DAMIRI (1341-1405), sometimes spelt DomaIrI, or, with the Arabic article, Ad-DamIri, is really an adjective of relation applied to a person or thing belonging to one of the two contiguous towns of North and South Damirah, near Damietta, in Egypt. Under this name is usually understood a well-known Arabian writer on canon law, who is at the same time the author of a treatise on natural history, which in the East has attained considerable celebrity. His full name and title is Kemal ud-den Abu’l BagH Muhammed Ben Musa Ben Isa ad-Damiri Ash-Skafei. He was born in Cairo in the year 742 of the Hegira (1341 A.D.), and died there in the year 808 (1405). Damiri’s reputation, so far as the Western nations are concerned, is not based upon his work as a jurist, but wholly upon his natural history, which is entitled The Life of Animals (Hayat’ul Haiwan). In this treatise the author gives the names of 931 beasts, birds, fishes, and insects with which he was (probably rarely by personal knowledge) acquainted, arranging these alphabetically, and giving a longer or shorter account of their nature and peculiarities, according as the data, actual or fabulous, in his possession would allow him. As might have been anticipated, he is more especially copious and minute when he comes to treat of animals like the lion and the camel; but in all cases he defines the orthography and vocalization of the name, gives the forms of the plurals and feminines, and supplies the local or vernacular titles by which the animals were known. It is unnecessary to say that Damiri does not treat natural history in the exact and systematic manner of the modern zoologist Not only would that have been impossible at the time at which he lived, but he himself did not profess to be a scientific observer, and he ...was induced to prepare his work on natural history in consequence of the gross ignorance of this subject which was exhibited by many of the theologians of the period. His exposition of the natural history of his country is essentially the result of his interest in theological and legal matters, and his wide acquaintance with the learned culture of the Arabic language, and therefore is from a scientific point of view a mere compilation; and at the same time his literary knowledge induced him to interrupt the scientific continuity of his narrative by disquisitions of a totally irrelevant character. Thus, in the middle of his article on the Goose, he inserts a consecutive sketch of the history of the Caliphate, from the death of Ali to the accession of Al-Muktafi-—a period of nearly 800 years—at the end of which historical interlude he resumes his article, as if it had not been interrupted. In spite, however, of its deficiencies, the Life of Animals has an interest of its own and a permanent value to scholars. All references in the Sunna to any particular animal are mentioned, anecdotes relating to it are introduced, its uses in supplying articles of the materia medica are pointed out, the means to counteract its noxious qualities are indicated, the lawfulness of using its flesh as food is discussed, the proverbs which allude to it are recounted, and citations from the poets who have noticed it are quoted. The amount of discursive reading shown in the work is very great, as it contains quotations from 560 prose authors, and from the divâns, or collected editions, of 199 poets. Upon the whole, therefore, the literary value of the treatise to scholars is by no means small, as it exhibits the natural history of his age and country surrounded by the associations with which the experience and literature of the Arabs had invested it.
After finishing his work on natural history, Damîrî reproduced it in a compendious form, and it has thus come down to us in a large and a smaller recension. Others, moreover, (such as Al-Usyûti) formed abridgments of it. Manuscript copies of the work exist in many public libraries, and the larger edition has been printed, in the original language, at Cairo, in 2 vols. folio, in 1278 a.h. (1861 a.d.) The European scholar who made the first and amplest use of this work was S. Bochart, in his Hierozoicon, which first appeared in 1663.
The other works of Damîrî have not obtained, even in the East, the popularity accorded to his Life of Animals. His most prominent work on legal subjects is a commentary in four volumes on the Minh â j of An-Nawawi.
Haji Chalfa, ed. Fluegel, vol. iii. p. 122; Nicoll, Biblioth. Bodlei. MSS. Orient. Cat. ; Fluegel’s Arabische Hdss, der K. K. Bibliothek zu Wien; Wuestenfeld’s Arabische Aerzte und Naturforscher, &c.
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