Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in the Ma
∞
rib as
anīn/ganīn
(sing.
-a
,
pl.
-āt
and
nāyen/gnāyen
),
alīn
(pl.
lāyen
),
ūnīn/gūnīn, ganūn
and Kabyle
agunin
(pl.
iguninen
). Besides
arnab
, Hispanic languages
use
labbay
(pl.
-āt
), ultimately derived from
Ibero-Roman
lapparo
(from
leporis
, Sp.
lie-
bre
, Catalan
llèbre
, Prov.
lèbre
, Fr.
lièvre/
lapereau/lapin
).
According to urānic law, the flesh
of a hare which has had its throat cut
ritually may be consumed; the doctors
of law agree unanimously about this, for
the hare is a product of hunting and the
animal is herbivorous and not carnivo-
rous. It is true that some
adī
º
s
suggest
that the Prophet Muammad abstained
from eating hare, but no-one accepts this
as a formal prohibition. This permission
extended
ipso facto
also to the rabbit when
the animal was introduced to Muslims. In
al-Andalus, the rabbit was highly prized
and the only restriction imposed on it
was that it should not be sold around the
Great Mosque. Instead, a place was cho-
sen by the
mutasib
and there they had to
be offered for sale properly slaughtered
and skinned so that the meat could be
seen to be fresh.
In Greek medicine a number of spe-
cific virtues were accorded to particular
organs of the hare. The flesh was thought
to have laxative and aphrodisiac proper-
ties. Later Arab medicine confirmed the
views of Hippocrates and Galen on this
subject, but added some new empirical
prescriptions. Perhaps the most important
parts were the brain and the gastric juices
(
infaa
); the brain was the best remedy for
trembling and senility, and it could be
applied to an infant's gums to suppress
the pain in teething, but if it was mixed
with camphor and drunk it was thought
to be an infallible love philtre. The gastric
juices and stomach tissue were mixed into
a potion with a vinegar base and used as
an antidote for all kinds of poison. It is
interesting that modern science, whether
by chance or not, knows no proven rem-
edy which has any real chance of fight-
ing the poison of the phalloïdine (death's
cap) fungus other than the absorption of a
mixture of minced brains and stomachs of
leporids. Perhaps after all, Arab empirical
medicine was not just pure fancy. Dried
and powdered hare's blood had recog-
nised healing qualities for sores and
wounds and helped to extract foreign
bodies like splinters and thorns; it was also
used to treat arrow wounds. In surgery,
leporid hair was used instead of cotton
wool as an absorbent tampon and as a
cap for ruptured veins and arteries.
(F. Viré)
Crocodile
The Arabic
timsā
(pl.
tamāsī
) is the
masculine substantive denoting the Nile
crocodile (
Crocodilus vulgaris
) of the class of
reptiles (
zaāfāt
) and the order of saurians
(
aāliyyāt
); it is the only crocodile known
in the Arabophone countries. The name
appears to be derived from the Coptic
imsa
.
According to ancient authors, this
crocodile is said to have been formerly
present in the waters of the Jordan and
the Euphrates. A carnivore, it devours all
kinds of meat and fish. Of naturalists writ-
ing in the Arabic language, al-Damīrī is
the only one to have dealt at length with
the crocodile; he mentions all of its par-
ticular features, most of his information
being borrowed from Aristotle.
In Islamic law, the consumption of the
flesh of the crocodile is formally prohib-
ited, the animal being a carnivore.
On the other hand, this saurian pres-
ents several specific qualities. Thus one of
its eyes worn by a rheumy-eyed person
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