al-Aqwāl al-kāfiyah wa-l-fuṣūl al-shāfiyah الأقوال الكافية والفصول الشافية

Content

A treatise on the selection, management, and training of horses, and on horse physiology and the treatment of diseases. The present copy is incomplete, ending abruptly at a section on elephants from the final chapter on other beasts of burden.

The text was originally written ca. 1330 by al-Malik al-Mujāhid ʻAlī ibn Dāwūd (الملك المجاهد علي بن داوود), Rasulid Sultan of Yemen (reg. 1321-62). The title appears at the end of the author's introduction (f. 5r, lines 16-17), while the author is named in an added title on f. 2r. The author states that the work is based on his personal knowledge and experience with horses and not only on written sources, as other treatises were.

The work is divided into an introduction and six chapters (أقوال):

• Introduction (ff. 2v-5r);
• Chapter one, on what is said about the virtues of horses in the Qur'an (القول الأول فيما جاء في فضائل الخيل في الكتاب العزيز; ff. 5r-12r);
• Chapter two, on the characteristics, constitution, colours, marks and names [of horses] القول الثاني في صفاتها وخلقها وألوانها وشياتها وأسمائها; ff. 12r-48r);
• Chapter three, on pregnancy, breeding and raising of [horses] (القول [الثالث] في ذكر حملها ونتاجها وتربيتها; ff. 48r-71r);
• Chapter four, on illnesses, their causes and treatments and on the disease which affected them in 727[/1326-7] in Yemen (القول الرابع في ذكر أمراضها وأسبابها ومداواتها وذكر العلة التي حدثت بها في سنة سبع وعشرين وسبعمائة بإقليم اليمن; ff. 71r-91v);
• Chapter five, on the names of famous horses from the Jāhilīyah and the Islamic era ( القول الخامس في ذكر أسماء الخيل المشهورة في الجاهلية والإسلام; ff. 91v-112r);
• Chapter six, on foreign breeds of horses, draught horses and mules (في ذكر خيول العجم والبراذين والبغال; ff. 112r-128r).

The front and back folios of this volume (ff. 1r-2r and 128v) are annotated with numerous ownership notes, magic squares with Solomonic symbols, and poetry.

Begins (f. 2v, lines 2-4):

الحمد لله اللطيف بخلقه المتكفل لهم قبل السؤال بسابغ رزقه أحمده

على نعمه وهو خير في أنعم واستمره في فضله وهو القادر الأعظم

المحكم لمخلوقاته ومصنوعاته وهو أجل في صنع وأحكم...

Ends (f. 128r, lines 14-17):

إن الفيل جوهر يموت في السنة التي يموت فيها السلطان الملك

المطهر (!) قبل أن يمرض الفيل بزمان طويل فمات الفيل في تلك السنة

ولم تطل مدة الخليفة بعد ذلك وقيل إن عمر الفيل ثلثمائة سنة

وقالوا ظهر فيل في أيام المتوكل فعاش أربعمائة سنة والله أعلم

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. i+128+ii

Physical characteristics

Material: Eastern laid paper (ff. 1-90), Western laid paper (ff. 91-128)

Dimensions: 230 x 146 mm leaf [146 x 96 mm written], trimmed from larger dimensions

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Ruling: Misṭarah ; 19 lines per page (ff. 1-90), 21 lines per page (ff. 91-128); vertical spacing 13 lines per 10 cm (ff. 1-90), 14 lines per 10 cm (ff. 91-128)

Script: Naskh

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and overlinings in red

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum half-leather binding in red

Condition: Some smudging and water damage, tear to corner of f. 25, extensive deliberate smudging to f. 27r

Marginalia: Few, some mutilated by trimming. Extensive marginal additions on ff. 75v and 85r

Seals: British Museum stamp, ff. 1v and 128v

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Or 3830

History of this record

Date(s)

Early 17th century (CE, Gregorian)

Provenance

• Undeciphered ownership note, with date Jumādá I 1177/November-December 1763 (f. 1r);
• ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz ibn Muḥammad (عبد العزيز بن محمد): his ownership note, with date 1173/1759-60 (f. 2r);
• Note with date 14 Dhū al-Qaʻdah 1114/1 April 1703 (f. 2r)
• Yaḥyá ibn ʻUmar (يحيى بن عمر) : his ownership note, with date 1034/1624-5 (f. 2r);
• Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-R... [name element lost through trimming] (محمد ابن عبد الر...): his ownership note (f. 2r);
• Qāsim ibn ʻAbd al-Rabb (قاسم ابن عبد الرب): his ownership note (f. 72r).

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from Eduard Glaser (1855-1908), 13 July 1889 (No. 118)

Related material

Finding aids

Rieu, Charles, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 816, pp. 553

Select Bibliography

Edition:

• Al-Malik al-Mujāhid ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd ibn Yūsuf ibn ʻUmar al-Rasūlī al-Ghassānī, al-Aqwāl al-kāfīyah wa-al-fu ṣ ūl al-shāfiyah fī al-khayl , ed. by Yaḥyā Jabūrī (Bayrūt: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1987)

Study:

• Shehada, Housni Alkhateeb, Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2013), pp. 148-56

Subjects

Veterinary medicine -- Early works to 1800Military art and science -- Early works to 1800

People & organisations

ʻAlī ibn Dāwūd al-Malik al-Mujāhid

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al-Aqwāl al-kāfiyah wa-l-fuṣūl al-shāfiyah الأقوال الكافية والفصول الشافية, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Or 3830, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100099038760.0x000001> [accessed 11 January 2025]

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