Nature

Botany

Botany, Herbals and Healing In Islamic Science and Medicine: III

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7. Conclusion

There are some good secondary sources in the field of botany for any curious reader wishing to explore the matter further (but like many essential areas of Muslim science: mainly available in Germany and only in German) [161].

With regard to the relationship of Muslim botany with the modern, names of plants reached the West through the intermediary of Muslim works [162]. Levey also rightly points out that because of its accumulation of thousands of years of experience, Muslim pharmacology may still contain something of value for modern science. The medicinal properties, particularly of botanicals known to Muslim physicians and apothecaries, deserve great attention. Some important medicinal plants prescribed today have been explored with success, and more remains to be done. He believes that clues to valuable drugs can be found in the early Arabic texts [163].

The best conclusion on the subject, though, is in the words of the great botanist, Ibn Juljul. He says:

`I had great desire to know precisely material medica which is the basic study of composed drugs, and I have furthered the study of this subject with much care. God, most kind, has given me the means to accomplish my wish, which was to bring to life what I feared whose knowledge could be lost, a loss of something that is of great advantage for the health of humans. It is, indeed, God Who has created the cure, and has spread it amongst plants thriving on the soil, and amongst the animal kingdom, that move on the land, or swim in the waters, and in minerals under the ground, for all this is witness of the power for healing, a gift and a bounty from God the Almighty [164].'

8. References

• Al-Dinawari, Abu Hanifa: Le Dictionnaire botanique d'Abu hanifa al-Dinawari, compiled according to the citations of later works, edited by M. Hamidullah, Cairo, coll. Institut Francais d'Archéologie Orientale, textes et traductions d'auteurs orientaux, V; 1973.
• Al-Faruqi, I. R and L.L.,: The Cultural Atlas of Islam Prentice Hall College Div., 1986.
• Al-Ghazali: al-Hikma fi ‘l-makhlukat (ed. Cairo 1934).
• Al-Risala al-Kamiliyya/Theologus Autodidacticus, ed. and tr. M. Meyerhof and J. Schacht, Oxford 1968.
• Al-Qifti: Tarikh al-Hukama, ed. J. Lippert (Leipzig, 1903).
• Bauer, T., Das Pflanzenbuch des AbuHanifa al-Dinawari, Wiesbaden 1988.
• Calvo, Emilia: "Ibn Wafid": in the Encyclopaedia of the history of Science, technology, and Medicine in Non Western Cultures; H. Selin Editor;. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997.
• Campbell, D. Arabian Medicine and its Influence on the Middle Ages; Philo Press; Amsterdam; 1926; reprinted 1974.
• Dols, M. W., "Herbs, Middle Eastern", Dictionary of Middle Ages; Joseph R. Strayer Editor in Chief. New York: Charles Scribner, 1980.
• Ducros, M.A. H., Essai sur la Droguerie Populaire Arabe (Cairo 1930).
• Elgood, C.: A Medical history of Persia; Cambridge University Press; 1951.
• Fahd, T., "Botany and agriculture" in Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Edited by R Rashed. London and New York: Routledge, 1996, vol 3, pp. 813-52.
• Hamarneh S. K., and G. Sonnedecker: A Pharmaceutical View of Abulcasis al-Zahrawi in Moorish Spain (Leiden 1963).
• Hamarneh, Temples of the Muses and a History of Pharmacy Museums, Tokyo, The Naito Foundation, 1972.
• Hamarneh, S. M., Origins of Pharmacy and Therapy in the Near East. Tokyo: The Naito Foundation, 1973.
• Ibn Abi Usaybi'a: ‘Uyun al-anba'fi tabaqat al-atibba' (Cairo, 1882). Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat al-Atiba; Partial French translation of chapter 13 on physicians of Western Islam; by H. Jahier and A. Noureddine; Algiers; 1958.
• Ibn al-Baytar (1874), Al-jami, I-IV, Cairo, 1291, French translation by Lucien Leclerc, I-III, Paris, 1977-83. Al-Jami' li-Mufradat al-Adwiyah wa ‘l- Aghdhiyah; Cairo, 1874.
• Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa; trandslated and selected by H.A.R. Gibb; (London 1929). Voyages d'Ibn Battuta, Arabic text accompanied by French translation by C. Defremery and B.R. Sanguinetti, preface and notes by Vincent Monteil, I-IV (Paris 1968; reprint of the 1854 ed.)
• Ibn Juljul: Tabaqat al-Atibba' wa ‘I-Hukama'. Edited by F. Sayyid. (Cairo 1955).
• Kahle, P., "Ibn Samagun und sein Drogenbuch", Documenta Islamica Inedita; Berlin, 1952, 25 ff.
• Ibn Wahshiya (903-4): Al-Filaha al-nabatiyya‘‘. Agr. MS 490, Dar al-Kutub, Cairo.
• [Ibn Wahshiya] L'Agriculture Nabatéene. Translation into Arabic attributed to Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Ali al-Kasdani, known as Ibn Wahshiya (4th-10th century). Critical edition by T. Fahd, 2 vols. Damascus, 1993, 1995.
• Ikhwan al-Safa: Rasa'il. (Bombay 1305 H).
• Johnstone, P., "Ibn Juljul, Physician and Herbalist", Islamic Culture vol LXXIII; 1999.
• Kruk, R., "Nabat", Encyclopaedia of Islam, p. 833.
• Leclerc, N. L.,: Histoire de la médecine Arabe, 2 vols. (Paris 1876).
• Levey, M., Early Arabic Pharmacology, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1973.
• Lewin, B.: The Book of Plants of Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari, Part of the alphabetical section (alif-zay). Edited from the unique MS. in the Library of the University of Istanbul, with an introduction, notes, indices, and a vocabulary of selected words, Uppsala-Wiesbaden 1953. The Book of Plants. Part of the monograph section, Wiesbaden 1974.
• Lewin, B.: The Third part of Kitab al-Nabat of Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari, Orientalia Suecena 9, 1960.
• Maimonides, Sharh Asma' al-Uqqar, ed. M. Meyerhof (Cairo, 194).
• Meyer, E. H. F.: Geschichte der Botanik, I-IV, Konigsberg, 1854-7.
• Meyerhof, Max,: "Uber die Pharmacologie und Botanik des Ahmad al-Ghafiqi", Archiv fur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaft 13, 1930: pp. 65-74.
• Meyerhoff, Max, "Esquisse d'histoire de la pharmacologie et de la botanique chez les Musulmans d'Espagne", al-Andalus 3, 1935: pp. 1-41.
• Peres, H., La poésie andalouse en arabe classique au XIe siècle. (Paris 1953).
• Schoeler, G., Arabische Naturdichtung. Die zahriyat, rabiiyat und rawdiyat von ihren Anfaengen bis Assanawbari… (Beirut 1974).
• Silberberg, B.: Das Pflanzenbuch des Abu Hanifa Ahmed ibn da'ud al-Dinawari. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Botanik bei den Arabern, dissertation, Breslau; published in part in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 24 (1910): 225-65; 25 (1911): 38-88.
• Ullmann, M., Medizin in Islam. (Leiden/Cologne 1970).
• Ulmann, M., Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam. (Leiden 1972).
• Vernet, Juan, and Julio Samso: "Development of Arabic Science in Andalusia", in Encyclopaedia of Arabic Science, edited by R. Rashed, London: Routledge, vol. 1, pp 243-76.
• Whipple, A.: The Role of the Nestorians and Muslims in the History of Medicine. Microfilm-xerography by University Microfilms International Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1977.
• Wustenfeld, F., Geschichte der arabischen Aerzte (Gottingen 1840).

Footnotes

[161] Works such as: Max Meyerhof: "Uber die Pharmacologie und Botanik des Ahmad al-Ghafiqi", Archiv fur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaft 13, 1930: pp. 65-74; Max Meyerhoff: "Esquisse d'histoire de la pharmacologie et de la botanique chez les Musulmans d'Espagne", al-Andalus 3, 1935: pp. 1-41; M. Ullmann: Medizin in Islam, Leiden/Cologne, 1970; idem, Die Natur und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Leiden, coll. handbuch der Orientalistik, I. VI, 2, 1972; E. H. F. Meyer: Geschichte der Botanik, I-IV, Konigsberg, 1854-7.

[162] G. Wiet et al.: History, op. cit., p. 655.

[163] M. Levey: Early Arabic, op. cit., preface, pp vii-viii.

[164] Ibn Abi Usaybi'a: Uyun al-Anba fi Tabaqat al-Atiba; Partial French translation of chapter 13 on physicians of Western Islam; by H. Jahier and A. Noureddine ( Algiers 1958), p. 40.

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by: FSTC Research Team, Fri 04 September, 2009