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Catalogue: Veterinary Medicine
Medieval biographical literature refers to a book on veterinary medicine (Kitāb al-Baytarah) having been written by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-‘Ibadi, but this is generally thought to be his translation of the Greek treatise on hippiatrics by the 4th century Greek writer Theomnestus of Magnesia (see Ullmann, Medizin, p. 219, and Sezgin, GAS III, 353-4). In the manuscript at NLM, Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq is repeatedly mentioned. He may be intended as the author or he may be a source from which information was compiled, along with Ibqarat (Hippocrates) and Falatis (Philotimos?), who are also cited. In any case, this manuscript does not consist of a translation of Theomnestus's Greek treatise. For the latter, see Robert Hoyland, "Theomnestus of Magnesia, Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, and the Beginnings of Islamic Veterinary Science," in Islamic Reflections: Studies in Honour of Professor Alan Jones, ed. By Robert Hoyland and Philip Kennedy [Gibb Memorial Series] (Warminster: Aris & Philips, in press). No other copy is recorded of this treatise now in the collections of NLM. Kitāb al-Sard fī ‘ilāj al-dawābb wa-al-baqar wa-al-ghanam wa-adwiyatihā (MS A 90 item 2)
 Arabic. 10 leaves (fols. 7b-16b). Dimensions 29.5 x 20.2 (text area 21.7 x 13) cm; 31 lines per page. The title is given on fol. 8b, line 1. Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq is repeatedly mentioned (for example, fol. 8b, lines 3 and 7); he may be intended as the author or he may be a source from which information was compiled, along with Ibqarat (Hippocrates) and Falatis (Philotimos?), who are also cited. All the items in the volume appear to have been transcribed by the same copyist. This first item in the volume was completed toward the end (fi awakir) of Rajab 1241 (= 11-21 March 1826) by the copyist Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad al-Ībī al-Ḥanafī. Hamarneh reads the copyist's name as al-Alfi al-Ḥanafī (Hamarneh, "NLM", p. 98). A complete copy. The text is written in a medium-large North African (Maghribi) script, probably from the same workshop of copyists as produced NLM MS A 85. The text area has been frame-ruled. The text is written in black ink with headings in red and blue-green and is set within frames of red and blue-green lines. There are catchwords. The cream, matte-finished paper is thick and opaque, with no visible laid lines or chain lines, although the paper is watermarked (visible, for example, on fol. 4). The volume consists of 18 leaves. Fols. 4b-6b, 17b and 18ab are blank. Item 1 (fols. 1b-4a) is a treatise on hemorrhoids by Maimonides (MS A 90, item 1). Item 2 (fols. 7a-16b) is Kitāb al-Sard fī ‘ilāj al-dawābb wa-al-baqar wa-al-ghanam wa-adwiyatihā, possibly by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and here catalogued; and item 3 (fol. 17a only) is a table of contents, Fihrist kitāb ma‘rifat al-furūsīyah, for an item not included in the volume (MS A 90, item 3). On fols. 1a and 7a there are short titles added in a later hand saying that each is a Risālah fī ‘ilm al-ṭibb (A treatise on medicine); on fol. 1a the word aydan ("also") is added, indicating that there were additional treatises bound with these items at one time.
The volume is bound in dark brown leather over pasteboards with a blind stamped medallion on the front and back covers. There are plain paper pastedowns and endpapers.
The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library presumably from A. S. Yahuda. No definite information is available regarding provenance.
Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. MSS., entry A90, p. 328. Hamarneh, "NLM", p. 98. NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-129 no. 7 | ||
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