Обсуждение:Муха
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / Ḏh̲ubāb
(529 words) , the fly. Some authors state that word is used also for other insects, such as bees, hornets, butterflies or moths ( farās̲h̲ ), etc. According to Arab lexicographers, it is either a singular or else a collective noun, in which case d̲h̲ubāba is used for the singular. Cognate synonyms are found in other Semitic languages, e.g., Hebrew , Aramaic .
The fly is often mentioned and described in ancient Arabic poems and proverbs. A ḥadīt̲h̲ has it that there are flies in hell to torture the condemned. Numerous kinds are mentioned by Arab zoologists, some of them bearing specific names and some being distinguished by their colour (black, blue, red, tawny [ aṣfar ]). Another distinction is made according to the supposed origin of the different varieties: Some are said to be produced by spontaneous generation, in putrescent substances or in the body of certain animals (lion, dog, camel, horse, cattle, etc.), to ¶ which they adhere exclusively; others are born by sexual procreation. The flies that molest man are produced in dung. Certain places are pointed out as man particularly infested with flies, such as the town of Wāsiṭ. In some region flies are said to be eaten by man
The fly lives no longer than forty days (based on a ḥadīt̲h̲ ). It belongs to the ‘sunny’ animals, appearing in summer and vanishing in winter. It is killed by intense heat or cold. It is active during day time and rests at night. It likes sweet and loathes certain substances, as oil, camphor and arsenic. It hunts bugs ( baḳḳ ) and gnats ( baʿūḍ ) and is eaten itself by bats, spiders, reptiles and other animals. If it were not for the flies’ hunting bugs, it would be intolerable for man to live in houses. The tips of the fly’s feet are rough so that it may not slip on smooth surfaces. The sources mention several devices for keeping flies away from human habitations.
In various ways flies were used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes: rubbed over the sting of a hornet they relieve the pain; burnt and mixed with antimony they increase the beauty of the eyes of women, etc. Their significance when seen in dreams was treated in pertinent writings.
A work entitled Kitāb al-d̲h̲ubāb (probably a lexicographical treatise) is attributed by Ḥād̲j̲djī K̲h̲alīfa (ed. Flügel, v, 85, no. 10120) to Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Ziyād al-Aʿrābī, who, but for the year of his death, 333 A.H. as given by Ḥ.K̲h̲.. could be identical with the well known philologist Ibn al-Aʿrābī (Brockelmann, S I, 179).
Bibliography ʿAbd al-G̲h̲anī al-Nābulusī, Taʿṭīr al-Anām, Cairo 1354, i, 229
Damīrī, s.v. (transl. Jayakar, i, 816 ff.)
Dāwūd al-Anṭāḳī, Tad̲h̲kira, Cairo 1324, i, 148
Ḏj̲āḥiẓ. Ḥayawān 2, index
Euting, Tagebuch, i, index s.v. Fliegen
Ibn al-Bayṭār, Ḏj̲āmiʿ, Būlāḳ 1291, ii, 123
Ibn Ḳutayba, ʿUyūn al-Ak̲h̲bār, Cairo 1925-30, ii, 72, 75, 98, 104 (transl. Kopf, 46, 50, 74, 79)
Ibn Sīda, Muk̲h̲aṣṣaṣ, viii, 182 ff.
Ibs̲h̲īhī, Mustaṭraf, bāb 62, s.v.
Ḳazwīnī (Wüstenfeld), i, 434 f. (transl. Wiedemann, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Naturw., liii, 257 f.)
al-Mustawfī al-Ḳazwīnī (Stephenson), 72 f.
Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-arab, x, 298 ff.
Cite this page Kopf, L., “Ḏh̲ubāb”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 28 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1837>
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