Ibn Bakhtishu 1295

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Ibn Bakhtishu;
Manafi-I-Hayawan
(Description of Animals) (1295) Persia
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Taken from: Laufer Berthold; The Giraffe in History and Art.
Text is Persian translation from an earlier Arab manuscript made at the command of Ghazan Khan.

The giraffe is a reticulated giraffe with its chestnut color covered with a network of white lines. This network forms more or less regular hexagons. This kind of giraffe lives in Somalia. The head got cut of when trimming the ms.

Text accompanying the picture:
This animal is called shutur-gaw-palank (1), for the reason that every part or member of it exhibits similarity to a corresponding part of one of these three animals. Its hands (fore legs) and neck are like those of a camel, its skin is like that of a leopard, its teeth and hoofs are like those of an ox. It has long hands (fore legs) and short feet (hind legs). Only its hind legs are provided with knees, not its fore legs. Its head and tail are like those of a deer. Its young ones are said to start eating grass when they put their heads out of their mother’s womb.(2) They eat grass until satisfied. Then the young ones return to their habitation (the womb). When they are severed from the mother, they will run away immediately, for the mother has a rough and flying tongue. When she licks the young one, its flesh and skin will come off, so that it will not approach the mother for three or four days.

(1) Other versions: ushtur gaw yalank (palank); shutur-gaw-palank; ustar-gaw-palang; ushturgavpalang; ushtur or shutur-gdw-palank; ushtur kaw-balank; ushtur-gdv-palang ………………

The more used form to write it is: Usturgawpalang: persian name for giraffee; camel-ox-leopard (ustur-gaw-palang). The animal that looks like the cross of these three animals. Palang means: a leopard, a panther a giraffe, a hyena; anything of a motley colour. Ushtur: a camel [two-humped], gaw: cow, ox or bull.. This Persian name is repeated among many others: Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903); Musa Ud-Damiri (d1405); Zad Sparam (9th); Ibn Bakhtishu (1295); Al-Raghib al-Isfahani (1109); Hassan Bar Bahlul (10th); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan (869); Tha'alibi (d1038); Ibn Manzur (1290); Al-Saghani (1252); Ibrahim Ibn Wasif Shah al Misri (d1209); Ibn Qutayba (880).

(2) This is also found in Shah Mardan Ibn Abi al-Khayr: (11th)

The pictures are taken from: Morgan Library New York

Ibn Bakhtishu, Ubayd Allah ibn Jibra il Manafi al-hhayawan 1297-1300