As illustration only a map of the seven climes by Qazwini

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Ibn abi l Ash’ath:  Kitab Taba’i al Hayawan

(Book of Habits of Animals)(d970) Mosul Iraq

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Ibn Abi al-Ashʿath was a Persian physician of medieval Islam. He wrote many commentaries on Galen's works. He had to flee from Persia and arrived destitute in Mosul, Iraq. He cured a young boy and wind up staying till the end of his live. The Kitab al Hayawan exists uncomplete in an Oxford manuscript. The book describes the characteristics (physical and mental) of each group of animals on the basis of their constitution. Of the wild animals, he makes a very precise classification. (e.g. can they be eaten; medical uses). The main classification is: 1 The ruling animal = man; 2 The ruled animal = domesticated. 3 neither rules or is ruled = wild animal.

Taken from: Ibn abi l-Ash`ath's K. Taba'i` al- Hayawan by Remke Kruk

Tall Trees, Huge Animals: Ibn Abī l-Ash‘ath and Marwazī on the Most Equitable Clime by Remke Kruk

Suckling Lamb and Free Range Chicken: Ibn abi-l-Ash‘ath on domestic animals and dietetics by Remke Kruk


The three hot clime are inhabited by first the blacks: (Zanj, Abessynians, Nubians), second the Dark-Browns (Sind (1), Hind) and third the Light-Browns (Hijaz (2), Yamama (3), Bahrayn, Najd (4)); then the three cold regions, inhabited respectively by the Slavs, the Turks, the Khazars (5), the Byzantines (Rum), the Armenians and several other peoples; and finally the middle region, where equilibrium of circumstances prevails and makes possible the existence of human life in its optimal form. The physical and mental characteristics of all these people are given and…..

358b

There is no hikma in the intemperate zones. (Hikma= knowledge of the two opposites). Since the people in the intemperate zones lack this knowledge, they are like animals in that they have only generic characteristics and lack individuality.

No religion or political system (siyasa) can exist in these places, for that would need a mind sufficiently developed to discern good from bad.

359a

Their resemblance to animals is further proven by the fact that cannibalism is a common phenomenon among them.

359a

They do not live in houses and they give their children marks in the face such as we reserve for camels and horses, so that they can recognize them from others.

359a

As to the Blacks, bringing them to a more temperate zone does not in the least help to get them better organized in mind and social organization.

359b

(The Blacks in the southern zone); they do not need the craft of medicine (sina’at at-tibb), which they anyhow would not be able to develop because of their defective mental faculties. As to why they do not need it, that is because they have only one temperament, just like wild animals, and their food and dwelling is of the worst possible kind……..I would like to know about their illnesses and what they use to make their bodies healthy again, just as wild animals use certain things….. 

367a

(when talking about the middle clime); the equatorial region is devoid of equilibrium and the two people on the equator, the Zanj and the Sind (1), are badly burned by the sun standing above their heads…….

398a

The situation of the Blacks and the Slaves is that they do not have an immortal soul, and no relation between them and their creator exists.

What then can be the reason for their existence?  This lies in the useful work they can do for the higher developed human beings that live in the temperate zones; for they can act as herdsmen and farmers for them.

415b

(When talking about Iraq); It is an even plain, open to the four winds so that the air is like fresh running water and nothing putrefies there. Even the south winds, blowing from the lands of the Blacks and from places where pestilence reigns, loses al its bad qualities before reaching Iraq, because it blows over the sea and becomes cool and dry.

418b

…..The country is also very fruitful (Iraq). All this however does not imply that it is free from disease. Disease sometimes comes to it from outside, such as from the country of the Blacks.

432a

(when talking about mutton meat)

The neck is the best of the front parts, because it gets so much exercise. The substance of its meat, which very little mixture of fibers, veins and membranes. After the neck comes the meat of the shoulder and the upper front leg, and after the meat of the shoulder comes the back, and after that (the part) which forms the sides of the fat. The fat is thick and tender. The covering layer behind the back and the thighs is the worst kind of meat, because it receives the very last part of the humours. We may refer here to what we have said about the Blacks and the size of their buttocks.

469a

(when talking about dogs); certain people among the Blacks eat dogs without experiencing harmful effects, even when they do so repeatedly. The fact that their own humours are putrid counteracts the dryness of the dog’s meat.

(1) Sind: now in Pakistan.

(2) Hijaz: the province of Mecca.

(3) Yamama: in the Najd region of Saudi Arabia,

(4) Najd: Central Arabia

(5) Khazars: Semi nomadic people from south Russia, south Ukraine, Crimea, Kazakhstan.