Al-Ilas: The Uncatchable Fish That Could Turn Enemies Into Friends 🐟

Al-Ilas: The Whole Entry, in Full

I'm not going to pretend this one is long. Here is everything Hayat al-Hayawan says about al-ilas, translated completely:

“Al-Qazwini said: it is a kind of fish, enormous, and all sea animals are caught except it. And among its properties: if it is roasted and two people eat of it together, between whom there is enmity and quarrel, it turns into friendship.”

That's it — three sentences. The entire entry, quoted in full, with nothing added and nothing left out.

The Fish Nobody Can Catch

The boast comes first: this fish is so enormous that “all sea animals are caught except it.” Every other creature of the sea ends up in a net or on a hook — but not al-ilas.

What was al-Qazwini describing? Possibly a whale, or some leviathan of sailors' tales — the fish that breaks the net instead of landing in it. The book gives no shape, no color, no habitat. It doesn't need to: the point is size and invulnerability. The sea has one resident that fishing can't touch, and it has a name.

The Fish That Ends Feuds

Then the property — the khawass, the hidden virtue, the thing medieval books loved about animals even more than their teeth and tails. Roast the fish, take two people who truly hate each other, sit them down together, feed them from it — and the hatred turns into friendship. Enmity in, love out. Stated with a straight face, attributed to al-Qazwini.

This is a medieval belief, not advice. The book records it the way it records a hundred other occult properties — as received wisdom about the world's hidden workings. Don't roast a fish to fix your feuds. What the entry really shows is how the medieval imagination worked. Even dinner had metaphysics in it.

A Wonders-of-Creation Fish

The source matters. This isn't al-Damiri's own observation; it's “al-Qazwini said.” Zakariya al-Qazwini, author of 'Ajaib al-Makhluqat — the Wonders of Creation — is the great cosmic-catalog writer of the medieval Arabic world, who described angels, planets, and sea monsters in the same breath. When al-Damiri needs a fish too strange for the fishermen, he borrows from the wonder-writer. Fitting: al-ilas belongs more to the world of wonders than to the world of nets.

Where It Sits

One practical note: this entry lands on the same page where the long Aws entry finally ends its digression on intercession — and right before the serpent entries begin. A one-line fish wedged between a saint's biography and a snake's. Hayat al-Hayawan is full of these. And I won't pad it. Some entries are feasts; this one is an amuse-bouche, a tiny, strange taste of the medieval sea.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is al-ilas?

   A fish mentioned in a single paragraph of Hayat al-Hayawan, attributed to al-Qazwini: an enormous sea fish that no one can catch — every other sea creature is taken, except it. The book gives no description of shape, color, or habitat beyond its size and its invulnerability to fishermen.

2. Can eating al-ilas really reconcile two enemies?

   That is what the entry claims — a khawass, or hidden property: roast the fish, share it between two quarreling people, and the enmity becomes friendship. Treat it as a medieval belief about the world's hidden workings, not as real advice. No book — this one included — can season hatred away.

3. Who is al-Qazwini, and why is he cited here?

   Zakariya al-Qazwini (d. 1283 CE), author of 'Ajaib al-Makhluqat — the Wonders of Creation — the great medieval Arabic catalog of the cosmos, from angels and planets to sea monsters. Al-Damiri cites him often for creatures too strange for ordinary natural history, and al-ilas is one of them.