TAKWIM — TAKWlN
a few have been studied or translated (idem, The Arab
almanac. A preliminary bibliography, in MME, vii [1995],
for a full bibliography of texts). Earlier almanacs are
found in folk astronomical texts of the anwd* [</.y.]
and azmina genres. They are also found in works on
astronomy, agriculture, encyclopaedias, and, more
recently, as independent documents. Almanac poems,
such as that of the Yemeni Nashwan b. SacTd al-
HimyarT (d. 573/1177), are quite common, although
many are anonymous.
The earliest extant almanacs in Arabic date from
the 3rd/9th century, including the texts of Abu
Hanffa Ahmad al-DfnawarT and the TrakT Christian
physician Ibn Masawayh [q.vv.]. One of the most
influential early almanacs was from the widely-quoted
al-Fildha al-Nabatiyya attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya [q.v.~\.
Al-Birunf (d. 440/1048) included excerpts relevant to
Greece from an earlier almanac derived from Sinan
b. Thabit. The majority of surviving almanacs are
Egyptian, including texts by al-Makhzuml (d. ca. 580/
1185), Ibn Mammati (d. 606/1209), al-Kalkashandl
(d. 821/1418), and al-Makrlzi (d. 845/1442). Several
almanacs have survived in Spain, the most famous
being the 4th/10th century Calendar of Cordova,
which was translated into Latin as Liber Anoe. The
agricultural texts of Ibn Bassal (d. 499/1105) and Ibn
al-cAwwam (7th/13th century) contain detailed alma-
nacs with extensive agricultural coverage.
One of the best-preserved almanac traditions is in
Yemen, where traditional almanacs are still compiled.
The earliest extant agricultural almanac here is found
in al-Tabsira ft cilm al-nudjum of the Rasulid sultan al-
Malik al-Ashraf cUmar (d. 696/1296). The text is
arranged in tabular form, starting with Tishrin al-Awwal
(October), which is correlated with the Himyarite
month name Dhu Sirdb. The subjects covered in the
almanac include: zodiacal astronomy; timing of the
sun's zenith (samt al-ra's [see AL-SAMT]); amount of
daylight and shadow lengths for the start and middle
of each month; risings and settings of the twenty-eight
lunar stations (mandril al-kamar) [see AL-MANAZIL] and
fixed stars such as Altair, Canopus, Procyon, Sirius,
six stars of Ursa Major, and Vega; weather periods
of major rains, winds, heat, and cold; stages of the
Nile and Euphrates rivers; fluctuation in water sources;
appearance of certain natural plants and pasturage;
appearance or disappearance of certain animals; health
regimes for each season; humoral timing of sexual
desires; sailing seasons from Aden to Egypt, Africa
and the Indian Ocean; and agriculture. The agricul-
tural information supplements the author's Milh al-
maldha fi ma'rifat al-Jildha (see M. Djazm, in al-Iklil
(Sanca3), iii/1 (1985), 'l65-207). Al-Malik al-Ashraf
recorded ten distinct tax periods for Yemen as well
as a major description of the agricultural cycle for
the coastal Tihama and the southern highlands. The
crops mentioned include twenty-one varieties of
sorghum and millet; ten local varieties of wheat; rice;
sugar cane; over two dozen fruits, vegetables, and
legumes; flax; cotton; and seven aromatic plants. At
least seven almanac texts have survived from the
Rasulid era. Later Yemeni compilers often copied from
these Rasulid almanacs, at times introducing errors
for crops or place names. From the 1940s up to the
mid-1970s an annual almanac was published in Ta'izz
by Muhammad al-Haydara.
The almanac tradition also survives in the Arabian
Gulf. From 1957 until 1989 Shaykh cAbd Allah
Ibrahim al-Ansarf published annually his al-Takwim
al-Katan. One of the primary sources for al-Ansarl
was a takwim compiled by Shaykh cAbd Allah cAbd
147
al-cAzTz al-£Uyuni of Nadjd around 1324/1906. In
Kuwait, Salih Muhammad al-cUdjayn has published
an annual almanac since the 1940s. During the 1980s,
Shaykh cAbd al-Djabbar Muhammad al-Madjid com-
piled an annual almanac in Sharjah of the United
Arab Emirates. The Gulf almanacs combine informa-
tion on pastoralism in the eastern part of the peninsula
with weather periods and sailing seasons for the Persian
Gulf.
As a written text, the Arabic almanac throughout
the Islamic period was aimed at a scholarly audience
rather than as a practical guide for the farmer. Early
almanacs in Arabic offer an example of applied science,
i.e. the kinds of seasonal events in nature that were
deemed relevant among scholars. This accounts for
the attention paid to basic astronomical risings and
settings in most almanac texts. Because the information
provided is often cryptic and invariably unattributed
to the sources consulted, study of the genre requires
familiarisation with a variety of scientific texts and is
enhanced when contemporary oral folklore contextua-
lises the data.
Bibliography. 1. Early almanacs. Dmawari,
in al-MarzukT, Kitdb al-Azynina wa 'l-amkina, Hayda-
rabad 1914, i, 283-98; Bfruni, Chronology of ancient
nations, London 1879, 233-67; R. Dozy and Ch.
Pellat, Le calendrier de Cordoue, Leiden 1961; T. Fahd,
Le calendrier des travaux agricoles d'apres al-Filaha al-
Nabatlya, in Orientalia Hispanica, i (1974), 245-72;
Ibn Masawayh, in G. Troupeau, Le livre des temps
de Jean Ibn Masawayh,, traduit et annote, in Arabica, xv
(1968), 113-42.
2. Egypt. Pellat, Cinq calendriers egyptiens, Cairo
1986; idem, Le "calendrier agricole" de Qalqashandl, in
AI, xv (1979), 165-85.
3. Spain and N o r t h Africa. Ibn al-Adjdabf,
al-Azmina wa )l-anwa\ Damascus 1964; Ibn £Asim,
al-Anwd' wa 'l-azmina wa-ma^rifat ciyan al-kawdkib,
Barcelona 1993; Ibn al-'Awwam, Spanish tr. Libro
de agncultura (Kitdb al-Fildha), Madrid 1802, ii, 428-
44; Ibn al-Banna3, Le calendrier d'Ibn al-Banna? de
Marrakech, Paris 1948.
4. Yemen. R.B. Serjeant, Star calendars and an
almanac from south-west Arabia, in Anthropos, xlix (1954),
433-59; D.M. Varisco, al-Hisdb al-zirdci fi furdju^at
Hasan al-cAJfdn. Dirdsdt fi }l-takwim al-zirdci al-Yamam
in al-Ma'thurdt al~Shacbiyya, xvi (1989), 7-29; idem,
Medieval agriculture and Islamic science. The almanac of
a Yemeni sultan, Seattle 1994; idem, An anonymous
14th century almanac from Rasulid Yemen, in ^GAIW,
ix (1995), 195-228. (D.M. VARISCO)
TAKWIN (A.) "to bring into being", more specif-
ically used for the artificial generation of min-
erals, plants and animals; in the case of plants
and animals, the process is often called tawlid, and
Ibn Wahshiyya also gives tcffin. Within the mediae-
val Islamic cultural sphere, the idea that artificial gen-
eration was possible was widespread in less orthodox
circles. The accepted notions concerning generation,
including spontaneous generation [see TAWALLUD]
made the idea less far-fetched than it may seem. In
the occult sciences (alchemy and magic), the processes
of artificial generation are discussed in various con-
texts; see especially Paul Kraus' ground-breaking study
in Jabir ibn Hayydn. Contribution d I'histoire des idees sci-
entifiques dans I'Islam, Cairo 1943, ii, 97-134.
The main sources involved here are (a) the Didbir
ibn Hayydn [q.v.] corpus (especially the K. al-Tadj.mic',
partly ed. by Kraus, Jabir ibn Hayydn. Textes choisis,
Cairo 1935, 341-91; full ed. being prepared by Pingree
and Haq; also the K. al-Ikhrd^ see F. Rex, %ur Theorie
148 TAKWIN — TALABA
der Naturprozesse in der Jriiharabischen Wissenschqft; das "Kitab
al-ihrdg", uberset^t und erkldrt. Ein Beitrag zum alchemisti-
schen Weltbild der Gdbir-Schriften (8./10. Jahrhundert n. Chr.),
Wiesbaden 1975, 58, 136-8). Sources mentioned by
Djabir include an otherwise unknown work of Por-
phyry, the K. al-Tawlid, and the pseudo-Platonic
K. al-Nawdmis, see below, (b) Various works connected
with Ibn Wahshiyya [q.v.], notably the Fildha nabatiyya
(facs. ed. Frankfurt a/M. 1984, 7 vols.; currently being
edited by Toufic Fahd, UAgriculture nabateenne, Damascus
1993-), and K. Asrdr al-Kamar (only quotations extant;
see Ullmann, Naturwiss., 76). (c) The pseudo-Platonic
K. al-J\rawdmis (only partly extant in Arabic, but known
from its Latin translation, the Liber Vacce); the impor-
tance of this text was already pointed out by Kraus,
1943, 103-4, and, more recently, by Pingree (Plato's
hermetic Book of the Cow, in P. Prini (ed.), // neoplato-
nismo ml rinascimento, Rome 1993), who places its origin
in 9th-century Harran. The article contains useful refs.
to extant Arabic fragments, 435 n. 15. The possible
relevance of the K. al-Nawdmis for the mediaeval Jewish
idea of the golem, an artificially-created human being,
remains to be studied.
The influence of all these sources is widely trace-
able in Arabic literature, especially the occult, such
as pseudo-Madjrftf's [g.v.] Ghdyat al-hakim and—in the
case of plant production—also in agricultural texts.
The idea that underlies the concept of artificial
generation is that since nature [see TABICA] can trans-
form the four elements into minerals, plants and
animals, it is possible for man to repeat this process
by closely imitating nature's procedures. Added to
this, especially with regard to theories about the arti-
ficial generation of higher forms of animal life, Neo-
platonic ideas about the souls of the celestial bodies
are of considerable importance, since these souls could
possibly be induced to join with earthly matter (cf. the
practices involved in making talismans). Given these
ideas, it was not only of basic importance to com-
pose the right mixture for creating a specific creature,
but also to submit the matter to the right procedure.
This involved not only processes such as heating and
putrefaction (tafin], but also various imitative tech-
niques. These range from including parts of the crea-
tures to be produced, or images of them, with the
matter to be transformed (see Ibn Wahshiyya 1984,
vii, 32; Kraus 1943, ii, 110), to (Djabir, see Kraus)
the use of elaborate equipment and techniques imi-
tating the celestial bodies. Another recurring element
is placing the matter to be transformed, which might
contain a symbolic equivalent to semen or, as in the
Liber Vacce, real semen of the type of animal that one
intended to create, in a space or container function-
ing as a symbolic womb, or even putting it in the
womb of a live animal (again in the Liber Vacce, see
Pingree, op. cit.).
In the K. al-Ikhrddj (136), the production of living
creatures is presented as the end result of science in
Djabir's system, the "seventh science" in which the
synthesis of the first six (the sciences of the Balance,
talismans, engaging spiritual powers (ruhdniyyat), med-
icine, alchemy and the science of properties (khawdss))
took place. In the 12th section of the Fildha nabatiyya,
Ibn Wahshiyya also implies a culmination of theories
unfolded earlier by referring to artificial generation as
"the great advantage", al-fd'ida al-kubrd (on his theo-
ries, see GAS, iv, 141-2; also 352-6 of Fahd's synop-
sis of the Fildha in Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Vorderen Orients
in islamischer ^eit, i, Leiden 1977).
While Djabir's methods involve not only putting
together the right mixture but also complicated equip-
ment and techniques to induce spiritual powers, Ibn
Wahshiyya (usually referring to "Adam", the author
of the K. Asrdr al-kamar] mainly concentrates on the
transformation, by means of tcffin "putrefaction", of
earth and water particles; the process is set in mo-
tion by the heat of the sun. Several methods for the
production of plants are given on the authority of
"Adam", as well as a number of recipes for produc-
ing specific species; see also the many refs. to the
K. Asrdr al-kamar in, for instance, al-Watwat's section
on plants in his Mabdhidj, al-fikar. Ibn Wahshiyya de-
scribes two different methods involving burying mat-
ter in the earth, and a third one that involves burning.
Of the many recipes which he tried out, a consider-
able number turned out to be useless, for which he
blames textual corruption, while others worked satis-
factorily, especially those involving burying (tadfiri).
Artificial generation of animals was also considered
possible. This went fairly undisputed where lower ani-
mals (wasps, scorpions, snakes) were concerned (see,
for instance, a recipe in the Ghdyat al-hakim (411); for
refs. in the K. al-Tadjmic, see Kraus 1943, ii, 103).
The possibility of creating higher animals, and even
human beings, however, is not excluded either. Ibn
Wahshiyya alludes to this (sheep, camels and such
like), and tells about the sorcerer 'Ankabuta, who
managed to produce a human being, who, however,
did not possess the powers of reason and speech, and
could not eat. He also mentions the clay of a cer-
tain mountain (Kraus 1943, ii, 112, obviously refer-
ring to the same tradition, mentions Makran and
Kirman), which had the potential to spontaneously
produce (lifeless) human bodies and was reportedly
used by people to create (living) human beings; these,
however, never lived longer than a day (1984, vii,
24-5).
In Djabir's K. al-Tadj,mic, the possibilities concern-
ing the artificial generation of human beings seem
virtually unlimited; his text seems to imply that even
the highest possible kind of sub-lunar creature, a
prophet (sahib al-ndmus], may be generated artificially.
The various possible interpretations of ndmus/nawdmis
(which, among other things, may mean "spell", cf.
ashdb al-hiyal wa }l-nawdmis, Kraus 1943, ii, 104; Rex,
£ur Theorie. . ., 96, 129) make this statement highly
cryptic. Kraus also suggests that the idea of an arti-
ficially-created spokesman of the celestial world may
have its origin in Egyptian-Greek theories about the
bringing to life of the statues of deities.
It may be noted that the gender issue plays no
part in discussions about these artificially-produced
human beings; their sex is never mentioned. Implicitly,
they seem to be male. That some of the hominoid
creatures produced had the power of speech (another
important issue in artificially-created human beings) is
explicitly stated by Djabir (see Kraus 1943, ii, 117);
see also Pingree, 1993, 441.
Bibliography: Given in the article.
(REMKE KRUK)
TALAB AL-CILM [see CILM].
TALABA, TULLAB, TULBA, TOLBA (A.), pis. of tdlib
"scholar, one who has studied, student".
In Morocco, the colloquial plural tolba denotes the
students at madrasas (medersas) or at universities. The best-
I known are those of Fas (Fes), who stay in the madrasas
| of the town and who follow courses at the Karawiy-
yfn [q.v.] University. Their spring festival, called "the
festival of the sultan of the tolba" won for them a
certain fame. In the second half of April, these tolba
I or students used to have the custom of gathering to-
| gether on the open spaces bordering on the Wadf