab existentialism." He published more than 150 wor ...
edited Treatises 1–10 (''Historia Animalium'') as ''Ṭibā‘ al-Ḥayawān'' and Treatises 11–14 (''De Partibus Animalium'') as ''Ajzā al-Ḥayawān''. Treatises 15–19 (''De Generatione Animalium'') first appeared in the Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus series in 1971. This series then published Treatises 11–14 in 1979 and Treatises 1–10 in 2018.


References in philosophy

The first known mention of the book appears in a text by the
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...
philosopher
Al-Kindī Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ar, أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; la, Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician ...
(d. 850). Ibn Sīnā (
Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic ...
) seems to have had direct knowledge of the book, as he paraphrased and commented upon the full text in his encyclopedic Al-Shifā’. In Spain, the 12th-century philosopher Ibn Bājja (
Avempace Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyà ibn aṣ-Ṣā’igh at-Tūjībī ibn Bājja ( ar, أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ التجيبي بن باجة), best known by his Latinised name Avempace (;  – 1138), was an ...
) wrote on ''De Partibus'' and ''De Generatione''. It has been remarked that one usually finds references to the ''Historia'' in the Eastern Islamicate world, while the other two books are generally referred to in the West, and in conformity to this pattern, Ibn Rushd (
Averroes Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology ...
), like Ibn Bājja, wrote commentaries on ''De Partibus'' and ''De Generatione'' (see below), in which he criticizes Ibn Sīnā's interpretations.


References in zoography

''Kitāb al-hayawān'' was known at least indirectly to several important zoographers including Al-Jāhiz (''Kitāb al-hayawān''), Al-Mas‘ūdī (''Murawwaj al-dhahab''), Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (''Al-Imtā‘ wa al-mu’ānasa''), Al-Qazwīnī (''‘Ajā’ib al-makhlūqāt''), and Al-Damīrī (''Hayāt al-hayawān''). They may have known the Aristotelian ''Kitāb al-hayawān'' at second hand from Arabic compendiums of selected passages from the book. The only extant compendium is the ''Maqāla tushtamalu ‘à la fusūl min kitāb al-hayawān'', attributed (probably falsely) to Mūsà bin Maymūn (
Moses Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah s ...
), and the Greek ''Compendium'' of
Nicolaus Damascenus Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus'') was a Greek historian and philosopher who lived during the Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his birthplace, Damascus. He w ...
was at least partially available by the 11th century.


In the Christian West

Finally,
Michael Scot Michael Scot ( Latin: Michael Scotus; 1175 – ) was a Scottish mathematician and scholar in the Middle Ages. He was educated at Oxford and Paris, and worked in Bologna and Toledo, where he learned Arabic. His patron was Frederick II o ...
’s early 13th-century Latin translation of the ''Kitāb al-hayawān'', ''De Animalibus'', is worthy of mention as the vehicle of transmission into Western Europe. It was alleged by
Roger Bacon Roger Bacon (; la, Rogerus or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiri ...
that Scot "had appropriated to himself the credit of translations which more properly belonged to one Andreas the Jew." This may mean that he had help with the Arabic manuscript, or that he worked fully or in part from a
Judaeo-Arabic Judeo-Arabic dialects (, ; ; ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, enco ...
or
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
version. Scot's ''De Animalibus'' is available in a partial edition.Scot, Michael. ''De Animalibus''. Vols 1-3. Leiden: Brill, 1992


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitab al-Hayawan Works about Aristotle History of biology Translations into Arabic Philosophical literature of the medieval Islamic world Animals in the medieval Islamic world