Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān, [1600]
حياة الحيوان، [1600]

A zoological encyclopedia listing the names of the different animals, birds and insects arranged alphabetically, with anecdotes, poems and folkloric tales, but the most important part of this work is the description of the medicinal properties of the animals and their different organs. It is the most comprehensive zoological work in Arabic and a store-house of folk-lore and popular medicine. The author is Muḥammad ibn Mūsá al-Damīrī (1341?-1405), a Shafiite Egyptian scholar, from Cairo. He worked as a tailor, but then devoted himself to learning and scholarship and became a prominent scholar at al-Azʹhar. He also lived for a while in Mecca and Medina. al-Damīrī finished writing his book in the month of Rajab, 773 H (January/February, 1372). The book is in two versions: long and short. The present manuscript is the long version and according to a recent note on leaf 1a it was copied from a manuscript copied in 805 H (1402/1403). Name of copyist and place and date of copying not mentioned, probably from the 17th century