Kitāb al-Hayawān (Aristotle)
   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; Walter ...
translation for hayawan (Arabic: , maqālāt). ''
Historia Animalium ''History of Animals'' ( grc-gre, Τῶν περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστοριῶν, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; la, Historia Animalium, "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Gr ...
'': 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 co ...
'': treatises 15–19. Medieval Arabic tradition ascribes the translation to Yahya Ibn al-Batriq, 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 of the H ...
in Toledo before 1217. Several complete
manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...
versions exist in Leiden, London, and
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
), 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, ...
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) 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 A ...
) 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, psy ...
), 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 ...
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 of the H ...
’s early 13th-century
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
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 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, encom ...
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