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Abu l-Khayr: Umdat al-tabib (Basics of Botany) (1200) Andalusia

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Abu ’l-Khayr al-Ishbili, from Seville. Author on agriculture, the Kitab al-filaḥa, and also, probably, the anonymous Umdat al-ṭabib fī ma‘rifat al-nabat li-kull labib: The Physician’s reliance in the knowledge of plants for every man of understanding. In the book are mentioned some plants from East Africa.

Taken from: Kitab Umdat al-tabib fi ma’rifat al-nabat li-kull labib: Abu al-Khayr Ishbili, Joaquin Bustamante.

 

287. Awapni: Someone reliable told me that it is a plant of the East African coast, known there by that name, stimulating sexual potency, so that when their cattle eats it, it increases procreation.

 

544. Abanusg (ebony): is a kind of large tree, of which there are three varieties…. It is known in Berber as "black wood" [Harab assudan], they say isgaran inisimian, and some yizzaran isagaran, ie "black stick." Its leaves are like those of the drumstick [griyar sanbar]…

 

573. Zsamamanj: is a desert plant, in Abyssinia says Qal'at ibn Tuwala (1), and on the African coast, with roots of little thickness and the length of the fingertip, similar to ginger (zangabil) or white Behen [bahman abyad ] sticky consistency, good smell and slightly bitter flavor, like pyrethrum (faqirqarha) flavored with ginger, but less spicy.

 

1343 Gawz alhind (nut of India) Ibn Wafid (2) informed us that this tree grows in the Islands of the Sea of Arwa (= Indian Ocean) among the islands of the Zang, which are known as Rangat so this tree was called naragil, in relation to these islands that are near Ceylon [Sarandib], which are the last of those islands.

 

1345. Gawz al-Habasah (Abyssinian walnut): it is the pagan walnut [gawz assirk], fruit of the size of the edible walnut,but with both sharp and somewhat elongated ends, like a small white asphodel root [hunta] , red to black in color, very pungent like ginger and even more, and a good smell. It is called galuka, and it is brought from Abyssinia, there being some of it in Barbara, but inferior.

(Note: according to Jamal BEITLAKHDAR in his Dr thesis this plant is the same as Gawz azzing)

 

1354. Gawz azzing (6) (Nut of the zing): is a fruit the size of the fulwi apple, something large, angular, shrinking when dry, inside which there is a small grain size of the Malabar cardamom [qaqullah sagirah] Round , fawn, more spicy than pepper, almost close to the taste of galanga and smelling good  It brings the (Great) Desert [Sahara], and if you drink the amount of a daniq (0.52gr), crushed in hot water it cures windy colic fixes the stomach and warms the limbs.

 

1406 Habb azzalam: it is said to be habb annasam, and it is said to be a greasy grain, euphoric, larger than a chickpea, tawny wild and white inside, of good taste, which comes to us from Barbara, and is known as pepper of blacks [fulful assudan], although the pepper of blacks [fulful assudan] is, in fact, something else.

 

2245 Zunbur (hornet tree): the genus of large trees, like a banner, such as Eastern bananas [dulb], with leaves that look and smell like walnut [gawz], and a small white flower [fusaro], full of red, and a fruit like the olive which, when ripe, goes sweet black, people like eating it as fresh dates [rujab], which stains the mouth. Lots of them have been planted in the gardens, and it occurs in mountains covered with trees, it is used for making your wooden utensils, bowls and saddles, it is not a plant of our country, but of the Zang land and Abyssinia.

 

3184 asmag………………..This gum, the one obtained from the gomero [umm gaylan], is also sometimes brought from Barbara, being called in Berber tifiza, and obtained of the gum acacia [qaraz] is called by the Berber taddut, being called in Rum language bqun and in Persian m.rgih.

 

3188 samg ammurr (myrrh) (myrrh gum-resin): it is of two kinds, one bright red, hard, called qumalis, and the other red to yellow, tender, disgusting, greasy, with a somewhat rancid odor, variety called lita and s.m.rna . Sometimes myrrh has something black and bad, with an odor like that of asparalate [darsisa.an], which is brought from India, and sometimes a resin-like substance is brought to Tripoli in Syria [ratinag], similar to that of the aubergines, which are adulterated with gum arabic, soaking it in myrrh water, and selling it as if it were myrrh.

Note; I mention this plant as the best myrrh is from Somalia (not from India).

 

3219 Sabir (thyme) .....Abundant in India Socotra Yemen and Oman, while they call it in Arab aniniya a kind of aloe, with leaves like the lily, but longer, wider and stronger, and its root is layered like an onion very bitter in taste. It also grows on the coasts of the Indian Ocean, on the islands of Assawahil (5) ...

 

4230 sugarcane….… and from the two sugar is extracted, and other one of a dark purple color, not so thick that it covers both palms of the hands, which is the worst of the varieties of sugarcane, and nothing is extracted from it (might have been bamboo). The best quality is growing in the country of Zang and Abyssinia.

 

4522………….It is also a kind of chufa (fulful as-sudan, lit. Black pepper), a plant whose leaves are like those of saffron, but wider, longer and harder, with depression, in the center of which there is a white streak that divides it from top to bottom; it has a root the size and shape of olive stones [zaytun], with an incision and a flat, reddish tip, of good flavor, which is used as a delicacy and is planted in orchards, calling it the common black pepper [ fulful as-sudan], although this is something else, in simple letters because this plant we are talking about is the chufas [habb azzalam], known as abyssinian sedge [sufda habasiyyah], for how much it occurs there spontaneously. It is brought to us from Barbary, and sometimes it has been planted among us and prospered. It has the virtue of being aphrodisiac and diuretic, fortifying the stomach and cleaning the bladder.

 

4544. Sag (3): is the type of large and very leafy trees, with leaves as shields of Daylam, a man can hide after only one, being sheltered from the rain; it smells like nuts [gawz], and formed as banana leaves [Mawz] elephants like to eat them, and grows in India, East Africa [Bilad Azzang] and Iraq only. The color of the wood is red like red sandalwood [sandal ahmar] and could be pulling a little to the black; its aroma is magnificent, the wood can be used in construction; its grains serve to forge musk [Misk], and most of the houses in Iraq and Baghdad have teak beams [SAG], according to Abu Hanifah (4).

 

(1) Only mentioned in this book.

(2) see my webpage on Ibn al-Wafid: Kitab al-Adwiya al-Mufrada (Book of simple medicines) (997-ca.1074)

(3) Ibn-Hawqal (970) is the first one to mention the teak-wood (Say) brought from Zanj to Shiraz for the construction of houses. 

(4) see my webpage on Abu Hanifa al Dinawari (d895)

(5) on the islands of Assawahil (literally meaning Coast): this might be the first but uncertain use of the word Sawahil for the East African coast and its islands.

(6) also mentioned by: Abu l-Khayr 1200; Ibn Sina 1037; Ibn Al-Baytar 1249; Al Ghafiqi 1165