Note: The sample page images from the text, shown above, are of deliberately reduced quality

About this edition

The MS. reproduced here in facsimile is Mingana Syriac 559, of which no other copy is found in any European library. The Colophon found at the end of the present edition shows that it is derived from an original dated April 1532 of the Greeks (A.D. 1221) and written in the town of Cæsarea by the deacon Basil, son of the Notary Public of Melitene. A year later it was carefully collated with the MS. from which it had been copied, by the physician Abu'l-Hasan.

The last facsimile exhibits another colophon written by the present Syrian Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Ephrem I, who testifies to the accuracy of the text of the MS., which he kindly compared for me with another copy found in the town of Homs (Emesa) in North Syria. As, however, the work is intrinsically difficult, many grammatical and lexicographical mistakes have crept into the structure of its text. In the footnotes, Mingana corrected those which affect the meaning of the sentences, but, in order not to swell unnecessarily the number of these footnotes, Mingana refrained from drawing attention to all the diacritical and other minor grammatical and lexicographical inaccuracies which can easily be detected by an intelligent
reader.

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ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES AS TAUGHT IN BAGHDAD ABOUT A.D. 817

OR

BOOK OF TREASURES

BY

JOB OF EDESSA
 

SYRIAC TEXT EDITED AND TRANSLATED WITH A CRITICAL APPARATUS

BY

A. MINGANA

EX PARTE AUCTORIS
 

[VOLUME I OF WOODBROOKE SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS]

CAMBRIDGE:
W. HEFFER & SONS LIMITED 1935

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CONTENTS

PREFATORY NOTE - v

INDEX OF CHAPTERS - vii

INTRODUCTION - xv

TRANSLATION - p. 1

AUTHOR'S PREFACE - p. 1



FIRST DISCOURSE:

CHAPTER

I. On the origin of the simple & the compound elements - p. 5

II. On matter - p. 8

III. What are the elements—essences or accidents? - p. 10

IV. On the cause of the coming together of the elements - p. 15

V. On the fact that God exists, & that He is one & infinite - p. 16

VI. On the fact that the elements were created from nothing, that they had a beginning, & that they are not infinite - p. 16

VII. On the reason why the movement of the simple elements did not produce one composition only, but four: earth, water, air & fire - p. 18

VIII. On the reason why the simple elements, which are only conceived mentally, give rise to compound elements, which fall under the senses, & have three dimensions - p. 21

IX. On the cause of the coming into existence of the genera & species of sea, land & air, from the compound elements; on how something that does not resemble the compound elements emanated from them, in the same way as they emanated from the simple elements; & on why not one genus came into existence, but three genera - p. 23

X. On the functional cause of the four humours: red bile, black bile, blood & phlegm; & on how the body, the bones, the veins, the flesh, et cetera, emanated from the humours - p. 25

XI. On the reason why, while the composition of the body is one, it has not one movement or one shape—say either round or long—but different shapes; & why it has an external skin - p. 28

XII. On the reason why, although all the movements were caused in the body of animals, the body of man & of all the quadrupeds is generally long, while the bones also possess a long shape & are separate from one another, but all the veins, muscles, tendons & nerves are one thick & long membrane - p. 30

XIII. On the reason why bones, nerves, veins & arteries are one, from their root to thei« extremity, while the parts of the bones are separated - p. 31

XIV. On the reason why the bones are below, while the veins & the muscles are above, & why the bones, the veins and the arteries are hollow - p. 32

XV. On the reason why the nerves are not hollow, like the veins, et cetera - p. 34

XVI. On the reason why there is marrow in the bones - p. 34

XVII. On the reason why the apertures of ears, eyes, nose & mouth came into existence in the head - p. 35

XVIII. On the reason why the apertures in the heads were made in front & at the sides, & not at the back - p. 36

XIX. On the reason why the seat of the blood is near the seat of the red bile, the first being in the liver & the second in the gallbladder; & why the seat of the black bile is opposite the red bile, in the spleen, in a kind of diametrical position; & why, with regard to its position in the chest, the phlegm is nearer to the black bile than to the seat of the blood, which is the liver - p. 37

XX. On the reason why the red bile was not placed in a higher position like fire, nor the black bile in a lower position, like earth, nor blood & phlegm in a middle position, like air & water - p. 38

XXI. On the reason why two movements were implanted in an animal, one of which is perpetual & involuntary—and this is the movement of the heart & of the arteries—and the other intermittent & voluntary - p. 39

XXII. On the reason why the heart is the only one of all the parts of the body to have a perpetual & essential movement - p. 40

XXIII. On the reason why fire is endowed with a perpetual & essential movement, while the other elements have neither a perpetual nor an essential movement, but are moved by others - p. 41

XXIV. On the reason why the brain is not endowed with a perpetual movement, but experiences rest & stillness - p. 43

XXV. On the reason why all animals generally, such as man, ox, & horse, have feet & hands in external positions, & why these are thinner & smaller than the trunk - p. 43

XXVI. On the reason why five fingers came into existence on every hand, & five toes on every foot, & why the thumb & the big toe are thicker & larger than the rest - p. 45

XXVII. On the reason why all the body bends forwards & not backwards - p. 47

XXVIII. On the reason why, at the end of the movement of elongation upwards, a round head came into existence, & at the end of the movement of elongation downwards our lower part became long, & the legs were made like a kind of triangle - p. 48

XXIX. On the reason why nails came at the end of the fingers & toes, & on their nature; why hair & pores came into existence on all the body; & why there was an outer skin - p. 51

XXX. On the reason why the body receives little by little quantitative growth & development, till about the age of thirty years, after which it remains in the same quantity without any development till the end, & none of its organs receives any development; while the hair & the nails receive development till the end - p. 55

XXXI. On the reason why in the first congealment & composition of the bodies of animals, a perfect composition took place consisting of a complete state of humours & organs, while now things do not happen in this way, but an animal comes little by little to formation, birth & defined stature - p. 57

XXXII. On the reason why all animals when in pain experience an inward contraction only, while man alone weeps - p. 59

XXXIII. On the laughter & cry, et cetera, of each one of the animal species, & how they came into existence from the elements - p. 61



SECOND DISCOURSE:

I. On how we demonstrate that heat & cold are active powers, while humidity & dryness are passive ones - p. 67

II. On the ticklishness found in animals in such places as the sole of the feet, et cetera - p. 69

III. On sleep: the reason for it, & how it takes place - p. 70

IV. On the reason why, while animals have one single composition from the humours, in an equal way, they do not always beget males or females, but sometimes males & sometimes females - p. 71

V. On the reason why the males & the females of mankind have at birth no hair on the whole of their body, except the head - p. 72

VI. On the beard that grows in men - p. 73

VII. On the reason why hair is found in the eyebrows & the eyelids at birth - p. 74

VIII. On the reason why hair does not grow on the forehead, or on the palms of the hands, or on the soles of the feet, or on the inner side of the curve of the muscles, or between fingers & toes - p. 75

IX. On the reason why eunuchs have no beard, or hair on their body, & their voice is thin & unbroken; while the voice of men is deep & broken - p. 78

X. On the reason why women have a womb, but not men; & why women menstruate, while men & the females of other animals do not - p. 80

XI. On the reason why the incisors & molars came into existence in the mouth, & not in another place; why the number of the teeth is thirty-two, & why they are different from one another; why the molars, which are larger, are inside, & the incisors, which are smaller, outside; & why the incisors fall & then grow again, while the molars do not - p. 82

XII. On the reason why the bodies of men are tall, short, black, white, light, heavy, straight-haired or curly-haired, according to the countries; why those dwelling in northern countries are white, fat & straight-haired, while those who dwell in the confines of the eastern countries, or in the western & southern countries, are black, thin & curly-haired - p. 87

XIII. On the three kinds of divisions in the differentiation of the genera of animals - p. 89

XIV. On the reason why man, of all animals, is upright in his posture, & why he acquires everything by teaching, while other animals acquire what they possess from their nature - p. 91

On the existence of an immaterial soul - p. 92

XV. On the reason why man alone has white hair in his old age - p. 98

XVI. The reason why all animals, such as horse, ox, dog, eagle, pigeon, et cetera, are not one species, although all of them emanate from the elements - p. 99

XVII. The reason why in the first composition the genera & species of man, horse, ox, et cetera, came into existence from the elements, & did not vary from the beginning up till now; while other species come into existence in our days, such as flies, midges, tape-worms, et cetera - p. 103

XVIII. On the reason why all quadrupeds—with possible small exceptions—and all birds have a tail, while man has not - p. 106

XIX. On the reason why some animals have horns, & some not; & why of those that have horns, some have one only, in the middle; why some of them have hoofs, & some not, & of those that have hoofs, some have cloven hoofs & some round; & why some others have claws - p. 107

XX. On the reason why particular species of animals have only one food, which in the case of horse, ox & the like, is grass, in the case of lion, wolf & the like, meat, & in the case of the birds, some meat & others grain; & the drink of all of them is water; while man eats meat, bread & in numerable fruits, & drinks wine, water & various other kinds of beverages; & this in spite of the fact that all of them emanated from the elements - p. 110

XXI. On the reason why winged birds are oviparous, & do not conceive in the womb, like the quadrupeds, & have no womb, no renal bladder, no outward place for the private parts, & no hands - p. 112

XXII. On the reason why the winged birds have no incisors, no molars, no ribs & no spinal vertebræ - p. 115

XXIII. On the reason why fish are longer than all the terrestrial & aerial animals, have no hands & feet, & are not drowned in water; & on the reason why some of them have white scales, some of them black scales, & some of them no scales at all; & why some of them have shells - p. 118



THIRD DISCOURSE:

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION - p. 122

I. On the genera of tastes - p. 122

II. On sweetness - p. 124

On the bitter taste - p. 126
On sharpness - p. 126
On saltness - p. 127
On acerbity - p. 128
On tastelessness - p. 129
On sourness - p. 129

III. On colours - p. 130

On their functional ground - p. 130

IV. On how the eye perceives colours - p. 133

V. On how the perceiving power of the soul receives bodies & colours that are thicker than itself; & how the eye receives them from it - p. 135

VI. On smell - p. 138

VII. On the sense of smell. Why the nose receives smells through inhalation, while the eyes, the mouth & the ears are not in need of this inhalation of air - p. 140

VIII. On the sense of hearing - p. 141

Sound - p. 142

IX. On speech - p. 146

X. On wind - p. 147

XI. On breath - p. 148

XII. On the ear - p. 148

XIII. On the sense of feeling - p. 149

XIV. On the reason why the sense of feeling is spread over the whole of the body, while the other senses are not - p. 150

XV. On the reason why there are only five senses, & not one or six or any other number - p. 151

XVI. On the fact that colours, sounds, tastes & smells are not essences, as some people believe - p. 153

XVII. On the sense of taste - p. 160

XVIII. On the sense of smell - p. 161

XIX. On sounds - p. 162

XX. On the sense of feeling - p. 164



FOURTH DISCOURSE:

I. On metals - p. 173

II. On gold - p. 174

III. On the reason why gold does not rust - p. 175

IV. On the reason why brass, iron, tin (et cetera) emit an unpleasant smell & rust, while gold & silver do not - p. 177

V. On sulphur, yellow orpiment, bitumen, alum, & the rest of the metallic species - p. 178

VI. On the reason why different colours are found in the earth, of which some is white, some red, some black, et cetera - p. 180

VII. On the reason why some parts of the earth became soil, some others mountains & rocks, & some others plains - p. 180

VIII. On the reason why the northern countries are higher than the southern countries; & on how we know this - p. 182

IX. On the reason why springs generally come out of mountains & their water is cold; & on the reason why mountains have trees - p. 184

X. On the reason why snow falls frequently in the mountains, but very seldom in the plains - p. 185

XI. On the reason why the seasons of the year are four, neither more nor less: winter, summer, spring & autumn - p. 185

XII. On the reason why the water which comes out of the springs & wells of the mountains is sweet, while that which comes out of the wells of the south is either saline or bitter - p. 187

XIII. On the reason why earthquakes take place - p. 189

XIV. On wind - p. 191

XV. On the coming into existence of the sea, & on how it came to be above the earth & under the air - p. 194

XVI. On the reason why, in accordance with the natural law of water, the sea did not cover all the earth, but only parts of it - p. 195

XVII. On the reason why the water of the sea became saline - p. 195

XVIII. On the reason why there are in the earth hot springs, the water of which is sulphuric & hot - p. 196



FIFTH DISCOURSE:

I. We will discuss first the formation of clouds & rain - p. 198

II. On the reason why clouds are sometimes white, sometimes black & sometimes red - p. 201

III. On snow & hail - p. 203

IV. On thunder & lightning - p. 204

V. On the reason why lightning is seen with the eye before the ear hears the sound of thunder - p. 206

VI. On the reason why a rainbow is formed, & why different colours are formed in it: green, date-red, & yellow; while thewhite & black colours, which are the principal colours, are not found in it - p. 208

VII. On hurricanes & whirlwinds - p. 211

VIII. On Kepavvoi, that is to say, thunderbolts, & on shooting stars - p. 212

IX. On the galaxy - p. 214

X. On the halo of the sun & of the moon - p. 215

XI. On the coming into existence of the heaven & the stars from the elements & on their nature - p. 216

XII. On the reason why this world of ours is endowed with a straight movement, & the higher world with a circular movement - p. 218

XIII. On the coming into existence of the heaven & of the stars from the elements - p. 229

XIV. On the reason why the heaven & the stars came into being outside our world, & not inside it - p. 234

XV. On the reason why twelve fixed Signs of the Zodiac came into being - p. 235

XVI. On the reason why seven moving stars came into being - p. 236

XVII. On the reason why two antagonistic movements occurred in the higher world, one of which is eastwards & the other westwards - p. 237

XVIII. On the reason why, while the nature of the heaven & of the stars is one, the latter are bright & shining, while the heaven is neither bright nor shining - p. 239

XIX. On how the bright day & the dark night come from the elements - p. 240

XX. On the reason why, while the nature of the moving stars is one, the sun is in the middle, Saturn above, & the moon below - p. 242

XXI. On whether the circle of the sun & of the other stars passes under the earth, or round it in the northern countries - p. 244

XXII. On the reason why the movement of the sun, of the moon, & of the (other) moving stars does not occur in one place, but sometimes above, sometimes below, & sometimes in the middle - p. 246

XXIII. On the reason why the sun is larger than all the other stars, & next in size to it is the moon - p. 247

XXIV. On the reason why the moon receives light from the sun, to the exclusion of the other stars - p. 248

XXV. On the colour of the heaven - p. 250

XXVI. On the fact that the heavenly bodies have no reason, wisdom or soul - p. 252



SIXTH DISCOURSE:

I. We will speak of the angels - p. 257

II. On the fact that the hierarchies of the hosts of angels are three, & these are subdivided into nine orders - p. 259

On the function for which the angels were created - p. 263

III. On the fact that from the nature of things there will be an end to this world; & on the resurrection of bodies - p. 264

IV. On the fact that renewal & change will affect the elements; & on how it will happen that while heat, cold, dryness and humidity will be preserved in them, no fight will take place between them - p. 267

V. On the fact that there will be resurrection, & that this resurrection will affect men alone, & not other species of animals - p. 268

VI. On whether as people die in this world so they will rise on the day of resurrection: children as children, young men as young men, old men as old men, & tall men, short men, fat men, thin men, sick men, healthy men, et cetera, as such - p. 272

VII. On how the body will be dissolved into the elements after death; & on how on the day of resurrection the part which was dissolved will come & be composed into the body - p. 275

VIII. In what does this world differ from the next world, & in what does it resemble it? - p. 277

IX. On the fact that there will be heaven & hell, & on what heaven is, & what hell is, both from the Book & from the nature of things - p. 282

X. On the fact that the next world, the heavenly kingdom & hell will have no end - p. 290

XI. On the reason why God created this world terminable & the next world interminable - p. 294



COLOPHON - p. 296

SYRIAC TEXT - p. 297

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From the INTRODUCTION

I GIVE in the following pages the text and the translation of a work entitled "Book of Treasures," by the Syrian writer Job of Edessa. It is written in the form of an encyclopædia, embracing almost all the natural and philosophical sciences as known and taught in Baghdad about A.D. 817. Although dealing with the branches of science the foundations of which had been laid centuries earlier by Aristotle, one of the greatest thinkers of all times, the author displays much ingenuity in discussing the "cause" or the elemental origin of biological, physiological, chemical, physical and astronomical facts known to him.

The end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th centuries were characterised by a great revival of the study of exact sciences in the new capital of the 'Abbasid empire. Much credit for this revival was undoubtedly due to the enlightened attitude of the Caliphs Mansur, Mahdi, Harun, Amin and especially Ma'mun (A.D. 754-833), and considering that Baghdad itself was only founded by Mansur in A.D. 762, it is true to say that this revival coincided with the beginning of the 'Abbasid dynasty. Greek manuscripts of early masters of medical and natural sciences were eagerly sought after, and brought to Baghdad from Syria, Egypt and Asia Minor, and gradually translated by Christian Arab authors. Hospitals and astronomical observatories were erected later, to facilitate researches. An imposing list of the early writers who adorned the crown of
the empire of the sons of 'Abbas, and whose works are mostly lost in our days, is found in the Fihrist, in the history of philosophy and medicine by Ibn al-Qifti and i. a. Usaibi'ah, and in other historical and bibliographical lucubrations.

The end of the 10th century marks the apogee of this Arabic Hellenistic culture. At its dawn history makes mention, so far as medicine is concerned, of the East Syrian Arab writer Ibn Sahda or Sahde from Karkh (near Baghdad), of the beginning of the 9th century, who, according to the Fihrist, and i. a. Usaibi'ah translated from Syriac into Arabic some works of Hippocrates. According to Hunain ibn Ishaq, he also translated into Syriac the works of Galen, De Sectis, De Partibus Artis Medicativæ and De Pulsibus ad Tirones.

A second Christian Arab author is Abu Yahya al-Batriq, who died about A.D. 805, and who was employed by the Caliph Mansur. According to i. a. Usaibi'ah, he translated many works of Hippocrates and Galen, and he is given also as the translator of Ptolemy's Quadripartitam.

To Yahya ibn Batriq, the son of the above writer, who flourished in the first quarter of the 9th century, is ascribed the translation of Hippocrates' book Signs of Death, some works of Aristotle, and the De Theriaca ad Pisonem of Galen. To him is also attributed, although without much probability, the famous Secretum Secretorum, which has lately been so well studied by R. Steele.

We will be satisfied here with the mention of the above three writers, as our aim is not to furnish detailed references concerning physicians who did not leave any translations of Greek medical works, such as Simon of Taibutheh, and the two most eminent members of the Bokhtisho' family, about whom see Fihrist, Ibn al-Qifti and i. a. Usaibi'ah, nor to enumerate the various writers who flourished in the decades that followed the death of our author, and so do not come within the scope of our enquiry.

After medicine, the branch of science in which the writers contemporary with our author seem to have evinced most interest was astronomy, but since Ptolemy was not translated into Syriac or Arabic in the first years of the revival of the Hellenistic culture mentioned above, they generally based their conclusions upon the half astrological aberrations found in early Indian and Persian astronomical books, the contents of which had little in common with the solid data found in Ptolemy's work. An early but unsatisfactory translation of the Almagest of Ptolemy was made for Yahya b. Khalid b. Barmak, towards the beginning of the 9th century but the most reliable and trustworthy translation was that made by Hajjaj b. Matar for the Caliph Ma'mun, in A.D. 827-828 (and not in 829-830). With the exception of a few insignificant dissentients Ptolemy's great work became the main authority of the Arab astronomers of later generations, as is testified by such independent
writers as Ibn Rabban, who died about A.D. 855, Jahiz, who died in A.D. 869, and especially Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, who died about A.D. 850.10 The same method was followed by the astronomical observers or astrolabe makers Habash, Sanad, 'Ali ibn 'Isa, Yahya i. a. Mansur, Marwarrudhi and the like, mentioned by the author of the Fihrist, by Suter, and by Sarton. This, however, cannot be said of the astronomers who flourished before A.D. 828, such as Fazari, Ibn Tariq, Mashallah, and Naubakht.

... So far as the philosophical works of the masters of Greek philosophy — Plato and Aristotle — are concerned, they began to be systematically translated into Arabic at the beginning of the 9th century. The man who more than any other was responsible for spreading the knowledge of Greek learning in the 'Abbasid capital was undoubtedly the Christian Arab writer Hunain ibn Ishaq, who died in A.D. 876. Long pages of the Fihrist, of Ibn al-Qifti, and of i. a. Usaibi'ah, are devoted to the enumeration of the translators of the works of the two above-named coryphæi of Greek philosophy.

... The author of the present work is Job of Edessa, or Ayyub ar-Ruhawi, as the Arab writers called him. He was, as his name implies, born in Edessa, possibly about 760 A.D. The author of the Fihrist mentions him as a translator of Greek works, and in the very same line names a Job who, together with a writer called Sim'an, translated the Zij, or astronomical tables of Ptolemy for the nobleman Muhammad, son of Barmak. No one, however, who reads with care the astronomical data of the present work can induce himself to believe that their author had read Ptolemy on the subject, much less translated him. If this Job is to be identified with our author, it may be presumed that he translated the above Zij after the composition of the present work.

The great Hunain ibn Ishaq also mentions our author, and attributes to him the translation of thirty-six different works of Galen, especially the translation into Syriac of his famous "Book on Simple Drugs," or De Simplicium Medico-mentorum Temperamentis et Facultatibus. It is a noteworthy fact that Hunain himself used the translation into Syriac of some Galenic works made by our author, such as the Anaiomicæ Administrationes ...

Our Job is further spoken of by Barhebræus x in the following terms:

"And in the time (of Timothy I) lived Job of Edessa, a philosopher who followed the doctrine of the Nestorians."

Ibn a. Usaibi'ah devotes also a special section to him, and considers him to be a good translator, versed in languages, but adds that he was more versed in Syriac than in Arabic. He is inaccurate, however, in distinguishing him from Job al-Abrash, or "The Spotted," to whom he has devoted another section. Hunain ibn Ishaq clearly identifies our Job of Edessa with Job the Spotted. Another paragraph is devoted by i. a. Usaibi'ah to a son of our author called Abraham, in connection with the Caliph Mutawakkil and other high personages.

Our author is also mentioned by Yaqut, with reference to an anecdote told of the Caliph Ma'mun, as one of the greatest physicians of his day. This anecdote is important because it shows that our author was still alive in A.H. 217 (A.D. 832) when Ma'mun appointed 'Abdallah b. Tahir governor of the Persian province of Khurasan.

We have no precise information as to the date of our author's death, but we may presume that he did not survive long the Caliph Ma'mun, and that he died about A.D. 835. As I stated in the first volume of the catalogue of the MSS. of my collection, we may infer from the above sentence of Barhebræus that the author belonged by birth either to the Melchite or to the West Syrian or Jacobite community, which he left in order to join the East Syrian or Nestorian Church.

... It is very difficult to fix on a precise year for the composition of the present work. Two independent considerations induce me to name a date about A.D. 817. On the one hand the author states in Chapter XVI of the 3rd Discourse of his book that he wrote at a time of great tribulations and wars "such as were not heard of since the beginning of the world." These tribulations and wars were so catastrophic that he was unable to predict whether he would be alive to finish the work upon which he was engaged. On the other hand, as we remarked above, the author did not know of the existence of Ptolemy's astronomical work which was translated in A.D. 828, and consequently we have to fix on a year preceding this date. Further, since all his works of which we have any record were written before the present Book of Treasures, he must have been a fairly old man when he wrote it, and in this case we are not at liberty to name a date much earlier than 828, especially as we know, from the sentence of Yaqut quoted above, that he was still alive in A.D. 832. The question arises now whether in the annals of the history of Baghdad we can point to a period which would square with the calamitous times so vividly described by the author. Although hardly a year passed in the stormy weather of Baghdad politics without wars or rumours of wars in some of the outlying provinces of the Caliphate, yet the years 816-817 seem to have experienced a particularly severe recrudescence of disturbances, which for a time endangered the life of Caliph Ma'mun himself.

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Influences / Background

As sources of his work, Job refers several times to Aristotle, twice to Galen, and once to Hippocrates. He refers also to early Indian and Persian sages, but without mentioning any proper names. So far as the Indian philosophers or physicians are concerned, they must have been Charaka Samhita and Susruta Samhita, so often quoted by Ibn Rabban at-Tabari, a contemporary of the author, who survived him by more than twenty years.

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Legacy

Until all the works written by the Arab and Syrian investigators of the 9th and 10th centuries are published and scientifically studied, we shall not be able to measure the influence exercised by our author on the physicians and philosophers who came after him. However, statements by two different writers seem to be derived from the present work. The first writer who seems to have borrowed from our Job in a rather systematic way is the often-mentioned
Ibn Rabban at-Tabari, the author of Firdaus ul-Hikmat. The second writer is the lexicographer Bar 'Ali.
 

The influence exercised by our author may possibly be extended to a wider sphere. He was the first to develop in detail, through a deductive method of reasoning based on natural phenomena, the idea of the elemental origin of the universe and of the different bodies comprising it. We have noted above his definite statement that he was the first in the field of the concrete application of the elemental principle to the physical bodies. Ibn Rabban at-Tabari, who wrote some years after him, distinctly borrows some of his conclusions from him. The philosophy and physics of Averroes (or Ibn Rushd), Avicenna (or Ibn Sina), Alpharabus (or Al-Farabi) and many others were translated into Latin, and exercised great influence on the scientific teaching of the Middle Ages. The western scientists of that period, having lost sight of the works of Aristotle and his followers in their original Greek, were mostly dependent on the above Arab writers, and their development of the idea of the elemental origin of bodies was like that worked out by our author at the beginning of the 9th century. Our author may, therefore, be rightly considered as the father of the concrete development of the theory of the elemental origin of bodies, a conception which became firmly rooted in the minds of the scientific investigators of later generations.

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Author Bibliography

Job seems to have been a prolific writer, both in Arabic and in Syriac. None of his Arabic works, however, has come down to posterity, nor is any of them mentioned by name in the authorities referred to above. So far as his Syriac books are concerned, on fol. 36b of the MS. from which the present work is derived, he enumerates some of them, in the following terms:

"After having completed our book On the Causes of Fevers, and our other book On the Soul, which is divided into twenty chapters, and after having composed the book On the Causes of the Coming into Existence of the Universe from the Elements, we wrote our other book On Urine, and you request us now, O brother, to write to you a treatise On Canine Hydrophobia."

Four of these five works — (a) On the Soul, (b) On the Causes of Fevers, (c) On Canine Hydrophobia, and (d) On Urine, are also mentioned in the present work.

Another work of the author was entitled Book on Faith. From the terms which he uses to describe it, we are entitled to believe that it dealt with the Trinity and the Incarnation, and included other points of Christian dogma, such as the Holy Communion and the worship towards the east.

A seventh book by our author is mentioned in the same chapter, with the title Book of Ten Syllogisms, in which, among other things, he demonstrated that Christ was both God and man.

An eighth book by him, entitled On the Five Senses, and a ninth entitled On Essences, are referred to in other passages.

Of all his books only two, that On Canine Hydrophobia and the present Book of Treasures, have come down to us.

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QUOTES

p. 5:

EVERYTHING that exists either falls under the senses, or is perceived mentally. The simple elements, of which we shall speak first, as they are the first principles, are perceived mentally, while the compound elements fall under the senses.

The simple elements are heat, cold, dryness and humidity; and the compound elements are fire, water, earth and air. The compound ones are in no need of reasoning to be perceived, and because of this there is no question and answer about them, as their existence is self-evident. Earth is in the first layer, water is above it, air is above the water, and fire is above the air. The position of their layers testifies to us that they exist, and that they are four, neither more nor less. Indeed, the knowledge of the senses is in no need of witnesses. As to the simple elements, because they do not fall under the senses, the question may arise whether they exist or not, but we affirm that they do exist, and we prove it in this way: when we climb, as on a ladder, from the compound to the simple elements, we find that the compound elements are composed of two parts — fire, for instance, emanates from heat and dryness, water from cold and humidity, and the two others emanate from the very same things. If fire were only hot, we should not have said that it was compound, and if water were only cold, we should not have said that it was compound, and so also is the case with earth and air; but because we notice changes in them, we call them compound.

 

p. 13:

As to the nine classes of accidents which happen through increase, decrease, contraction, expansion, composition, dissolution, and others, and from which originate colours, tastes, sounds, smells, and other changes, we will speak of the modality of their coming into existence when discussing the different species of animals.

If someone asks what differentiates the heat and the cold et cetera which a body receives, from accidents such as blackness, whiteness, sweetness, bitterness, et cetera which the body sometimes receives, and which cease to exist in it at other times:— We will answer that heat, cold, humidity and dryness only displace themselves, while colours, tastes, smells et cetera vanish.


p. 85:

The incisors appear first, and then the molars, because of the heat of the place of the incisors and the coldness of the place of the molars; and the molars do not fall like the incisors, because the incisors grow some time during the first year and are thus made out of a matter that is amenable to change, transformation and flexibility, and fall with the growth and change of stage, and others appear in their place. As to the molars, they attain their completion about the twentieth year, at a stage which is the driest and hardest; and they are stronger than the (comparative) humidity of youth, and do not possess the weak power of childhood. Because, therefore, the place (where the molars are) is cold, and does not receive heat easily, as does the place where the incisors are, the molars do not fall; and because they do not fall, no others grow in their place.


p. 103:

We affirm that the first composition of the genera and species, such as man, ox, and others, which took place at the beginning, came into existence from the general movement of the simple elements, whereby the composition of the four compound elements took place from the simple ones. That movement did not occur again up till now, and cannot occur again. Since there are no simple elements that come together for the purpose of (general) composition, there are no genera that emanate from them. Indeed the genera and species came into existence once, in the same way as the coming together (of the elements) occurred once ...
 

p. 118

On the reason why fish are longer than all the terrestrial and aerial animals, have no hands and feet, and are not drowned in water; and on the reason why some of them have white scales, some of them black scales, and some of them no scales at all; and why some of them have shells.

We said above that in the first general composition (of bodies) the genus of fish came into being where humidity and cold predominated. This is the reason why their habitat was in the water, an element that is affinitive to them, in the same way as birds have their habitat in the air, and terrestrial animals and plants have theirs on the earth.

The reason why fish became long and without hands or feet is the following: humidity predominated in them more than in the rest of the animals, and because of this, when the movement of the active elements occurred in the first composition, and expanded their length, as in the case of the other animals, it found in them a matter that was more humid and liquid, and thus it had a better opportunity for expanding them lengthwise. The reason, therefore, why length was added to them more than to the other animals is that their nature was more amenable to expansion, and so length predominated in them. Lo, humid plants give more, and dry ones less, scope for expansion. Indeed in the same way as the matter of dough is more easily shaped and elongated, but when it becomes dry it is elongated with difficulty, or not at all — in this same way the matter of fish acted.
 

p. 197:

Bituminous springs are also hot, but not like sulphuric ones. Bitumen melts, while sulphur burns, because the nature of sulphur is thinner, lighter and hotter than that of bitumen, and consequently more inflammable. This is illustrated by the fact that when we bring sulphur near a small piece of burning charcoal, it catches fire and flares up, while bitumen does not act in this way, on account of the thickness of its nature, but only melts. It does, however, burn when it finds an inflammable matter, such as wood, et cetera. Saline water is not hot, because the earth does not contain (in that place) a heating power to heat it.


p. 214:

What is the reason for the formation of the galaxy — called by some people "the milky way" — in the heavens, in which a kind of whiteness is seen, which possesses a defined shape extending a certain distance?

The stars found in that place are closer to one another than in other places in the heavens, and it is because of their vicinity and close proximity to one another, and their remoteness from our vision, that (the galaxy) appears to us as a kind of white patch resembling a path.


p. 225:

An eternal being must be one, simple, infinite and uncreated. An infinite being must be one, but the heaven and the stars fall under plurality of number; and number falls under division (of parts), and division connotes a beginning; therefore the heaven and the stars had a beginning, and are not eternal but created, according to the words of the prophet Moses: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Further, if some of the stars are cold and dry, such as Saturn, some others hot and dry, such as Mars, some others cold and humid, such as the moon, and some others possess these qualities in a medium degree, such as Mercury — it follows that they possessed in themselves, at the very beginning, increase and decrease, when compared with one another, and are, therefore, not eternal.

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