CHAPTER FIVE

THE ANIMALS OF THE NAʿT

Textual Composition goes east and grazes in its various areas and in the pastures where there is pollen, he and Whatever the textual variations and the total his mates, ( fol. 45v/136v), and they eat it. number of animals treated, the nature and layout With its scent and potency it arouses their of the contents are similar in all the Arabic Ibn desire, and they mate. When the time comes Bakhtīshūʿ manuscripts. They begin with man for her to give birth she does so standing, and woman, and proceed successively to mam- because her joints are not formed like those mals, both domestic quadrupeds and beasts of of other animals that give birth lying down, prey; birds and birds of prey; fish; reptiles; and kneeling or crouching. Rather, she gives birth finally insects. The average number of animals in water, in order to guard against her young treated is 90, with quadrupeds making up the dying if it fell at birth onto the ground. For this largest category (c. 40), followed by birds; and reason she wades into water up to her belly the text is longer for the quadrupeds and some of and drops her young onto the water [which the most common birds and fish, with the short- is] like a soft bed. The male thereupon pro- est accounts being those for insects. The animals tects her and her young from snakes so that treated are those indigenous to an area extend- they do not bite her. That is because of the ing from India to the Middle East and North strong enmity between elephant and snake: East Africa, but some mythical animals, such ( fol. 46r/137r) when an elephant catches a as the unicorn and the swan-phoenix, are also snake it tramples it to death, while if a snake included. It is important to remember that the can kill an elephant it will. The elephant has Naʿt and the other Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ manuscripts greater power over it that it over him, and are not works of natural history (although they that is so because as soon as it is able to bite have been classified so at times): they make no him and inject poison into his body he will die. attempt to give a complete account of the fauna As we have said, the elephant has no joints. inhabiting specific geographical areas, but rather Its knees are formed in such a way that if it follow two textual tradition, a zoological one falls on its side it is unable to get up. With based upon Timotheus, with references to the regard to sleep, when wild it leans against a Physiologus, and a medicinal/pharmacological rock, whether in the mountains or the plains, one represented by Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ himself. The and falls asleep against it. Because of this, the rather different textual lineage of the Persian people where it lives have found a stratagem Morgan Manāfiʿ gives rise to the inclusion of ( fol. 46v/137v) to hunt it. They come to the animals not included in the other manuscripts, large rock against which the elephant goes such as the tiger and the giraffe. to sleep and saw it through without the cut To give an example, with the standard textual being apparent, so when the elephant come sequence whereby the Aristotelian material on to sleep and leans against it both he and the characteristics precedes the Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ mate- rock fall down. The elephant then lets out a rial on the uses of the different parts of the ani- loud high-pitched trumpeting which attracts mal, we may take the entry on the Elephant (fol. many elephants. They all try to help him to 44v/135v; Cat. 14): rise and get up, but are unable to do so. In despair at their weakness and incapacity, Characteristics of the Elephant ( Naʿt al-fīl) they roar all together until along comes one [Picture of the Elephant] of these elephants that is inventive and pushes There is no desire for intercourse in the ele- his trunk ( fol. 47r/138r) beneath the stricken phant species. When it wishes for offspring it elephant. Then all of them do the same and 86 chapter five

pull at him until he can get to his feet. God A particular interest of the section on character- on high created the elephant and formed his istics is that much of the material is shared with head on a short, strong neck so it has a pow- Western bestiaries, as these also draw upon the erful back. To make up for the shortness of Physiologus.1 For example, in the fifteenth-cen- the neck He created for it a long trunk that it tury Libellus de natura animalium, one of the uses instead, taking food and drink with it. In last examples of a long-lived medieval zoological addition, its legs were created without joints, tradition within a didactic-moralizing literature,2 but unified like solid columns and firm hard we find that the elephant has similar characteris- bracelets to carry the heavy flesh. They are tics, including its lack of joints and giving birth attached by small Achilles tendons, as if cast in water, and there is also the same description in a mould. The life span ( fol. 47v/138v) of of how it can be captured, or rescued by the the elephant is 600 years or more. However, other elephants. It adds, though, a Christian elephants are afraid of rats, which harm them. gloss, although not quite the one given in the There is great enmity between elephants and Physiologus. The mortal enemy of the elephant bugs, and they are frightened by boars. in the Naʿt, the snake, is a rationalization of the serpent/dragon in the Physiologus, an allegorical Usefulness of the Elephant figure of the Devil, and it is to avoid it that the Elephant meat, when cooked in water, salt elephant gives birth in water. In the Libellus de and asafoetida, and the broth given to sip to natura animalium, on the other hand, the Devil someone with a chronic cough and asthma, is represented by the hunters; the elephant that cures him. If it is cooked in vinegar and asa- comes to rescue the fallen one is Christ; and giv- foetida until boiled down to shreds and drunk ing birth in the water teaches us not to disperse by a pregnant woman, it causes an abortion. our actions.3 Elephant fat—When used to fumigate Typical for the Aristotelian section in the Naʿt ( fol. 48r/139r) someone with a headache it is the emphasis on mating habits and on other cures him. specifics of behaviour; on anatomical features; Elephant liver—When someone with liver and also on “enmity” between species. What is pain eats it with sumac juice and aubergine missing from the Elephant, though, is one fea- leaves it is beneficial for him. ture commonly found elsewhere, a description Its gall-bladder—When someone with epi- of what in humans would be called character. lepsy take a qīrāt ̣ of it as a nasal injection Although present in the pseudo-Aristotelian tra- together with a like amount of musk, it cures dition, this was amplified by al-Jāḥiz ̣ (d. 255/868), him. who can be considered a precursor in the study Elephant bone, that is, ivory—When a of animal psychology, and who terms it akhlāq.4 piece is taken and ground or filed and drunk A typical example is provided by the description with water it is beneficial against the onset of of the Camel in the Naʿt: elephantiasis. It must be drunk with the juice The Camel al-jamal( ) ( fol. 40v/131v; Cat. 13, of mountain mint, for it then arrests the onset Plate 60) of elephantiasis and prevents it from increas- Characteristics of the Camel ( fol. 41r/132r) ing. When a woman drinks a mithqāl of The Camel is malevolent, extremely spite- ivory filings, she conceives. Parings of it ( fol. ful and bitter. It has a long retentive mem- 48v/139v) reduce pain in the fingernails when ory and forgets nothing. It will look for an left on them. If the same weight of iron filings opportunity to be alone with someone who is added to them and they are dusted onto haemorrhoids, it cures them. If fragments of tusk are hung on a black thread around the 1 Baxter 1998, p. 55. necks of cattle they will be safe from plague. 2 Paola Navone in Carrega and Navone 1983, p. 173. 3 Ibid., pp. 298–301. Elephant dung—It kills lice if smeared 4 For al-Jāḥiz ̣ (d. 255/868) see Pellat “al-Djāḥiz”.̣ See also onto the body and left until dry. It removes Asín Palacios 1930. For a general study of al-Jāḥiz’ṣ work leprosy and if used as a fumigant it drives see Nefti bel-Hakh 1977, who focuses on the psychological- intuitive character of the Kitāb al-Ḥ ayawān. For an edi- bugs away. If a woman drinks some she will tion of the text see al-Jāḥiz ̣ 1938–47. For his biography see not conceive. al-Ḥ ājirī 1962.