Kitāb al-Diryāq explained

Kitāb al-Diryāq
Author:	Pseudo-Galen
Country:	Jazira
Pub Date:	12th, 13th centuries

Kitāb al-Diryāq (Arabic: كتاب الدرياق, "The Book of Theriac"), also Book of Anditodes of Pseudo-Galen or in French Traité de la thériaque, is a medieval Arabic book supposedly based on the writings of Galen ("pseudo-Galen"). The work describes the use of Theriac, an ancient medicinal compound initially used as a cure for the bites of poisonous snakes.

Two illustrated manuscript copies are extant, adorned with beautiful miniatures revealing of the social context at the time of their publication. The books describe various physicians of Antiquity, including Greek ones such as Andromachus the Elder, and their medical techniques. These manuscripts are generally attributed to the Jazira region of Syria and northern Iraq.

Manuscripts

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS. Arabe 2964 (1198–1199)

Copied in 1198–1199, this book with miniatures (BNF Arabe 2964) is generally attributed to the Jazira (northern Syria or Northern Iraq). It was probably made in Mosul.^[1]

The dignitaries described in the miniatures wear the Turkic dress: the stiff coat with diagonal closing and arm bands.^[2] Scenes of daily life, such as agricultural work in the fields, are also depicted. Two beautiful moon deities are also depicted, holding the shape of a crescent moon in their hands, but their significance remains conjectural.

The ruler and attendants are similar to those found in the decorated Palmer Cup and in metalworks from the Mosul or North Jazira area, with their typical sharbush type of headgear and robes.^{[3] [4]}

Vienna, National Library of Austria, A.F. 10 (1225×1250)

This copy, from the second quarter of the 13th century, is thought to have been produced in Mosul. Although there is no mention of a dedication in this edition, the courtly paintings are quite similar to those of the court of Badr al-Din Lu'lu' in the Kitab al-Aghani (1218–1219), and may be related to this ruler.^{[5] [6]}

The frontispiece shows an intricate courtly scene with figured in Turkic dress: a central king resembling Badr al-Din Lu'lu' (wearing a fur-trimmed, patterned qabā' maftūḥ, with elbow-length tirāz sleeves and on his head a sharbush hat), surrounded by numerous attendants (most of them wearing the aqbiya turkiyya Turkic coat and kalawta caps). The courtly scene is framed by equestrian scenes, some of the horse-riders wearing the brimmed hat with conical crown known as sarāqūj. "In the paintings the facial cast of these [ruling] Turks is obviously reflected, and so are the special fashions and accoutrements they favored".

Notes and References

1. Book: Contadini . Anna . A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitab Na't Al-Hayawan) in the Ibn Bakhtishu Tradition . 11 November 2011 . BRILL . 978-90-04-20100-2 . 150, note 23 . en.
2. Web site: Shahbazi . Shapur . CLOTHING . Encyclopaedia Iranica Online . Brill . en . 30 August 2020 . Nevertheless, the most distinctive feature of late Saljuq and post-Saljuq male dress was the popularity of patterned textiles for these garments. (...) That these patterns do not merely represent ceramic conventions is clear from the rendering of garments in fragmentary wall paintings and in illustrations from the copy of Varqa wa Golšāh already mentioned, as well as in frontispieces to the volumes of Abu’l-Faraj Eṣfahānī’s Ketāb al-aḡānī dated 614-16/1217-19 and to two copies of Ketāb al-deryāq (Book of antidotes) by Pseudo-Galen, dated 596/1199 and ascribed to the second quarter of the 7th/13th century respectively (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 554A-B; Ateş, pls. 1/3, 6/16, 18; D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 14-19; Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 65, 85, 91). The last three manuscripts, all of them attributed to northern Mesopotamia, show that the stiff coat with diagonal closing and arm bands was also worn in that region from the end of the 6th/12th century..
3. Book: Contadini . Anna . Poetry on Enamelled Glass: The Palmer Cup in the British Museum.' In: Ward, R, (ed.), Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East . British Museum Press . 1998 . 58–59 .
4. Book: Contadini . Anna . Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum) . 2017 . British Museum Research Publications . 130 . The iconography of its figures is very similar to that on the Palmer Cup, in the design of their robes, in the headgear (sharbūsh) and in the way that walking figures are rendered, with one leg straight and the other slightly bent, with a slim foot slightly raised from the ground. Although the candlestick does not have a date, it is securely datable to the early 13th century, as it clearly belongs to a group of metalwork that has now been established as of that period and coming from the Mosul or North Jaziran area. These elements also confirm the early 13th-century date of the Palmer Cup and further support the region of provenance..
5. Pancaroǧlu . Oya . Socializing Medicine: Illustrations of the Kitāb al-diryāq . Muqarnas . 2001 . 18 . 169 . 10.2307/1523306 . 1523306 . 0732-2992.
6. Web site: Kitab al-diryaq (Book of Antidotes) - Discover Islamic Art - Virtual Museum . islamicart.museumwnf.org . Islamic Art Museum.