Ibn Wahschiyya

Ibn Wahschiyya's translation of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet

Ibn Wahschiyya ( Arabic أبو بكر أحمد بن علي بن قيس, DMG Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. ʿAlī ibn Qais , called Ibn Wahschiyya /ابن وحشية / Ibn Waḥšīya ; * in the 9th century in Qusayn near Kufa in today's Iraq ) was an Iraqi alchemist , agronomist and toxicologist .

Ibn Wahschiyya was the first historian to translate parts of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs using the Coptic language . He succeeded in interpreting several dozen characters and some groups of characters, recognizing that writing has an essential phonetic component and correctly assigning individual phonetic values.

Ibn an-Nadīm reports in his encyclopaedic work Kitab al-Fihrist of numerous works that Ibn Wahschiyya wrote himself or translated from old books.

His book al-Filāḥa an-Nabaṭiyya (Nabataean Agriculture) on agriculture , which was written from sources from the third to ninth centuries from Chaldean and Babylonian scriptures, is considered to be one of the most influential Muslim works on the subject. It not only covers agriculture, but also witchcraft and the occult .

Web links

Ahmad bin Abubekr bin Wahshih: Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained: With an Account of the Egyptian Priests, Their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices . Bulmer, 1806 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
Ibn Wahshiyya, Abū Bakr Ahmad Ibn ͑Salī Ibn Āl-Mukhtār at Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Individual evidence

↑ Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Ibn Waḥshīyah: Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained. (Original: Shauq al-mustahām fī maʻrifat rumūz al-aqlām ). Edited and translated by Joseph Hammer-Purgstall. London, 1806, pp. 43-51. On archive.org : http://archive.org/details/ancientalphabet00conggoog , http://archive.org/details/ancientalphabet00hammgoog
↑ Dr. Okasha El Daly (2005), Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings, UCL Press, ISBN 1-84472-063-2 (cf. Arabic Study of Ancient Egypt, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization)
^ "Natural History" by SH Nasr in A History of Muslim Philosophy, edited and introduced by MM Sharif (1966), volume II, p. 1323

personal data
SURNAME	Ibn Wahschiyya
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ibn Wahshiyya
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Iraqi alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH	9th century
PLACE OF BIRTH	at Kufa
DATE OF DEATH	9th century or 10th century

[1] Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Ibn Waḥshīyah: Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained. (Original: Shauq al-mustahām fī maʻrifat rumūz al-aqlām ). Edited and translated by Joseph Hammer-Purgstall. London, 1806, pp. 43-51. On archive.org : http://archive.org/details/ancientalphabet00conggoog , http://archive.org/details/ancientalphabet00hammgoog

[2] Dr. Okasha El Daly (2005), Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings, UCL Press, ISBN 1-84472-063-2 (cf. Arabic Study of Ancient Egypt, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization)

[3] "Natural History" by SH Nasr in A History of Muslim Philosophy, edited and introduced by MM Sharif (1966), volume II, p. 1323