#shadawar

[a-book-of-creatures]

That is fantastic. :3

Here's a few more fun things about the shadawār.

A lot of less discerning bestiaries claim that it lives in the Persian desert. But the actual account places it in what would have been a distant, mysterious locale for al-Qazwini - the Land of Rūm, i.e. the Byzantine Empire. (Similarly, the karkadann or rhinoceros was not said to live in the Persian desert, but in India).

When I painted the shadawār, I tried to combine different elements from the account and artwork, and eventually, for better or worse, worked in blackbuck elements.

Also, what's up with all those names? Some of the ones I've listed are Shadawār, Shadhahvar, Shadhahwar, Shādhahvār, Shad-hawar, Shād-hawār, Shad-havar, Shadhawar, Shadahvar, Shadahwar, Shadawar, Sadahvar, Sadahwar, Sadhavvar, and Sadhazar.

Turns out it's all in how you transliterate the name, and whether you're using Arabic or Persian to read it. Not only that, but the original sources aren't entirely certain how to write it either! So for example, this word...

شادهوار

This would be pronounced shād-ha-wār if you're reading it in Arabic, or shād-ha-vār if in Persian. That letter (و) is pronounced differently.

But!

Sometimes it's written like this, and sometimes you're not sure if it was like this or previous because that dot is so easily lost (د vs ذ).

شاذهوار

In this case it's shādh-ha-wār or shādh-ha-vār, where the bolded dh is pronounced like the th in "this".

And sometimes it's written like this...

شادوار

Which loses the soft h sound (ه) in the middle and makes it more like shadawār or shadavār. I went with shadawār because it was easier and because that's how I would read it, but none are really wrong.

Of course, the shadawār's greatest literary contribution was in Flaubert's Temptation of Saint Anthony.

And the one time the Junior Woodchucks saw one.

Adding a bunch of references for further reading if anyone's interested.

References

Bochart, S. (1675) Hierozoicon. Johannis Davidis Zunneri, Frankfurt.

el-Cheikh, N. M. Byzantium through the Islamic Prism from the Twelfth to the Thirteenth Century. In Laiou, A. E. and Mottahedeh, R. P. (2001) The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D. C.

Contadini, A. Musical Beasts: The Swan-Phoenix in the Ibn Bakhtishu’ Bestiaries. In O, Kane, B. (2005) The Iconography of Islamic Art. Edinburgh University Press.

Contadini, A. (2012) A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitab Na’t al-Hayawan) in the Ibn Bakhtishu’ Tradition. Brill, Leiden.

al-Damiri, K. (1891) Hayat al-hayawan al-kubra. Al-Matba’ah al-Khayriyah, Cairo.

Ettinghausen, R. (1950) The Unicorn. Studies in Muslim Iconography, Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers Vol. 1, No. 3, Washington.

Flaubert, G. (1885) La Tentation de Saint Antoine. Quantin, Paris.

Jayakar, A. S. G. (1908) ad-Damiri’s Hayat al-Hayawan (A Zoological Lexicon). Luzac and Co., London.

Kraus, P. (1986) Jabir Ibn Hayyan : Contribution à l’historie des idées scientifiques dans l’Islam. Société d’Édition Les Belles Lettres, Paris.

al-Qazwini, Z. (1849) Zakariya ben Muhammed ben Mahmud el-Cazwini’s Kosmographie. Erster Theil: Die Wunder der Schöpfung. Ed. F. Wüstenfeld. Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, Göttingen.

Hi, I asked a previous question about the Wonders of Creation and am wondering what animal the "shāh-dawār" is supposed to be? (Sadly I don't have the Persian characters for it). I have an English textbook translation of the London Qazvīnī and it says that the painting of that creature is missing from that edition, but that it is present in others. It doesn't describe what it is supposed to be either.

I already covered it in detail here! If you mean “what real-world animal is it based on”, it’s most likely an oryx. Its older name is āras, which is likely derived from oryx.

Of course, you wouldn’t be able to tell from some illustrations, like the BSB’s version.

Musical animals were very popular back then, I can think of at least three offhand.

It has 42 to 72 branches on its horn, although some artists like the one below, cheated, making it just a multiperforated horn.

Incidentally, the shadawār’s description as a carnivore is libel. That happened when the carnivorous sirānis got confused with it.

Of course the shadawār is a mythical creature and doesn’t have to be based on anything. Look at what nice music it makes!

References

Ettinghausen, R. (1950) The Unicorn. Studies in Muslim Iconography, Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers Vol. 1, No. 3, Washington.

[a-book-of-creatures]

Hi, I asked a previous question about the Wonders of Creation and am wondering what animal the "shāh-dawār" is supposed to be? (Sadly I don't have the Persian characters for it). I have an English textbook translation of the London Qazvīnī and it says that the painting of that creature is missing from that edition, but that it is present in others. It doesn't describe what it is supposed to be either.

I already covered it in detail here! If you mean “what real-world animal is it based on”, it’s most likely an oryx. Its older name is āras, which is likely derived from oryx.

Of course, you wouldn’t be able to tell from some illustrations, like the BSB’s version.

Musical animals were very popular back then, I can think of at least three offhand.

It has 42 to 72 branches on its horn, although some artists like the one below, cheated, making it just a multiperforated horn.

Incidentally, the shadawār’s description as a carnivore is libel. That happened when the carnivorous sirānis got confused with it.

Of course the shadawār is a mythical creature and doesn’t have to be based on anything. Look at what nice music it makes!

References

Ettinghausen, R. (1950) The Unicorn. Studies in Muslim Iconography, Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers Vol. 1, No. 3, Washington.