Kitāb naʿt al-ḥayawān, sometimes abbreviated Na't (“Book of the Characteristics of Animals”), is a 13th-century manuscript in the tradition of the Nestorian Christian author Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ (980–1058). The manuscript is in the British Library (Or. 2784). [1] It is the earliest illustrated manuscripts on animals, among known Arab and Persian manuscripts. [1]
It is a work of the Abbasid period circa 1225, probably from Baghdad, but the exact date or place of production, or the author (painter and calligrapher) of this specific manuscript are unknown. [1]
The compiler of the book describes his intentions:
The compiler ( jāmiʿ) of this book says: when I read what the sage Aristotle said in his book on the characteristics of animals and found that he had not mentioned their usefulness I wanted to [add what has been mentioned by the sage ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrāʾīl i]bn Bakhtīshūʿ on the usefulness of animals to make this book complete. I began it with the book by Aristotle and I [finished] it with the book by Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ. Everything quoted from Aristotle is Naʿt and everything quoted from Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ is Manfaʿ.
— Kitāb naʿt al-ḥayawān. [2]
Figures of authority are presented in frontispiece 3 and 4, a "Ruler-Prince" with armed attendants and a "Scholar-Prince". The attendants of the "Ruler-Prince" are armed and dressed with elements of the Turkic military fashion, wearing a type of Turkic sharbush headgear and boots. [3] These elements help distinguish the "official" garb from the "Arab" garb, as also seen in the Maqamat al-Hariri manuscripts. [3] One attendant in frontispiece 4 is in non-military “Arab” dress, with a turban, a long tunic with baggy white trousers and black slippers. [3]