Timons Esaias's Blog - Posts Tagged "giraffe"

"The Bedouin Arabs called the giraffe a collection (jama'a), and it was so called because it brought together the attributes of many animals in one form. It has the neck of a camel, the skin of the panther, the horns of a gazelle, the teeth of a cow, and the head of a deer. An authority on the natures of animals wrote that it was a crossbreed of many animals, a result of the gathering of beasts during the summer at the watering place where they mated. In some cases, a female mated with several males, and their seminal fluid mixed inside her, so she bore a creature of mixed appearance, shape and color. The Persians call the giraffe a camel-cow-leopard, which accords with what the Arabs claimed about its hybrid creation from many animals. But al-Jahiz refutes this statement, saying: "It is a piece of great ignorance, which no educated person would profess. For God creates what He wills, according to His will. This is a self-distinct type of animal just like the horse or the donkey, and what proves this to be the case is that it gives birth to its own young."

This is indisputable, for I saw a giraffe in Cairo that gave birth to another giraffe that looked like it, and it is still alive today." --Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri, The Ultimate Amition in the Arts of Erudition

"The Bedouin Arabs called the giraffe a collection (jama'a), and it was so called because it brought together the attributes of many animals in one form. It has the neck of a camel, the skin of the panther, the horns of a gazelle, the teeth of a cow, and the head of a deer. An authority on the natures of animals wrote that it was a crossbreed of many animals, a result of the gathering of beasts during the summer at the watering place where they mated. In some cases, a female mated with several males, and their seminal fluid mixed inside her, so she bore a creature of mixed appearance, shape and color. The Persians call the giraffe a camel-cow-leopard, which accords with what the Arabs claimed about its hybrid creation from many animals. But al-Jahiz refutes this statement, saying: "It is a piece of great ignorance, which no educated person would profess. For God creates what He wills, according to His will. This is a self-distinct type of animal just like the horse or the donkey, and what proves this to be the case is that it gives birth to its own young."

This is indisputable, for I saw a giraffe in Cairo that gave birth to another giraffe that looked like it, and it is still alive today." --Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri, The Ultimate Amition in the Arts of Erudition