Abu Muhammad Abdallah
Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baitar Dhiya al-Din al-Malaqi was one of the greatest
scientists of Muslim Spain and was the greatest botanist and
pharmacist of the Middle Ages. He was born in the Spanish city of
Malaqa (Malaga) towards the end of the 12th century. He learned botany
from Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, a learned botanist, with whom he started
collecting plants in and around Spain. In 1219 he left Spain on a
plant-collecting expedition and traveled along the northern coast of
Africa as far as Asia Minor. The exact modes of his travel (whether by
land or sea) are not known, but the major stations he visited include
Bugia, Qastantunia (Constantinople), Tunis, Tripoli, Barqa and Adalia.
After 1224 he entered the service of al-Kamil, the Egyptian Governor,
and was appointed chief herbalist. In 1227 al-Kamil extended his
domination to Damascus, and Ibn al-Baitar accompanied him there which
provided him an opportunity to collect plants in Syria His researches
on plants extended over a vast area: including Arabia and Palestine,
which he either visited or managed to collect plants from stations
located there. He died in Damascus in 1248.
Ibn Baitar's major
contribution, Kitab al-Jami fi al-Adwiya al- Mufrada, is one of the
greatest botanical compilations dealing with medicinal plants in
Arabic. It enjoyed a high status among botanists up to the 16th
century and is a systematic work that embodies earlier works, with due
criticism, and adds a great part of original contribution. The
encyclopedia comprises some 1,400 different items, largely medicinal
plants and vegetables, of which about 200 plants were not known
earlier. The book refers to the work of some 150 authors mostly
Arabic, and it also quotes about 20 early Greek scientists. It was
translated into Latin and published in 1758.
His second monumental
treatise Kitab al-Mlughni fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrada is an encyclopedia
of medicine. The drugs are listed in accordance with their
therapeutical value. Thus, its 20 different chapters deal with the
plants bearing significance to diseases of head, ear, eye, etc. On
surgical issues he has frequently quoted the famous Muslim surgeon,
Abul Qasim Zahrawi. Besides Arabic, Baitar has given Greek and Latin
names of the plants, thus facilitating transfer of knowledge.
Ibn Baitar's
contributions are characterized by observation, analysis and
classification and have exerted a profound influence on Eastern as
well as Western botany and medicine. Though the Jami was
translated/published late in the western languages as mentioned above,
yet many scientists had earlier studied various parts of the book and
made several references to it.
