On the lexicography of horses in mediaeval Arabic sources

摘要

The subject matter of the present research is mediaeval Arabic literature in the 8th to 15th centuries, dealing with horses and hippology. Numerous descriptions of horses have been left to us from this period, the most renowned authors being Abū 'Ubayda, al-A?ma'ī, Ibn Sīda and Ibn Qutayba. The present article has made extensive use of these works and subjected the explanations found therein to a comparison with dialectical variants of the various body parts of a horse, for instance, the different sections of the forehead, the croup, the side or the hoof. The classical meanings of these body parts have sometimes radically changed by now, in other instances the meanings have been extended, and part of the classical vocabulary has simply disappeared, or survived but in a completely altered new sense.