Hanxi
Hanxi arabice serpens liber de doctrina arabica sed apud Avicennam haiet.
Apparatus:
Hanxi efjp | Hanxi uel haxi B | Hanixi AC
liber om. e but a gap is left in the writing
arabica | greca uel arabica ms. e
haiet B efp | haiet or haret j | haieth AC
Translation:
Hanxi is Arabic for Latin serpens {"snake"} according to the liber de doctrina arabica, but in Avicenna it is called haiet.
Commentary:
Hanxi:
Simon’s often quoted source, the liber de doctrina arabica, has so far not been identified, but cf. what must be a similar glossary/dictionary- Vocabulista - ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 90): ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥan(a)š/ Serpens [1]]; (1871: 577): ﺣﻴﺶ ﻭﺣﻨﺶ ﺣﻨﺎﺵ ﺣﻴﺔ ﺍﺕ / ḥayš wa-ḥanaš ḥināš – ḥayya ~āt/ SERPENS [[2]].
Dozy (1877-81: I.331): ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaš/ quoting i.a. Vocabulista and Pedro de Alcalá as his sources, and he mentions that in Spain the word has changed from /ḥanaš/ to /ḥayš/, with both forms occurring in Vocabulista, cf. above and p. 91: ﺣﻴﺶ /ḥayš/ Serpens [[3]] and p. 577: SERPENS ﺣﻴﺶ /ḥayš/, ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaš/.
In Pedro de Alcalá “háix” occurs 3 times glossed "culebra" {i.e. "snake"}, although he lists under culebrilla enfermedad {i.e. “shingles, the disease”; lit. "little snake"} the form honáyxa {i.e. /ḥunayša/} the diminutive form of /ḥanaš/
[[4]].
Cf. also Corriente (1997: 141) s.v. *(ḤNŠ) for further witnesses.
Dozy lists ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaš/ under the root ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥnš/, which he glosses servir quoting Vocabulista as his only source. In fact Vocabulista (1871: 577) has under SERVIRE i.a. ﻧﺤﻨﺶ ﺣﻮﻞ ﻓﻼﻥ /niḥannaš ḥaula fulān/ (lit.) "I protect someone’s power"; cf. also Corriente (1989: 89), s.v.*ḤNŠ who also glosses servir. However, it is difficult to find any semantic bridge between "serving, protecting" and "snake".
A simpler solution is offered by Lane (1984: 656), who mentions a verb ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaša/ meaning "hunt, catch, capture" from which ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaš/ is derived with a variety of meanings: "anything that is hunted, caught or captured, birds, … venomous or noxious reptiles … such as scorpions and serpents" and he mentions a variety of other animals, among them kinds of vipers and serpents.
Wehr lists ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaš/ … "snake" in his dictionary, proving that the word has still some currency in Modern written Arabic, but Prémare lists the word with a large number of derivations. This seems to indicate that it has a mainly Maghribic distribution.
haiet:
Simon’s observation that Avicenna uses the word ﺣﻴﺔ /ḥayya/ "snake, serpent, viper", pl. ﺣﻴﺎﺕ /ḥayyāt/ rather than ﺣﻨﺶ /ḥanaš/ is correct.
See e.g. Avicenna capitulum 616. De serpente, also available online p. 120: De serpẽte. Cap. dcxvi [[5]], which is in the Arabic original p.180: ﺣﻴﺔ /ḥayya/ "snake, serpent, viper" [[6]].
Also e.g. in his capitulum 44. De agno casto, also available online p. 73: De Agno casto. Cap. xliiii [[7]], which is in Arabic ﺑﻨﺠﻨﺠﺴﺖ /banğanğust/ {"chaste tree"}, p. 147 {not 144!}, he writes: ﺑﻨﻔﻊ ﻣﻦ ﻟﺴﻊ ﺍﻟﺤﻴﺎﺕ /bi-nafʕin min lasʕi al-ḥayyāt/, in its Latin translation: confert morsui serpentis - "it is of use for snake bites" [[8]].
WilfGunther 11:55, 26 September 2014 (BST)
See also: Hayet
