CSI Monday Majlis: On Animals, Stones, and Alphabets: The 14th-Century Egyptian Alchemist Aydamir al-Jildakī and His Natural Encyclopaedia

Regula Forster
On Animals, Stones, and Alphabets: The 14th-Century Egyptian Alchemist Aydamir al-Jildakī and His Natural Encyclopaedia
Monday Majlis Online on the 7th of October, 17: 00-18:30 (UK time)
Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter

Register please on this link:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvd--rrDouHNDNvAhz1UzISuCVMprpA0iu

Bio: Regula Forster (PhD Zurich 2005) is Professor of Islamic History and Culture at the University of Tübingen (Germany). Previously, she has held professorships at Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) and at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). She has published on both German medieval and Arabic literature, including Wissensvermittlung im Gespräch. Eine Studie zu klassisch-arabischen Dialogen (Leiden: Brill, 2017), Das Geheimnis der Geheimnisse. Die arabischen und deutschen Fassungen des pseudo-aris-totelischen Sirr al-asrār / Secretum secretorum (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2006), and Methoden mittelalterlicher arabischer Qur’ānexegese am Beispiel von Q 53, 1-18 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 2001).
https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/174627

Opening page of a al-JildakÄ«’s Durrat al-ghawwāṣ, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Landberg 157, fol. 1v (dated 1763)
(https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN719059984&PHYSID=PHYS_0006&DMDID=DMDLOG_0001)

Abstract: Despite his large and – in his time – well-received oeuvre, the Egyptian scholar Aydamir al-JildakÄ« (fl. middle of the 14th century) so far is known to specialists of Islamic alchemy only. Yet, Manfred Ullmann, writing in 1972, insisted that he was one of the “greatest scholars of the Islamic cultural sphere”. In his natural encyclopaedia entitled Durrat al-ghawwāṣ (“The diver’s pearl”), al-JildakÄ« treats the whole sublunar nature, from humans to animals, plants, and minerals. Perhaps following Qur’anic concepts of sign (āya), he also considers languages and scripts as part of the ordered natural world. This paper will offer an introduction to al-JildakÄ« and his concepts of nature and culture and thus into concepts of post-classical Arabic science.

In the spirit of the label ‘Majlis’ and also to make the talks even more interesting, our speakers present the topic discussed as embedded in their own journey. You can watch the previous Majlises here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8YRkUahFj_81oJzCSDLTx4kVQQgeHLc-, but we don’t record the Q&A in order to keep the discussion free. Please come and enjoy the talks and the discussions : ) If you’d like to be included in the CSI (Centre for the Study of Islam (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter) mailing list, please contact the CSI Manager: Sarah Wood (s.a.wood2@exeter.ac.uk).
We’ll be happy to welcome you!
István T Kristó-Nagy https://arabislamicstudies.exeter.ac.uk/staff/kristo-nagy/