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Epitome of the Work by Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Aḥnaf on Equine Medicine

PhD project by Maria Vittoria Ritz

As part of a joint project between the Institute for Palaeoanatomy and History of Veterinary Medicine of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Department of Semitic Studies at Philipps University of Marburg on the theme "Continuity of the Hippiatric Heritage of Antiquity in the Arabic-speaking World of the Early Middle Ages," one of the oldest Arabic works on hippology and hippiatrics, the Kitāb al-furūsīya wa-l-bayṭara by Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn aḫī Ḥizām al-Ḫuttalī, was translated by Martin Heide and evaluated with regard to its role in the transmission of equine medical knowledge. In addition, the translation of the manuscript of the Arabic Theomnestus was made accessible for the first time through the work of Susanne Saker. The translation of another manuscript by Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Aḥnaf was intended to complete the accessible material and is the object of this work. The basis for this are the 3 copies of the manuscript by Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Aḥnaf: Šabbūh Fihris no. 223, dated 606/1210; Šabbūh Fihris no. 224, dated 605/1209; Gotha 2075, dated 1141/1729.

That the manuscripts are epitomes is explicitly stated by the copyist in the incipit: "I have briefly summarized the book by Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Aḥnaf on al-bayṭara (veterinary medicine) by omitting reports and poetry and limiting myself to what I considered indispensable concerning the teeth of horses, their markings, medications and diseases, their congenital and acquired defects, and I have added what I considered indispensable concerning medications for mules, donkeys, cattle and small livestock."

The material is divided into 30 chapters and follows the principle a capite ad calcem (from head to heel). Each chapter contains the definition of the disease, the associated symptoms, and the appropriate therapies.