Mahmud al Amuli: Nafa’is al-funun
(Treasury of the Sciences) (d1352) Persia

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Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Amuli was a medieval Persian physician from Amol, Iran. Between 1335 and 1342, Amoli composed a large and widely read Persian encyclopedia on the classification of knowledge titled: Nafa'is al-funun fi ‘ara'is al-‘uyun.

 

Saturn from a manuscript of Qazwini

 

 

Taken from: کتب طبی انتزاعی by a group of Authors.

 

The fifth fan of the fourth article of the second part of the book Nafais al-Funun fi Arais al-Ayun is the science of science.

P283

That the difference between people in bodies and elements, morals and behavior, as it is known by induction, is due to the difference in the condition of the sun in its movement, whether they live on the equator or in the alignment of the path of the head of Cancer, due to the fact that the sun once or twice a year moves towards His head will pass through the heat of eternity and his hair will turn black; And those who are near the equator as in Zanj and Abyssinia, due to the closeness of the sun, their hair burned and turned them black and curly, and their eyes were strong.

P293

Saturn relates to the ruins and deep wells of the dwellings at the four ends (of the lands).

And from Balad on India, Sind, Zanj, Abyssinia, Copts, Yemen and Arabs, and from mines on iron and iron, hard stones, and from grains on pepper, chestnuts, olives, sour pomegranates, lentils, flax, and honeydew, and from trees. On Mazo (Oak Gall), Halila (Indian Walnut), walnut, olive, almond, and any tree whose fruit is hard skin, and on food, on filthiness, and sourness, the stench of the smell, and on food and spices, whatever is raining and strong, in the fourth degree, except for medicinal spices. ……………….

P307

Giraffe

It is an animal with a delicate shape and a strange composition, its head is longer and narrower than a camel's head, and its neck is as long as a camel's neck, except that it is straight and a camel's neck is bent, and it has two horns, resembling the horns of a black deer, and its ears and feet like the cow, and its mouth and nose were like those of a buffalo, and its tail is like a camel's tail. .......

But it was thinner and less hairy than a camel's tail, and its entire skin is decorated with red and white, its front-legs are much longer than its rear-legs, and it is called a camel-cow-leopard. ..........

It is said that if a leopard is mated with a wild camel, a giraffe will be produced. ............

And one of his properties is that his skin removes jaundice and if someone has his skin with him, he can have good dreams and get less trouble.

P329

Blue Cow

- It is said that he comes out of the sea to eat grass, and whatever waste is separated from it is amber, but it is most likely that this saying is not true, whether this is true or it is true that amber comes out of the sea like a plant, and when the sea is troubled, it casts it on the shore, and it is said that in the sea Zanj is a fish that is called a whale because it is five hundred arms long, and when the water of the sea is troubled, from the bottom of the sea, amber waves, each as big as a mountain, will come up on the water, and that fish will swallow it and perish with it. It should be that when the whale comes floating on the water, they should drag him to the shore and take out that amber, and it is better that they take it out from his back.

P334

The ruby of this mine is around the size of a head and is from a mountain in Zanzibar that is called the mountain of snow, and under it is a red ruby rock, and the rubies are of four types of red and black and……

P497

……….. And when the traveler passed through the Indian Sea and entered the Chinese Sea, the Moghadshu-bar River was on his side,  and the people of Moghadshu (Mogadishu in India and in Africa are mixed up here) (1) became Muslims in the 70th year of his (the king’s) life. They say that he was not an authentic king …… and tar and ivory and ebony and the hairy skin of the barbarians are obtained from there, and there are many elephants in his islands, and the province of Abyssinia is reached from there and also is Zanzibar, and most of the people of Abyssinia are Muslims, and some are fearful and unhinged, and one (country) of them is connected to the heights of Upper Egypt. Most of the cities of Abyssinia are on the side of Qulzum (2) Sea, opposite to Yemen; their king should live in the city of Harami or Dangola where both branches of the Nile meet and there is a mine of gold. There is a castle in the city of Zanzibar that is the seat of the king. And (Sri) Lanka Island is in the middle of the Indian Sea, its length is 80 farsang (3), and the city of Mahe (Male: capital of the Maldives) is next to the Qulzam Sea. Zanzibar and Aizab (4) are also on the side of Qulzum (2) Sea from Zanzibar which is considered as one of the Berber cities, and what falls on the traveler's side is the province of Ajan (5) and Multan. ……..

(1) On this see: Information about Mogadishu being part of India. (For the year 1340)

(2) Qlzmst: Qulzum: located at the head of the Gulf of Suez.

(3) farsang: The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of walking distance, the length of which varied according to terrain and speed of travel. The European equivalent is the league. In modern terms the distance is about 3 or 3½ miles (4.8 or 5.6 km).

(4) Aidab: Aydhab: medieval port of the Red Sea controlled by Egypt.

(5) Ajam is an Arabic word meaning mute. It generally refers to non-Arabs, including those whose mother tongue is not Arabic. During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a racial pejorative.