Ibn al-Baytar

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Ibn al-Bayṭār
Botanist, Scientist, Pharmacist, Physician

Diyāʾ al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Mālaqī, commonly known as Ibn al-Bayṭār (

Islamic physicians in the Middle Ages, which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity. He was a student of Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati.[3]

Life

Ibn al-Baitar was born in the city of Málaga in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) at the end of the twelfth century, hence his nisba "al-Mālaqī".[1] His name "Ibn al-Baitar" is Arabic for "son of the veterinarian", which was his father's profession.[4][5] Ibn al-Bayṭār learned botany from the Málagan botanist Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain.[6]

In 1219, Ibn al-Bayṭār left Málaga, travelling to the coast of North Africa and as far as Anatolia, to collect plants. The major stations he visited include

Barqa and Antalya.[citation needed
]

After 1224, he entered the service of the

Ayyubid Sultan al-Kāmil and was appointed chief herbalist. In 1227 al-Kāmil extended his domination to Damascus, and Ibn al-Bayṭār accompanied him there, which provided him an opportunity to collect plants in Syria. His botanical researches extended over a vast area including Arabia and Palestine. He died in Damascus in 1248.[1]

Ibn al-Bayṭār used the name "snow of China" (in Arabic, thalj al-Ṣīn) to describe

saltpetre while writing about gunpowder.[7][8]

Works

Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Mufradāt al-Adwiya wa-l-Aghdhiya

Copy of Ibn al-Baytar's Kitab al-jami' li-mufradat al-adwiyah wa'l-aghdhiyah, Near East, dated c. 1300

Ibn al-Bayṭār’s largest and most widely read book is his Compendium on Simple Medicaments and Foods (

Ibn Sīnā (Aveicenna). Both of those sources have similarities in layout and subject matter with Ibn al-Bayṭār's own book, but Ibn al-Bayṭār's treatments are richer in detail, and a large minority of Ibn al-Bayṭār's useful plants or plant substances are not covered at all by Dioscorides or Ibn Sīnā. In modern printed edition, the book is more than 900 pages long. As well as in Arabic, it was published in full in translation in German and French in the 19th century.[12]

Ibn al-Bayṭār provides detailed chemical information on the

olives. Essential oil was produced by joining various retorts, the steam from these retorts condensed, combined and its scented droplets were used as perfume
and mixed to produce the most costly medicines.

Kitāb al-Mughnī fī al-Adwiya al-Mufrada

Ibn al-Bayṭār’s second major work is Kitāb al-Mughnī fī al-Adwiya al-Mufrada, كتاب المغني في الأدوية المفردة .an

Islamic medicine which incorporates his knowledge of plants used extensively for the treatment of various ailments, including diseases related to the head, ear, eye, etc.[9]

Other works

See also

  • Islamic science
  • Islamic medicine
  • Islamic scholars

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Alam 1997, pp. 6–8.
  2. ^ "The Book of Medicinal and Nutritional Terms". 1800.
  3. ^ a b c Vernet 2008.
  4. ^ Himes, Norman Edwin (1963). Medical history of contraception.
  5. ^ "The Book of Medicinal and Nutritional Terms". 1800.
  6. ^ Saad & Said 2011.
  7. ISBN 0-8018-5954-9
    . The first definite mention of saltpetre in Arabic language is that in al-Baytar (died 1248), written towards the end of his life, where it is called "snow of China." Al-Baytar was a Spanish Arab, although he travelled a good deal and lived for a time in Egypt.
  8. ISBN 0-06-093564-2
    . Retrieved 2011-11-28. The first use of a metal tube in this context was made around 1280 in the wars between the Song and the Mongols, where a new term, chong, was invented to describe the new horror...Like paper, it reached the West via the Muslims, in this case the writings of the Andalusian botanist Ibn al-Baytar, who died in Damascus in 1248. The Arabic term for saltpetre is 'Chinese snow' while the Persian usage is 'Chinese salt'.28
  9. ^
    Malaspina University-College
    .
  10. ISBN 0415124107
  11. ^ Tafsīr Kitāb Diyāsqūrīdūs, - A commentary of Dioscorides' "Materia Medica," by Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Baytar de Malaga, Beirut 1989 (Arabic)
  12. ^ German edition in two volumes, 1840–1842, translated by Sontheimer. French edition in three volumes, 1877–1883, translated by Leclerc.
  13. ^ Tafsīr Kitāb Diāsqūrīdūs, - Commentaire de la "Materia Medica" de Dioscoride, by Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Baytar de Malaga, (ed. Ibrahim ben Mrad), Beirut 1989 (Arabic w/ Taxonomic names in English)

References

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