Zaràfa Encounters with the Giraffe, from Paris to the Medieval Islamic World
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ZARÀFA ENCOUNTERS WITH THE GIRAFFE, FROM PARIS TO THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC WORLD Remke Kruk, University of Leiden I . Introduction; II. A Choice Gift for Rulers; III. Looks and Origin. I. Introduction On a cold Christmas Day in Paris in 2004, we decided to go and visit the Jardin des Plantes. Having recently read Michael Allin’s Zarafa, the entertaining account of how a giraffe, christened Zarafa by Allin, traveled from Sennar (a town on the White Nile ca. 150 miles south of Khartum) to Paris in 1827, we wanted to see the place were the animal was housed until its death in 1845. The giraffe had been a present from the Egyptian ruler MuÎammad ÝAlÐ to King Charles X. Naturally, not only the zoo, which no longer houses giraffes, but also the impressive buildings of the Jardin des Plantes, was closed on Christmas Day. No chance even to see a giraffe’s skeleton. Attracted by cheerful noises coming from a corner of the park, however, we suddenly found ourselves face to face with something that looked like giraffes: a carrousel with exotic animals, giraffes among them, with children riding on their backs. But were the animals really giraffes? We were not sure. In fact, they looked like a mixture of animals: okapi (a kind of giraffe), deer, and panther. “They must be deer, look at their antlers,” said my companion. This did not convince me, be- cause I remembered JÁÎiÛ (d. 255/868-9), who says in his Book on Animals that the hooves and horns of the giraffe are like those of the deer. This confusion was maybe the best proof that giraffes were intended, for since time immemorial the giraffe has been interpreted as the result of successive mating of different animals and cross- breeds. ZARÀFA 569 Our visit, even though we had to make do with wooden giraffes, connected us to a long line of visitors who had come to see giraffes in the Jardin des Plantes, starting with the arrival of “Zarafa” in 1827. Among those visitors were at least two nineteenth-century travelers from Arab lands who mentioned the giraffe in their travel accounts. One was the Egyptian scholar RifÁÝa al-ÓahÔÁwÐ, who, in 1826, de- parted from Egypt and study in Paris; the other was the Moroccan scholar MuÎammad al-ÑaffÁr, who, then about thirty-five years old, traveled to France in December 1845 as part of a delegation sent by the Moroccan sultan Mulay ÝAbd ar-RaÎmÁn (1822-59). Al-ÑaffÁr’s role in the delegation was that of secretary to the sul- tan’s envoy, ÝAbd al-QÁdir MuÎammad AshÝÁsh. Al-ÑaffÁr returned to Morocco in the spring of 1846 and used the summer to record his ex- periences. For this, he made extensive use of ÓaÎÔawÐ’s account of his stay in Paris, TakhlÐÒ al-ibrÐz fÐ talkhÐÒ BÁrÐz, which he often cites, or rather copies. ÓahÔÁwÐ, in his chapter devoted to the high level of the sciences and crafts in France, speaks extensively about the Jardin des Plantes and the wonderfully useful combination of reference works, museum collections and living specimens that it has to offer to the scientist as well as to the general public. In this context, he also briefly makes mention of “the giraffe from Sennar,” without giving further details as to its origin or appearance.1 Among al-ÑaffÁr’s many interesting experiences was also a visit to the Jardin des Plantes. The Jardin had benefited from the Moroccan diplomatic mission because among the presents which were offered to the French king there were a number of North African animals: a lion, two ostriches, three gazelles, and a special kind of Barbary sheep.2 These animals were destined for the Jardin des Plantes, to be added to its collection of exotic animals. Whether al-ÑaffÁr’s visit to the Jardin had anything to do with this gift we do not know. He does not men- tion these animals in his enthusiastic account, which includes, among other things, a description of the giraffe. The giraffe which al-ÑaffÁr saw, however, cannot have been Zarafa: Zarafa died in 1845, and al-SaffÁr did not arrive in Paris until the beginning of 1846. The animal that he saw (or, at least, described) 1 ÓahÔÁwÐ, TakhlÐÒ, 262. 2 Miller 1992, 26-7. .