"Ṯamra maqāla fī al-rawāʾiḥ" o "Tratado sobre los olores". Edición y traducción

Abstract

The Arabic edition of the Treatise on Smells (Ṯamra maqāla fī al-rawāʾiḥ) and its translation into Spanish are the main objectives of this article. This is a chapter [76v-81v] of The Book of Curiosities and Medical and Philosophical Utilities, collected in Miscellaneous Manuscript No. 888 of the Royal Library of the Monastery of San Lorenzo of El Escorial. The copyist and, most likely, the original author of most of the dissertations or curiosities in this compendium is the well-known Nestorian Priest Abū l-Faraŷ ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṭayyib al-ʿIrāqī (d. 1043-4/435). In the section object of this study, the Treatise on Smells, describes issues related to the smell of things in a very peculiar way, and the reason for certain aromas is reasoned, on what depends that certain things give off unpleasant odors, how humidity, rain or dryness affect the emanations, etc.