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Materia Medica et Magica from Animals, including a Long, Unknown Passage

from al-Mas udi

Article  in  Aleph Historical Studies in Science and Judaism · January 2011

DOI: 10.2979/aleph.2011.11.1.169

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Tzvi Langermann
Bar Ilan University
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 Y. T z v i L a n g e r m a n n

From My Notebooks

Materia Medica et Magica from Animals, including a Long,

Unknown Passage from al-Masʿū dı̄

MS St Petersburg, Russian State Library Hebrew-Arabic I 2239 (IMHM

F 55683, twenty-five folia) is a fragment of a longer work on the medical
and magical uses of animals and their bodily parts. The language is
Arabic, but the text is copied in Hebrew characters. There are no signs
at all that the author was Jewish; this work thus appears to be one of
many non-Jewish works written in Arabic that were transcribed into
the Hebrew alphabet, especially in medicine and related fields.1 Two
considerations in particular justify dedicating a note to this manuscript.
First, texts belonging to the utilization of animal parts in medicine and
magic have hardly been studied at all by historians of science. (Because
some specimens are accompanied by beautiful illustrations, some
manuscripts have been studied by art historians.) Second, the fragment
we propose to describe contains a number of references to the famous
historian and man of letters who flourished in the early tenth century,

1 I discuss this genre in two publications: “Arabic Writings in Hebrew Manuscripts:

A Preliminary Relisting,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 6 (1996), 137-160;
“Transcriptions of Arabic Treatises into the Hebrew Alphabet: An Underappreciated
Mode of Transmission,” F.J. and S.P. Ragep (eds.), Tradition, Transmission,
Transformation (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), 247-260.

© A l e p h 11 . 1 ( 2 0 1 1 ) p p . 1 6 9 - 1 7 8 169

ʿAlı̄ ibn al-Ḥ usayn ibn Alı̄ al-Masʿū dı,̄ including one very long citation,
which we reproduce and translate below. As far as I have been able to
determine, these passages are not known from any other source, and
thus may preserve pieces from one of al-Masʿū dı’̄ s lost writings, which
are known to have been extensive.2
Some pages from II 877 were joined at some point in time to the
manuscript classified as Hebrew-Arabic I 2239; presumably one of the
Soviet era librarians correctly realized that they are part of the same
text and put them together. The text is acephalous, but the end of the
manuscript is the end of the text, though we cannot be sure if it is the
end of the chapter or of the book. The final page ends about two lines
higher than the others, and the last line has just a few words that are
centered on the page; this is a usual graphic indication for the end of a
chapter or a treatise. The manuscript is misbound; there is a long stretch
of continuous text from 8a-18a, but otherwise, almost every folio is out
of place. Some of the pages are damaged. It was owned once by a certain
Shlomo (?) Cohen, who jotted down his name on f. 21a; and there is a
marginalium, apparently a medical recipe, at the top of f. 20b.
Several of the earliest writers on medicine and related fields in
Arabic wrote extensive works on animals, covering their biology, the
usefulness (manfaʿa/manā fiʿ) of their parts, including special properties,
often occult or magical (khā ṣ ṣ a/khawā ṣ ṣ ) that particular organs were
thought to possess. The genre has been covered by Manfred Ullmann
with his usual precision and thoroughness; note in particular, that
Ullmann knows of no citations from al-Masʿū dı̄ on the magical uses of
animals.3 I will take brief note here of the most relevant primary texts
and scholarly articles that have been available to me for purposes of
comparison in my quest to identify this text. One of the earliest and
most famous of these was written by ʿUbayd Allā h ibn Jibrā ’ıl̄ , scion
of the famous Ibn Bakhtıs̄ hū ʿ family, several of whom were prominent
physicians to the early Abbasid caliphs. The full title of his book reveals
the scope of topics covered: Kitā b Ḥ ayā t al-ḥ ayawā n wa-ṭ abā ʿihi wa-
170
Y. T z v i L a n g e r m a n n
khawā ṣ ṣ ihi wa- manā fiʿ mā fı̄ aʿḍ ā ’ihi mimmā ṣ annafahu al-ḥ ukamā ’,
“Book on the Life of Animals, their natures, special properties, and the
usefulness of their parts, taken from what the scholars have recorded.”4
Abraham Yohannan prepared an English translation in 1917, but never
published it.5 The same scholar contributed a short description of the
beautifully illustrated copy (M 500, a Persian translation) deposited
at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.6 More recently, Anna
Contadini has written a very informative dissertation, still unpublished;
Dr Contadini, like most of the (very few) students of this text, is
primarily interested in the illustrations, but she does not neglect the
scientific content and its historical contexts.7 Fortunately, an Arabic
manuscript of Ibn Bakhtıs̄ hū ʿ’s book belonging to Princeton University
and now classified as Islamic Manuscript, Garrett 203B (listed by
Ullmann and others according to the Hitti catalogue as Garrett 1065)
2 Pellat, Ch. «al-Masʿū dı̄ , Abu ʿl-Ḥ asan ʿAlı̄ b. al-Ḥ usayn.» Encyclopaedia of Islam,
Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman; , Th. Bianquis; , C.E. Bosworth; , E. van
Donzel; and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2010. Brill Online. Bar Ilan University. 14 July
2010 <http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_COM-0704>
3 Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden, 1972), pp.
5-43. Ullmann lists one author as Pseudo-Masʿū dı̄ (p. 25, bottom, referring to the author
of Akhbā r al-zamā n), but this has nothing do with the citations in our fragment.
4 Literally, the title reads “…the Life of the Animal, its Natures, etc.”, using the singular
form to indicate a collective plural.
5 The typescript is still deposited at the Morgan Library, which holds the manuscript
that he used; see the dissertation of Contadini (below, note 4), note 15 on p. 189.
6 Abraham Yohannan, “A Manuscript of the Manā fi’ al-Haiawā n in the Library of Mr.
J. P. Morgan,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 36 (1916), 381-389.
7 Anna Contadini, The Kitā b Naʿt al-Ḥ ayawā n (“Book on the Characteristics of
Animals,” BL, Or 2784) and the “Ibn Bakhtıs̄ hū ʿ” Illustrated Bestiaries, Doctoral
Dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1992, 2
171

has been put on line,8 and I can confirm that the fragment at St
Petersburg is not a transcription of Ibn Bakhtıs̄ hū ʿ.
Medical and magical uses of animals are described in sections
of several encyclopedias, for example, Nuzhatu-l-Qulū b, a Persian
compilation written by Ḥ amdulla Qazwın ̄ ı̄ in 1339/1340. Some useful
samples from that work, along with references to a few additional
writings, were published by J. Stephenson over eighty years ago.9
Joseph Semogyi has culled another major work of zoology, al-Damır̄ ı’̄ s
Ḥ ayā t al-Ḥ ayawā n, for its medical and magical materials.10 A specimen
of an early work on beasts of prey (Kitā b al-Wuḥ ū sh) by al-’Aṣmaʿı̄ was
published over a century ago by Rudolph Geyer; the author’s main
interest was in verses of poetry where the animals are mentioned.11 I
possess a microfilm of a rich zoological manuscript (Ar 52) at UCLA;
that work does not take up the medicinal uses of animal parts, at least
in the entries that I checked.12 Finally, I must mention one page from
another work on the same subject, likewise as yet unidentified, found at
the very end of another manuscript from St Petersburg, Heb-Ar I 2227
(F 55681), which is a copy of Ibn Sirın ̄ ’s book on dream interpretation,
Arabic in Hebrew characters. The introduction to the text reads:
‫ קאל צאחב אלכתאב ען מא נקלה מן‬.‫”באב מנאפע שי מן בעץ' אלחיואנאת‬
"...‫כתאב אלכ'ואץ ען גאלינוס ומהארוס וטאליוס‬
“A chapter on the uses of some animals. The author of the
book said, from what he took over from the book on special
properties (khawā ṣ ṣ ), from Galen, Mahā rū s, and Talius (?)...»
A treatise on the special properties of grasses and animals (Khawā ṣ ṣ
al-ḥ ashā ’ish wa-manā fiʿ al-ḥ ayawā n) is ascribed to Galen in one
manuscript.13 The name of Mahā rū s, more usually written Mahrā rıs̄ ,
appears in several texts; there is as yet no accepted identification of this
personage.14 I cannot identify “Talius” either.
172
Y. T z v i L a n g e r m a n n
In brief, then, the fragment described in this note does not belong
to any known work with which I have been able to compare it. It is
also noteworthy that the St Petersburg text nowhere mentions khā ṣ ṣ a
or khawā ṣ ṣ (Hebrew segula), even though, judging from the extant
fragment, the author was at least as interested in (what we could call)
magical properties as he was in medical uses. Although khā ṣ ṣ a is used
in medicine, it is perhaps the key term in magic. Note further that none
of these animals are mythical, and most are quite common; this was
meant to be a practical handbook of materia medica, not a bestiary. It
was meant to be a practical guide for the practitioner, rather a reading
for entertainment.
As to the structure of the text. We have already noted that the
manuscript is misbound. The beginning of the text is missing, and
vols.; this dissertation is available for free and immediate download on the wonderful
site of the British Library, <http://ethos.bl.uk>.
8 The manuscripts at Princeton can be viewed at this site: <http://diglib.princeton.
edu>,
9 J. Stephenson, “The Zoological Section of Nuzhatu-l-Qulûb,” Isis 11 (1928), 285-
315.
10 Joseph D. Semogyi, “Medicine in al-Damiri’s Ḥ ayā t al-Ḥ ayawā n,” Journal of Semitic
Studies 2 (1957), 62-91; idem, “Magic in al-Damiri’s Ḥ ayā t al-Ḥ ayawā n,” Journal of
Semitic Studies 3 (1958), 265-287.
11 Rudolf Geyer, “Das Kitâb al-wuḥ uš von al-’Aṣmaʿı̄ mit einem Paralleltexte von
Quṭrub,” Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 115 (1888), 380-
420.
12 A.Z. Iskandar, “A doctor’s book on zoology: al-Marwazı’̄ s Ṭ abā ’iʿ al-Ḥ ayawā n
(Nature of Animals) re-assessed,” Oriens 27-28 (1981), 266-312.
13 Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 4 (Frankfurt, 1971), p. 314;
the manuscript is at the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, India.
14 See Ullmann, 177-178, for a review of the literature.
173

there is no way of deciding whether this item was part of a much larger
work (presumably on medicine, perhaps an encyclopedia of sorts), or
whether it was a monograph on the uses to which animals parts may
be put. Each animal has its own chapter or “bā b»; this organizational
feature is not found in the book of Ibn Bakhtıs̄ hū ʿ. The text discusses
the uses of the various parts, usually beginning with the head or brain.
Here are some representative passages, first from the strictly
medical prescriptions:
‫”לבן אלאתאן אדא שרב נפעה מן אלסמום אלקאתלה ומן קרוח אלאמעא ומן‬
".‫קרוח אלראס‬
“The milk of the she-ass. When this is drunk, it is useful for
lethal drugs, ulcers of the intestines, and ulcers on the head.”
(2b)
Now for some of the magical recipes; not surprisingly, many of these
involve the use of animal parts to increase sexual indulgence.15
‫”ואדא ארדת אן ינזע אלנסא תיאבהם פי אלבית וירקצו פכד דם ארנב פי פתילן‬
‫ואסרג בהא סראג פי וצט אלבית פליס תראה אמראה אלא יתנזע תיאבהא‬
".‫ותרקץ‬
“If you want the women at home to throw off their clothes and dance,
place the blood of a rabbit on a wick, and light it up in a lamp in the
middle of the house. You won’t see a woman who doesn’t throw off her
clothes and dance.” (5a) However, another recipe is directed at those
who seek wisdom:
‫”ואן אכל אנסאן לחם כלד משוי קבל טלוע אלשמס יכון עאלם באלעלום אלתי‬
".‫יתעלמהא ולא ינסא‬
“If someone eats roasted mole meat before sunrise, he will
know the sciences that he studies and will not forget.” (22b)
174
Y. T z v i L a n g e r m a n n
Finally, it is interesting that Galen is mentioned only once, and our
author voices some skepticism concerning Galen’s advice; the Arabic
zaʿama (“claimed”) usually indicates disapproval of the statement cited:
".‫”וזעם גאלינוס אן אלפאר אדא שק ווצ'ע עלי לסעה אלעקרב ואלאפעא נפע‬
“Galen claimed that if a mouse is dismembered and placed
upon the sting of a scorpion or viper, it is helpful.” (22b)
There is one reference to a connection between animals and the stars:
‫”ואעלם אן אלגזאל ללקמר ואלכנפסה לזחל פאן טרחת כנפסה עלי גזאל מאת‬
".‫מכאנה‬
“Know that the gazelle belongs to the moon, and the dung
beetle (ḵ unfusa) to Saturn. If you were to throw a dung-beetle
onto a gazelle (ghazā l), it would die on the spot” (19b).
This passage matches more or less information given by al-Bır̄ ū nı̄
and Ibn Ezra; in all three texts, the creeping insect is connected to the
slow moving planet, Saturn. However, al-Bır̄ ū nı̄ and Ibn Ezra assign
the speedy gazelle to Venus.16 Astral connections are evident as well
towards the end of the long passage cited below from al-Masʿū dı.̄
Al-Masʿū dı̄ is cited three times: once in connection with a
conventional medical recipe using an unspecified part (of course, the
15 Here as always I copy out the passage exactly as it appears in the manuscript, without
“correcting” diacriticals or anything else. My interest lies solely in the contents of the
treatise, rather than in its linguistic features.
16 For Ibn Ezra, see Reishit Ḥ oḵ ma, chapter four (conveniently available in the Baqal
edition, Jerusalem, 1973), where fleas, flies and other vermin are assigned to Saturn,
but deer and gazelle are associated with Venus. For al-Bır̄ ū nı,̄ see his Tafhım
̄ (The
175

word naming the part may have been accidentally skipped over) of cattle
(baqar), which is used in an ointment to treat sciatica (?; ʿaraq al-insā n),
and twice in the section dealing with the cat (sinnaur; I give here the
conventional spelling. In our manuscript, the first letter usually appears
as ṣ ā d rather than as sın
̄ ). In the first of the feline recipes, al-Masʿū dı’̄ s
full name appears, thus removing any doubt that the authority cited is
the famous historian: Alı̄ ibn al-Ḥ usayn ibn Alı̄ al-Masʿū dı.̄ The second
feline passage is very long, by far the longest passage in the entire text.
I have translated it in its entirety, and copied out as well the Judaeo-
Arabic original.
“Al-Masʿū dı̄ told a wonderful story about the head of the cat. The
ancient philosophers mentioned it; it is one of the secrets of nature.
It is [as follows]: take a black cat, either male or female, dead but not
slaughtered [i.e. the practitioner is instructed not to kill the cat, but
rather to find a dead one]. Gently remove its head from its body and
hollow out its eyes. Then take two seeds from the castor-oil plant, and
put each one in place of one of the eyes. Take it to a place which no on
else will approach, unless it be someone you trust. Dig for it [a hole] of
a cubit’s measure, then put in a hand’s-span of old dung; then put in the
head, and place old dung around it and on top of it. Place around it a
hem of fine dirt, then put on top of it something like a rounded stone,
whose height above the earth is four digits.; its circumference should be
the magnitude of a cubit. Water it with human blood for forty days; if it
sprouts [fine];if not, then water it for sixty days, and if it sprouts [fine],
but if not, then water it for seventy days; if it sprouts [fine], but if not,
then water it for ninety days. You should obtain the blood from the
shops of cuppers and bloodletters, in this manner: you should engage
a youngster to collect it in a jug. Do not spread the word of this! Its
tremendous benefit in the next world is greater than its trouble [i.e. the
trouble it demands] in this world.
Indeed, this thing was done by a group of philosophers, who did in
the days of al-Mu‘taḍ id. When it was completed [placing the cat’s head
176
Y. T z v i L a n g e r m a n n
in the mound, etc.], it was watered with blood, and a castor-oil plant
began to grow; one or two plants may grow. When the plant has spread
out, the clusters [of seed] are ripe, and the fruit has almost dried, then
take care that this fruit does not fall off from it, even a single seed; if you
can [ ]17 over every cluster so that it does fall down, then do so. When
it has grown thus and attained to what we have described, pluck the
clusters on the [first hour] of Wednesday, which belongs to Mercury,
on the first hour of Saturday, which belongs to Saturn, and on the first
hour of Tuesday, which belongs to Mars. This should be in the waxing
of the moon, not in its waning. Pick the fruit and harvest it. So also
ought you to plant it in the times that we have described.
Sit in an elevated place, a roof or something else. Let a boy who
has not yet reached [puberty] sit on your right, and on your left a boy
who has not yet reached [puberty]. Put these seeds in your lap. Then
take one, put it in your mouth, then turn to the two boys who are on
your right and left, and say to them, ʿDo you see me?’. If they say yes,
then throw away that seed and take another, and so on with others,
until that seed, which is the objective and goal—when you put it in
your mouth and say to the boy on your right, ʿDo you see me?’, he
says, ʿNo!’ [You ask the] the one on your left, ʿDo you see me?’ He
says, ʿNo, I don’t see you!’ Know that this the seed that you have been
aiming for.
Then take it and set in a signet ring under a jewel. When you enter
any place at all with the signet ring in your mouth, no one will see
you. But if you take it out of your mouth and put it in your hand or
Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, trans. R. Ramsay Wright,
London, 1934), p. 246, on the indications of the planets for quadrupeds. Among those
associated with Saturn are poisonous insects, fleas, and beetles; the gazelle (ẓ aby) is
associated with Venus, as in Ibn Ezra.
17 There is a word here, which looks to be ‫ כזס‬, and which makes no sense.
177
 ‫‪somewhere else, eyes will apprehend you! Many people have done this‬‬
‫‪and succeeded, God permitting.‬‬

‫קאל אלמסעודי פי ראס אלצנור קצה עגיבה וקד דכרתהא אלפלאספה אלמתקדמין‬
‫ודלך סר מן אסראר אלטביעה ]‪10‬א[ והו אן תאכד)?( צנור אסוד דכר כאן או אנתי מיית גיר‬
‫מדבוח פתסל ראסה כלהא מן גסדה ותג‘ורעיניה תגוירא ותאכד חבתין מן אלכרוע ותגעל‬
‫כל חבה מכאן אלעין ותאתי אלי מוצ‘ע לא יקרבה אחד גירך או מן תתקה פתחפר לה פי‬
‫אלארץ‘ מקדאר דראעה ואגעל פי מקדאר שבר מנה זבל עתיק ואגעל אלראס ואגעל חול‬
‫אלראס ופוקה זבל עתיק תם אגעל חולה כף תראב גייד ואגעל פוקה מתל אלחגרה מדורה‬
‫רפעהא מן אלארץ‘ ארבע אצאבע ויכון אסתדארתהא מקדאר דראע ]‪10‬ב[ ויסוקהא בדם‬
‫אלנאס ארבעין יום פאן נבת ואלא ואסקיה סתין יום פאן נבת ואלא ואסקיה סבעין יום פאן‬
‫נבת ואלא אסקיה תסעין יום ויכון אכדך אלדם מן דכאכין אלחגאמין ואלפצאד ודלך אנה‬
‫תוכל טפל יגמעה לך פי כוז ולא תמל דלך פאן עצ‘ים מנפעתה מן דלך פי אלאגל אכתר מן‬
‫תעבה פי אלעאגל ודלך אן הדא אלבאב קד עמל בה גמאעה מן אלאפלאספה וקד עמל בה‬
‫פי איאם אלמעתצ‘ד פאדא אסתכמל סקי אלדם ואבתדא נבאת שגר אלכרוע לאן רבמא‬
‫נבת שגרה או שגרתין פאדא ]‪11‬א[ דלת אלנבאת ואסתות ענאקדה ואצ‘ע תמרתה וכאד‬
‫אן יגף פאחפץ דלך אלתמר אלא תסקט מנה ולא חבה ואן קדרת עלי כל ענקוד כ‪ ...‬לילה‬
‫פאפעל פאדא אנתבא דלך ובלג מא וצפנא קלעת תלך אלענאקיד יום אלארבעה לעטארד‬
‫ולסאעה אלאולא מן יום אלסבת לזחל ואלסאעה אלאולא מן יום אלתלאתא ללמריך ויכון‬
‫דלך פי זיאדת אלהלאל לא פי נקצאנה וקטף אלתמר ואגניה וכדלך אדא זרעת יכון מתל‬
‫הדא אלאוקאת אלדי קד וצפתהא לך ותקעד עלי מוצ‘ע מרתפע מתל סטח או ג‘ירה יקעד‬
‫עליה ]‪11‬ב[ ימינך צבי גיר באלג ועלי יסארך צבי גיר באלג ותגעל דלך אלחב פי חגרך וכד‬
‫מנהא חבה אגעלהא פי פאך תם אקבל עלי אלצביאן אלדי עלי ימינך ויסארך פתקול להמא‬
‫מא תרוני פאן קאלו נעם ארמי תלך אלחבה וכד אכרה וכדא אכרה אלי תלך אלחבה פהי‬
‫אלג‘רץ‘ ואלמטלוב פאד אדכלתהא פי פאך וקלת ללצבי אלדי עלי ימינך תראני פקאל‬
‫לך לא וךלאלדי עלי יסארך תראני פקאל לך לא אראך פאעלם אן תלך אלחבה אלמקצוד‬
‫אליהא‪ .‬פכדהא ציירהא פי כאתם תחת פץ פאנך אי מוצ‘ע ]‪12‬א[ אן דכלת ואלכאתם פי‬
‫פאך לא יראך אחד פאן אכרגתה מן פאך ווצ‘עת פי ידך או פי גירהא אדרכתך אלאבצאר‬
‫וקד עמל הדא אלבאב כ‘לק כתיר וצח להם באדן אללה‪.‬‬

‫‪178‬‬

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