DAMIRI  , the

common name of KAMAL UD-Dim MUHAMMAD IBN MUsA UD-DAMIRI (1344-1405), Arabian writer on canon law and natural history, belonged to one of the two towns called Damira near Damietta and spent his life in Egypt . Of the Shafi'ite school of law, he became professor of tradition in the Rukniyya at Cairo, and also at the mosque el-Azhar; in connexion with this work he wrote a commentary on the Minhaj ut-Talibin of Nawawi (q.v.) . He is, however, better known in the history of literature for his Life of Animals (Hayat ul-Hayawan), which treats in alphabetic order of 931 animals mentioned in the Koran, the traditions and the poetical and proverbial literature of the Arabs . The work is a compilation from over 500 prose writers and nearly 200 poets . The correct spelling of the names of the animals is given with an explanation of their meanings . The use of the animals in medicine, their lawfulness or unlawfulness as food, their position in folk-lore are the main subjects treated, while occasionally long irrelevant sections on political history are introduced . The work exists in three forms . The fullest has been published several times in Egypt; a mediate and a short recension exist in manuscript . Several editions have been made at various times of extracts, among them the poetical one by Suyuti (q.v.), which was translated into Latin by A . Ecchelensis (Paris, 1667) . Bochartus in his Hierozoicon (1663) used Damiri's work . There is a translation of the whole into English by Lieutenant-Colonel Jayakar (Bombay, 1906-1908) .

(G . W .