Dissertation on thirst. An edition of the Kalām fī al-‘aṭash, anonymous text included in the manuscript number 888 (folios 86r–88r) of the Collection of Arabic Manuscripts of the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo of El Escorial in Madrid (Spain) with an English translation

Abstract

The objective of this paper is the Arabic edition and the English translation of the Dissertation on thirst (العطش في الكلام(, an anonymous text included in the miscellaneous manuscript nº 888 of the Royal Library of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Madrid (Spain). This small treatise describes what thirst is, the types of thirst that exist, the causes why hydroponics are averse to water, the reason why diabetic people are continuously thirsty, the causes why people with fever are thirsty, the reason why some foods produce thirst and others do not, and so on. The whole manuscript is composed of fourteen works, written by the same copyist along 170 folios under the general title The book of medical and philosophical curiosities and utilities ( النكت كتاب والفلسفية الطبية والثمار (and their subject are curious matters that are generally out of the span of most works on these two branches of knowledge.