Abstract
A TREATISE ON HORSE DISEASES: HAZA KİTAB-I ESB
The books on animal/horse care, feeding, diseases and the treatment of these diseases are referred to as baytarname (< Ar. bey?ar < Gre. + Far. name), esbname (< Far. esb “horse” + Far. name), haylname (< Ar. ?ayl “horse, horse herd” + Far. name), feresname (< Ar. feres “horse” + Far. name). It can be said that especially baytarname is most commonly used.
Turks have placed a considerable value on horses for various reasons, especially owing to the fact that they were nomads. Because they used horses for riding and for war; care, feeding and treating of horses became a necessity. For this reason many baytarnames, compiled or translated, were written in almost every period of Turkish language.
Baytarnames, altough related to veterinary medicine, are philologically significant, as well as for veterinary history. They are very important in terms of Turkish language and there have been a number of studies on these books.
The subject of this article is a treatise called Kitab-ı Esb, recorded at 37 Hk 1045/3 in Kastamonu Manuscript Library. In this “book of the horse”, which is a tiny book consisting of just four pages, cures are provided for various diseases such as ?abara, öksürük, ?aşırganmak, ?o?a?, aru?lamak, semürmemek, ?afagı, na?ır, ?agırlı?, e?egi ?opmak, göz yaşarması, bıcılgan.
This study consists of transcribed text, index and facsimile sections.
Keywords
Veterinary Medicine, Horse Diseases, Old Anatolian Turkish, Ha?a Kitab-ı Esb, Kastamonu Manuscript L
