Veronika Weidenhöfer, Martin
Heide und Joris Peters: Zur Frage der Kontinuität des hippiatrischen Erbes
der Antike: Die Behandlung von Erkrankungen des Bewegungsapparates im Kitab
al-furusıya wa-l-baytara von Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub ibn ahı Hizam
al-Huttulı
The issue of continuity in ancient horse medicine: The
treatment of diseases of the extremities described in the Kitab
al-furusıya wa-l-baytara by Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub ibn
ahı Hizam al-Huttulı .
Since the
late 9th century, scientific
literature in Arabian language, based on the translation and compilation of
works of the Classical, Persian and Indian culture considerably increased. This
also applies to the field of veterinary medicine, as is illustrated by a number
of hippological and hippiatric treatises. Affinities between texts on horse
medicine in Antiquity and in Arabian literature have been mentioned by
philologists, but the degree of dependence on classical texts could not be
verified due to the lack of translations of the Arabian texts. In this respect,
the oldest available text about hippology and hippiatry, the Kitab al-furusıya
wa-l-baytara by Muhammad
ibn Ya‘qub ibn ahı Hizam al-Huttulı, equerry at the court of caliph al-Mutasim, al-Mutawakkil or al-Mutadid during the second half of the 9th century, is of particular importance.
In this contribution we focus
upon seven major diseases affecting the distal extremities in horses. The
contents have been analysed from an historical and a medical point of view and
compared with those from a representative selection of medieval treatises that
circulated in the Mediterranean region and the Orient up to the 14th century. This comparison reveals obvious
similarities between ibn ahı Hizams text and later hippiatric treatises, written in medieval Arabic.
Parallels to the texts of the authors of the late Antiquity and the medieval
Occident, however, can not be observed. The Kitab al-furusıya wa-l-baytara
thus evidences that Arabian hippiatry
had its own tradition, at least when dealing with the diseases of the
extremities.