From Manticore to the Healing Lion Skin

Ḥayāt al-Ḥayawān, written by Kamāl al-Dīn al-Damīrī (d. 1405), is a widely appreciated work in Islamic literature, dealing with animals from various perspectives and compiling a vast array of information related to them either directly or indirectly. To comprehend the significance of this work, one only needs to consider its manuscripts housed in libraries around the world, its translations into Turkish and Persian, and its numerous abridgments written over time. Its content is structured such that for each animal, the relevant Qur’ānic verses, ḥadīths, stories, proverbs, and poems are listed. Alongside these, Ḥayāt al-Ḥayawān includes practical information related to animals such as fiqh rulings, medical-pharmaceutical uses, and dream interpretations. The Turkish translations of Ḥayāt al-Ḥayawān, undertaken by various authors across the Ottoman period, constitute a significant portion of the Ottoman literature concerning animals. This article examines five different Turkish translations of Ḥayāt al-Ḥayawān listed in manuscript catalogs in Turkey. Given the vast scope of the work, we made a comparison of these translations through a single example, which holds particular importance for al-Damīrī: the entry on the lion (asad). These translations were produced in a tarjuma-taʾalīf (translation-authorship) style, and al-Damīrī’s work served as a major transmitter of the rich animal-related literature that had developed in Islamic culture from the pre-Islamic period up to the late 14th century, when Ḥayāt al-Ḥayawān was completed.