mixed into the theriac the flesh of snakes ”55
of their bodies in which there is much of it warms,
Three anecdotes attributed to Andromachus the
dries, and clears the body, and removes diseases
younger serve to substantiate the therapeutic
from it [ ] if it is burnt and kneaded with good
properties of snake flesh These comprise the use
olive oil, and a painful carious cavity in a tooth
of snakes dissolved in wine, a mixture reported
is stuffed with it, it will cure it; if it is pounded
to have cured a man suffering from leprosy
fine together with its head and applied over parts
(known as elephantitis),56 the homeopathic effect
affected with alopecia, it will cause hair to grow
again 59
of snakes dissolved in water upon a snakebite,
and similarly a snakebite serving as an antidote
Al -Damīrī notes further recipes from other
against an opium overdose 57
authorities:
The fourteenth-century scholar al-Damīrī
records in his well-known bestiary that “it is
If the fried slough of a serpent is taken and the
bark of the root of capers, long birth-wort (aris-
unlawful to eat serpents on account of their inju-
tolochy), and anacardium in equal parts are mixed
rious property, and an antidote prepared out of
with it, and then a person suffering from both
their flesh is also unlawful ” He based this on the
external and internal hanging piles is fumigated
tenth-century traditionist and Shāfʿī specialist
(with the mixture), they will fall off [ ] if the
Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, remarking that it is forbid-
slough of a serpent mixed with the reddish tinged
den by the Shāfʿī school, “excepting in circum-
bdellium both external and internal piles are
stances of great necessity ”58 In spite of these
fumigated, they will be cured If an egg of a ser-
cautionary remarks snakes apparently continued
pent is pounded with nitre and vinegar, and then
to be a choice ingredient in the theriac or other
applied over fresh patches of white leprosy, it
concoctions, as evidenced also by the same scholar
will remove them [ ] [The serpent’s] heart if it
who cites that according to ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī:
is hung on the body, will cure quartan ague 60
The flesh [of snakes] preserves the senses, and
There was a profitable trade in the importation
soup (gravy) made of its flesh strengthens the
of vipers and other snakes (afʿā) chiefly from
sense of sight The flesh of serpents from a part
Sijistān (Sīstān), a region known for its great
55 Kerner, 2004, pp 232–3 The practice of consum-
Kitāb al-diryāq (a combination of the Kitāb al-diryāq with
ing snake meat to cure a variety of illnesses has a very long
another toxicological treatise, the Kitāb al-sumūm), sold at
history The first-century medical writer Cornelius Celsus
Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World, London on 25 April 2002,
(d c 50 ad) reports the experience of farmers who cured
lot 30; the unillustrated manuscript of the Kitāb al-diryāq
abscesses in the lymphatic glands by eating snake flesh ( De
is dated 8 Jumādā al-ūlā, 622/19 May, 1225, with a tenta-
medicina 5 28 7b); cf Hanson, 2006, p 497 The ingredient
tive provenance of Mesopotamia or western Iran, fol 44b
was formalised when the Roman emperor Nero (r 54–68
Kerner, 2004, pp 17–8, 86, and eadem, 2007, p 32 The
ad) developed an interest in an antidote formulated by
anecdote is also recorded by the eleventh-century Christian
Mithridates VI (120–163 bc), king of Pontus, for which a
physician Ibn Buṭlān, see Browne, 1921, pp 72–3 A related
Persian physician had probably supplied the recipe and which
account of a serpent “vomiting” into a bowl of maḍīra (a
the king used daily as a preventive measure against poisoning
kind of broth made with sour milk) which is drunk by an
He asked his “Leibarzt,” Andromachus the Elder, to investi-
epileptic boy who was subsequently cured is attributed to
gate and improve the compound, which subsequently was
al-Rāzī; al-Faraj, vol 2, pp 103–4, and Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa,
modified by the addition of snake flesh as a further ingredi-
vol 1, p 312, cited after Browne, 1921, pp 75–6 yet another
ent, thus creating what is generally regarded as the first true
anecdote is related by a man called Abū ʿAlī ʿUmar ibn
theriac, the Theriaca Andromachi, being an early example
yaḥyā al-ʿAlawī, which recounts that a man was cured from
of the homeopathic principle of similia similibus curantur
leprosy by eating roasted snake meat after having cut off
(Bierman, 1994, p 5) Thereafter, the use of snake flesh as a
the heads and tails; al-Faraj, vol 2, p 100, cited after, idem,
cure is recorded by numerous physicians, such as Aretaios
1921, p 76 Cf Massé, 1938, vol 1, p 207
57
and Galen (Oberhelman, 1994, p 943 and n 9) It is also
Kitāb al-sumūm/ Kitāb al-diryāq, op. cit. , fol 45b,
reported in the writings of Eznik of Koghb ( Elc alandocʿ, tr
46a Kerner, 2004, pp 17–8, 88–9 Cf Pancaroğlu, 2001,
and ed Mariès and Mercier, 1959, pp 574–5, ch 64) More-
pp 160–1, figs 6–8 Andromachus the younger is shown
over, it is known that the ingredient was used by Jewish
together with a man who is bitten by a serpent in Ms Arabe
physicians of the medieval period when they produced the
2964, p 19, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
58
universal drug:
Tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1, p 649 In this connection it is
worthy of note that in the Shāh-nāma account of Iskandar’s
ṭariyāqā in which is mixed the flesh of the viper
adventures the consumption of tinnīn, which in spring fall
and the eggs of that animal that is called …(?) mix
down from Heaven, is associated with Yājūj and Mājūj
it with dry ground leavened bread, roll it into oven
(Gog and Magog), the apocalyptic peoples known from
loaves and dry them with the other ingredients in the
biblical (Ezekiel 38 39, Apocalypse 20 7–10) and Qurʾānic
ṭariyāqā …then knead it with honey
eschatology ( sūra s 18, 93–8; and 21, 96); tr and ed Mohl,
1838–1878, vol 5, p 223, ll 1467–1468
Gil, 2004, pp 605–6
59 Tr Jayakar, 1906, vol 1, p 654
56 Manuscript of the Kitāb al-sumūm ( “ Book of Poisons”) /
60 Idem, p 654
the dragon and the magico-medical sphere
175
number of vipers,61 since theriac was prepared
to be slain and to sacrifice her flesh in order to
from their flesh 62 Moreover, the city of Arīhā
heal the king However just as in Andromachus
(Jericho) is named “the home of the theriacal ser-
the younger’s theriac recipe recorded in the Kitāb
pents, and the excellence of the theriac of Jeru-
al-diryāq text , the consumption of snake flesh is
salem owing to the use therein of the flesh of
seen here specifically as a cure for leprosy with
those serpents” in an addition to a thirteenth-
which the king is afflicted 68 In the tale the flesh
century manuscript copy of al-Muqaddasī’s geog-
of the reptile is to be boiled and then served to
raphy, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm
the leper Moreover drinking the elixir, in other
(“The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the
words the broth in which the flesh was cooked
Regions”), preserved in the Süleymaniye Kütü-
(after skimming off the “first scum” or foam which
phanesi, Istanbul 63 In the second extant copy of
appears in the process of boiling), is said to give
the Kitāb al-diryāq, in the Österreichische Na -
access to the fountains of knowledge, as well as
tionalbibliothek in Vienna, a miniature in the
various sciences 69
herpetological tract illustrates the procedure of
The consumption of snake flesh as an antidote
serpent hunting for the flesh of snakes used in
to snake venom is recommended by ʿAlī ibn
the remedy 64 The serpents were made to bite into
Waḥshiyya al-Nabaṭī in his ninth-century text
leather-“dolls” with glass eyes for them to dis-
on poisons He notes an antidote attributed to a
charge their venom, making them easier to
certain Ḥajujā which involves consuming the flesh
handle 65
of a viper (two ounces) cooked together with
The medicinal properties of serpent flesh were
bread (samīd) and sipping the meat broth 70 The
also known in Buddhist Central Asia where in
benefits of serpents, in particular the healing
the Swāt region Lord Śakra (Indra), an incarna-
properties of snake flesh as general antidote to
tion of the Buddha, sacrificed himself for the good
its venom, is also stated in the tenth-century texts
of the people by transforming himself into a great
of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ 71
serpent whose dead body filled the entire valley
The symbolism of the knots formed by the two
of Swāt Since his flesh was a remedy for every
dragons on the frontispiece may be related to the
kind of disease, the sick were thus delivered from
number symbolism of four which, as Meisami
their afflictions 66 This legend has certain affinities
writes, “is the number by which the categories of
with an assortment of tales related to the Queen
nature are subdivided: the four elements, the four
of the Serpents which is included in Alf layla
humours, and the four seasons ”72 Medieval Isla-
wa-layla collection of fairy-tales and other
mic medicine, based largely on Greek medicine
stories 67 In the tale the Serpent-Queen consents
and natural history, in particular the Galenic
61 Cf idem, p 56; Monchi-Zadeh, 1975, pp 117–8, see
the bite of the Nāga Karkoṭaka; see Vogel, 1926, pp 71–4,
also n 5
and 80–1, respectively
62 Kopf, “Afʿā,” EI² I, 214b
65 Kitāb al-sumūm/ Kitāb al-diryāq, op. cit. , fol 49a
63 Copied in 658/1259
Istanbul, Süleymaniye
Kerner, 2004, pp 17–8, 98
Kütüphanesi, Ayasofya 2971 Al-Muqaddasī, Aḥsan al-
66 Si-yu-ki, vol 1, tr Beal, 1884, repr 2000, pp 125–6 Cf
taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm, tr and ed Collins, 1994, p 158
Carter, 1992, p 70, n 24
64 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod, A F
67 483rd to 536th Night [1830 Calcutta ed count] The
10, fol 22b Duda, 1992, vol 2, fig 39; À l’ombre d’Avicenne,
Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, tr Burton, 1885,
1996, p 100 Interestingly, as Jaclynne Kerner (2007, p 35,
vol 5, pp 324–411 See also Marzolph and van Leeuwen,
n 92) has pointed out, the illustration sheds light on the
2004, pp 348–50
common misperception that snake venom (which forms
68 534th to 535th Night; The Book of the Thousand Nights
the basis for modern antidotes to snakebite/antivenins)
and a Night, tr Burton, 1885, vol 5, pp 404–10 Cf Branden-
was an ingredient in the theriac However, snake venom
burg, 1973, p 49
was known to be beneficial and to act as an antidote in
69 535th Night The Book of the Thousand Nights and a
pre-Islamic times (see p 157, n 125) It was also adminis-
Night, tr Burton, 1885, vol 5, pp 407–10 Cf Marzolph and
tered in ancient India In the chapter on the use of poison
van Leeuwen, 2004, pp 349–50
as drug recorded in the famous sixth- to seventh-century
70 Levey, 1966, p 69 Another form of consumption is
treatise Aṣṭāṅga Saṃgraha by Vāgbhaṭṭa the Elder, prob-
recorded in the Aṣṭāṅga Saṃgraha It states that a hooded
ably composed in Ujjain, in western Madhya Pradesh, it
serpent, which has been enraged and found emitting fumes
states that the person who has consumed vegetable/mineral
from its mouth, should be made to bite many times on a
poison should be treated with snake venom (48 3 5) The
piece of meat fastened to the tip of a stick After carefully
same is noted in ch 36 of the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya by Vāgbhaṭṭa
deciding the strength of the poison, the physician should
the younger I am indebted to Dr Jouhar Kanjhirala Adam
administer the powder of this meat to the patient who has
for this information The use of snake venom as antidote
not been cured by any other anti-poison medicines
may furthermore be gauged from Indian lore, such as the
(48 19 20)
episode of the boyhood of Bhīmasena and the tale of king
71 Tr and ed Dieterici, 1858, pp 89–91
Nala who, being possessed by an evil spirit, was healed by
72 Cf Meisami, 1993, p 166
176