Ibn Waḥshiyya | |
|---|---|
| ابن وحشية | |
 Beginning ofThe Nabataean Agriculture from a 17th-century manuscript | |
| Died | 930–1CE (318 AH)[1] |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Region | Kufa (Iraq) |
| Language | Arabic |
| Main interests | Agriculture,botany,toxicology,alchemy and chemistry,magic |
| Notable works | The Nabataean Agriculture |
Ibn Waḥshiyya (Arabic:ابن وحشية), diedc. 930, was aNabataean (Aramaic-speaking, rural Iraqi)agriculturalist,toxicologist, andalchemist born in Qussīn, nearKufa inIraq.[2] He is the author of theNabataean Agriculture (Kitāb al-Filāḥa al-Nabaṭiyya), an influential Arabic work onagriculture,astrology, andmagic.[3]
Already by the end of the tenth century, various works were being falsely attributed to him.[4] One of these spurious writings, theKitāb Shawq al-mustahām fī maʿrifat rumūz al-aqlām ("The Book of the Desire of the Maddened Lover for the Knowledge of Secret Scripts", perhaps1022–3 CE),[5] is notable as an early proposal that someEgyptian hieroglyphs could be readphonetically, rather than onlylogographically.[6]
His full name wasAbū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn [Qays ibn] al-Mukhtār ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Ḥarathyā ibn Badanyā ibn Barṭānyā ibn ʿĀlāṭyā al-Kasdānī al-Ṣūfī.[7]
Just like the semi-legendaryJabir ibn Hayyan, he carried thenisbaal-Ṣūfī despite the fact that he is not known to have engaged in or to have written anything aboutSufism.[8] Thenisbaal-Kasdānī is a variant ofal-Kaldānī ('Chaldaean'), a term referring to the native inhabitants of Mesopotamia that was also used inGreek, but (given the known -shd-/-ld- variation inBabylonian language) may perhaps be based on a living oral tradition indigenous to Iraq.[9]
Ibn Wahshiyya was likely born inQussīn (Iraq) and died in the year 318 of theIslamic calendar (= 930-1 CE). Very little else is known about his life. Our main source of information are Ibn Wahshiyya's own writings, as well as the short entry inIbn al-Nadim's (diedc. 995)Fihrist, where he is explicitly said to be among the "authors whose life is not well known". Ibn Wahshiyya himself claimed to be a descendant of the Neo-Assyrian kingSennacherib (r. 704 – 681 BCE), whom the rural,Aramaic-speaking population of southern Iraq (known to Arabic authors of Ibn Wahshiyya's time as 'Nabataeans') revered as their illustrious ancestor. Despite the fact that these Iraqi'Nabataeans'[a] were generally looked down upon as lowly peasants by the contemporary Arab elite, Ibn Wahshiyya identified himself as one of them. Ibn Wahshiyya's self-identification as 'Nabataean' seems credible given the accurate use of Aramaic terms in his works.[10]
Ibn Wahshiyya's works were written down and redacted after his death by his student and scribe Abū Ṭālib al-Zayyāt.[11] They were used not only by later agriculturalists, but also by authors of works on magic like Maslama al-Qurṭubī (died 964, author of theGhāyat al-ḥakīm, "The Aim of the Sage", Latin:Picatrix), and by philosophers likeMaimonides (1138–1204) in hisDalālat al-ḥāʾirīn ("Guide for the Perplexed", c. 1190).[12]
Ibn al-Nadim, in hisKitāb al-Fihrist (c. 987), lists approximately twenty works attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya. However, most of these were probably not written by Ibn Wahshiyya himself, but rather by other tenth-century authors inspired by him.[13]
Ibn Wahshiyya's major work, theNabataean Agriculture (Kitāb al-Filāḥa al-Nabaṭiyya, c. 904), claims to have been translated from an "ancient Syriac" original, written c. 20,000 years ago by the ancient inhabitants ofMesopotamia.[14] In Ibn Wahshiyya's time,Syriac was thought to have been the primordial language used at the time of creation.[15] While the work may indeed have been translated from a Syriac original,[16] in reality Syriac is a language that only emerged in the first century. By the ninth century, it had become the carrier of a rich literature, including many works translated from theGreek. The book's extolling ofBabylonian civilization against that of the conqueringArabs forms part of a wider movement (theShu'ubiyya movement) in the earlyAbbasid period (750-945 CE), which witnessed theemancipation of non-Arabs from their former status as second-class Muslims.[17]
One of the works attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya is theKitāb Shawq al-mustahām fī maʿrifat rumūz al-aqlām ("The Book of the Desire of the Maddened Lover for the Knowledge of Secret Scripts”), a work dealing amongst other things withEgyptian hieroglyphs. Its author refers to his extensive travels in Egypt, but Ibn Wahshiyya himself seems never to have visited Egypt, a country which he barely even mentions in his authentic works. For this and other reasons, scholars believe the work to bespurious.[18] According toJaakko Hämeen-Anttila, it may have been authored by Hasan ibn Faraj, an obscure descendant of theHarranian Sabian scholarSinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra (c. 880–943) who claimed to have merely copied the work in the year 413AH, corresponding to 1022–3 CE.[19]
Another work attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya is a treatise on toxicology called theBook of Poisons, which combines contemporary knowledge onpharmacology with magic and astrology.[20] This treatise was strongly influenced by Indian sources.[20]
The works attributed to Ibn Wahshiyya contain severalcipher alphabets that were used to encrypt magic formulas.[21]
Pseudo-Ibn Wahshiyya'sKitāb Shawq al-mustahām fī maʿrifat rumūz al-aqlām ("The Book of the Desire of the Maddened Lover for the Knowledge of Secret Scripts", perhaps1022–3 CE, seeabove), has been claimed by Egyptologist Okasha El-Daly to have correctly identified thephonetic value of a number ofEgyptian hieroglyphs.[23] However, other scholars have been highly sceptical about El-Daly's claims on the accuracy of these identifications, which betray a keen interest in (as well as some basic knowledge of) the nature of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but are in fact for the most part incorrect.[24]
The book was translated intoEnglish byJoseph von Hammer-Purgstall in 1806 asAncient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained; with an Account of the Egyptian Priests, their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices in the Arabic Language by Ahmad Bin Abubekr Bin Wahishih.[25]
