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Lot Essay
Botanists of the Islamic world inherited a vast body of knowledge from Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Persian and Indian sources. Their interest in the plant world was extensive - for both agricultural and medical reasons. An Arabic translation of the De Materia Medica of Dioscorides of Anazarba (fl. first century AD) was done by Mihran ibn Mansur ibn Mihran (fl. 12th century), entitled Fi hayula al-tibb. He translated it from the Syriac translation of Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-'Ibadi (ca. 809-873). A Persian translation with a new title, Kitab al-hasha'ish, was also completed on the order of Shah 'Abbas I (r. 1588-1629) and though the original imperial copy is now lost, a version dated AH 1054/1645 AD is in the Chester Beatty Library with a Shah 'Abbas preface. A number of later copies of the work – in both Arabic and Persian - seem to have been based upon this Persian translation. Judging by the number of impressive and lavishly illustrated copies that survive, it was clearly valued as a work of great importance, right up until the 19th century from when a copy produced for Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar is known (now in the New York Public Library, Spencer, Pers.ms.39; Schmitz, 1992, no.I.2, p.13).
The copies of Kitab al-hasha’ish vary in their faithfulness to the Arabic original. The Spencer manuscript in the NYPL contains 677 illustrations of plants and 284 of animals making it a precise rendition of a 12th century copy preserved in the library of the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad believed to have been made for Najm al-Din Alpin during his reign of the city of Mayyafariqin (Schmitz, 1992, p.13). Seyyed Hossein Nasr mentions that in the Indian subcontinent, the profusion of vegetation offered a new opportunity for Muslim botanists to add a fresh chapter to the history of Islamic botany (Nasr, 1976, p.59). Whilst the plant illustrations still follow the old Arab traditions, the manuscript is typically Indian, executed in a flowing cursive on brown paper and with illustrations that demonstrate a clear familiarity with animals of the subcontinent. It is probable that the illustrations in our manuscripts were executed by more than one artists as the finesse of the depictions clearly varies.
For further discussion on Kitab al-hasha’ish, based on a 17th century copy from Deccan, see the manuscript that sold at Christie’s, London, 20 October 2016, lot 54. That manuscript was arranged in chapters discussing different orders of plants and animals. However, our manuscript is simply arranged alphabetically.
The copies of Kitab al-hasha’ish vary in their faithfulness to the Arabic original. The Spencer manuscript in the NYPL contains 677 illustrations of plants and 284 of animals making it a precise rendition of a 12th century copy preserved in the library of the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad believed to have been made for Najm al-Din Alpin during his reign of the city of Mayyafariqin (Schmitz, 1992, p.13). Seyyed Hossein Nasr mentions that in the Indian subcontinent, the profusion of vegetation offered a new opportunity for Muslim botanists to add a fresh chapter to the history of Islamic botany (Nasr, 1976, p.59). Whilst the plant illustrations still follow the old Arab traditions, the manuscript is typically Indian, executed in a flowing cursive on brown paper and with illustrations that demonstrate a clear familiarity with animals of the subcontinent. It is probable that the illustrations in our manuscripts were executed by more than one artists as the finesse of the depictions clearly varies.
For further discussion on Kitab al-hasha’ish, based on a 17th century copy from Deccan, see the manuscript that sold at Christie’s, London, 20 October 2016, lot 54. That manuscript was arranged in chapters discussing different orders of plants and animals. However, our manuscript is simply arranged alphabetically.