La parure des cavaliers et l'insigne des preux by Ibn Hudhail,'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Andalusi; M. Nehlil; Louis MercierReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 8, No. 2 (May, 1926), pp. 346-349Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/223653 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 00:18

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:18:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

346 isis, vini. 1926

vehicle from Alexandria (IIIrd cent.) to Harran (VIth cent.), hence to Bagdad (IXth cent.), hence to Constantinople (XIth cent.), hence to Florence (XVth cent.).

Their contents do not concern the historian of science, but the account of their journey is extremely instructive for the road which they followed was one of the main roads in the history of civilization and many things must have travelled along it together with the Hermetica.

GEORGE SARTON.

ilbn Hudhail, 'All ibn 'Abd al-Rahmin al-Andalusi, f1. c. 1356] La parure des cavaliers et l'insigine des preux. Edit6 d'apres le MS. de M. NEHtLIL, revu et corrige sur l'exemplaire de la bibliotheque de 1'Escurial, par Louis MERCcIER, Consul de France. Iv+98 p., 1922 - Traduction francaise precedde d'une etude sur les sources des hip- piatres arabes et accompagnee d'appendices critiques sur l'histoire du pur-sang, de l'equitation et des sports hippiques arabes, en Maghreb et en Orient. Avec 23 photographies et 11 dessins. Par Louis ME:RCIEB. xvI-1-583 p., 1924. Paris, PAU, GEUTIINER, 1922-24.

This most interesting publication is at first, a little confusing. I will try to explain the matter briefly, and a little more clearly than the author. IBN HUDHAIL flourished at Granada under the reign of MUHAMMAD V (king from 1350 to 1362) who ordered him to write a treatise on jihid. There is a good MS. of that treatise in the Escorial (no. 1652). The treatise contains two parts of which the first deals with the military art and the second, with hippiatry. Now, some time later, under the rule of MUUHAAMMAD VI, King of Granada from 1392 to c. 1408, a second treatise was coim- posed which was largely an abbreviated copy of the second part of the first one. We might thus say, tentatively, that the first treatise was composed c. 1356 and the second c. 1400. This second treatise is anonymous. It is entitled: Hilyat al-fursan wa shi'ar al-shuaj'n, of which the French title chosen by Mr. L. MERCIER is a good equivalent. The editor suggests that it was perhaps a second edition prepared by the original author, but he does not adduce a single argument in favor of his hypothesis. This does not seem plausible, because some forty-four years elapsed between the two editions, and because the original author would in all likelihood have attached his name to the second edition (as he did to the first) and explained its peculiarities. It is more plausible to assume that the Hlilyat al-fursan is a plagiarism.

It seems that the editor got hold of the second, abbreviated, trea- tise, first; later he became acquainted with the larger treatise

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:18:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS 347

through Mr. NEHLIL, Director of the Ecole superieure de langues et littkeratures arabes of Rabat. Mr. NEHLIL, intrusted to him a MS. of that treatise, MS. which seems inferior to the Escorial MS. (I say < seems >, because the editor gives practically no information on the age, provenance and value of these MSS.). Now, the edition

given to us is a photographic reproduction of the second half of the inferior MS. of the first treatise, with the title page of the second

treatise, the whole followed by errata obtained by collation with the Escorial MS. Is this not a tortuous procedure ? Why not photo- graph the best MS.> and above all, why publish an edition of one work with the title of another ? This is bound to be a cause of confusion. - I must admit that the MS. reproduced is very beauti-

fully written. To speak now of the second volume, the French translation, which

will be used by a far greater number of scholars, it is a very valu-

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:18:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

348 isis, vin. 1926

able contribution to our knowledge of Muslim civilization. I would

hardly say science, for this treatise on hippiatry contains very little of special interest to the naturalist and the veterinarian. It is worth while to reproduce the original table of contents to give the reader some idea of a Muslim textbook on that subject:

1. Sur la creation du cheval, sur qui i'a domestique le premier, sur sa diffusion dans le monde; 2. Sur les vertus mysterieuses des chevaux et ce qui est promis a qui en 61ve; 3. Sur l'entretien des chevaux, les soins a leur donner, les recommandations faites a ce sujet; 4. Sur les noms que les Arabes donnent aux differentes parties du corps du cheval et le nombre de ces vocables

qui sont noms d'oiseaux; 5. Sur les qualit6s a rechercher dans les differentes

parties du corps et les ressemblances qu'll est bon que le cheval presente avec certains animaux; 6. Sur les robes, signes, pelotes, balzanes et 6pis; 7. Sur ce

qu'il faut reche cher chez les chevaux : caract6ristiques des plus nobles d'entre eux; noms par lesquels on d6signe les chevaux de race et de sang; 8. Sur les vices naturels et acquis; 9. De l'epreuve des chevaux, de leur choix, physiogno- monie du cheval; 10. De l'apprentissage de l'rquitation en ses diverses manifes-

tations; 11. Des courses de chevaux, du peloton a l'arriv6e, des paris; 12. Noms des chevaux du Prophete b6ni et de quelques-uns des plus reputes parmi les Arabes; 13. Termes et noms de choses speciaux aux chevaux; 14. Citations des

poetes sur la pirefrence marqu6e par les Arabes pour les chevaux plus que par aucune autre race, les soins qu'ils leurs donnaient, la gloire qu'ils en tiraient; 15. Du sabre; 16. De la lance; 17. Des arcs et des fliches; 18. Des cuirasses

(cottes de mailles, etc.); 19. Des boucliers et armes analogues; 20. Des armes et 6quipements en gaenerl. -

The editor has apparently made a deep study of many other Arabic treatises of the same kind, from the earliest ones down to

very modern ones - notably the Nukhbat 'iqd al-ajyad fi-l-saffniat al-jiyad (Stambul 1907) conimposed by the amir MUHAMMAD PASHA, MUHYI AL-DiN, a son of 'ABD AL-QADIR (who surrendered to the French in Algeria, in 1847). This enables him to add much infor- mation of Muslim origin in the footnotes and appendixes, and thus to give the reader some knowledge of the hippiatric literature available in Arabic. The first appendix (p. 283-306) deals with the training of horses; the second (p. 307-351) is a study on the origin and varieties of the Arabian horse - a hopelessly difficult question -and deals incidentally with the customs relative to the sale of horses (interesting facsimile of a hujjat or pedigree). Appendix III (p. 353-61) is of greater biological interest being devoted to the Muslim views on the proper conditions for leaping and on the dif- ferent ages of horses, the names given to them at various periods of their life and the means of telling their age. Appendix IV (p. 363-71), deals with the care of horses, their diet and training.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:18:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS 349

Much of all this is translated from the work of MUHAMMAD PASHA previously quoted. - Appendix V is a reprint of an account of an equestrial evolution witnessed at Mogador in 1818 by the sea captain JAMES RILLEY. The sixth and last appendix is probably the most interesting, being a historical sketch of Muslim hippiatry through- out the 'ages. This is followed by an abundant bibliography, which forms a very valuable supplement to the enormous hippiatric biblio- graphy recently published by General MENNESSIER DE LA LANCE (see Isis, VIII, ): it is not restricted to European publications but contains as well a long list of Arabic works (,p. 431-59). How. ever, it is much to be regretted that the author did not give us a catalogue raisonne of that important branch of Arabic literature, nor provide a chronological summary. Finally, there is a long Arabic index. The work contains a good number of illustrations, reproductions of various pictures found in MSS. and of photographs of horses.

Mr. MERCIER'S studies are of special interest to students of the Arabic language and of Muslim culture. To show their cultural importance it will suffice to recall that the horse is almost a sacred animal in Islam. The Prophet clearly expressed the divine will with regard to this. Mr. MERCIER gives a curious illustration of this which I better quote using his own words:

. C'est sans doute, du meme sentiment religieux et supertitieux que procede la coutume marocaine d'accorder au cheval le droit d'asile, tout comme & une mosqu6e, un sanctuaire quelconque, un canon. L'homme poursuivi ou d6ja arrete s'accroche des deux bras, s'il le peut, aux ant6rieurs du cheval d'un Card, d'un chef, petit ou grand et, de ce fait, il devient t, emziweg fil'aud r6fugi6 aupres du cheval et le proprietaire de celui-ci est, dds lors, tenu d'employer toute son influence en faveur de ce proteg6 indirect.

X Le Pere BUSNOT croit que ce droit d'asile n'etait accord6 qu'a ceux des chevaux de MYE ISMARL que ce Sultan avait emmen6s en p6lerinage a la Mecque et qui restaient consid6r6s comme sacres. I1 est possible, en effet, que le droit de " zuag ait commence par etre le privilege exclusif d'une cat6gorie de chevaux, mais il faut constater qu'il s'est 6tendu depuis, non seulement & tous les che- vaux detenus par des musulmans, mais meme a ceux des chr6tiens etje pourrais citer plus d'un cas oh un officier ou un fonctionnaire frangais l'a vu appliquer a son propre cheval. "

Historians of science must know of these studies, though they will find in them relatively little grist for their own mill. As it is, the work pleased me greatly and would have pleased me even more if I had happened to be a better judge of horseflesh.

GEORGE SARTON.

VOL. vir-2. 23

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:18:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions