Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Mufarraj bin Ani al-Khalil (fl. c. 1200), better known as Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, Ibn al-Rumiya or al-Ashshab,"The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain", taken from Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari's Nafhut Tibb min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib wa Tarikh Lisan ad-Din Ibn al-Khatib. Translated by Pascual de Gayangos y Arce from copies in the British Museum, vol. 1, pg. 871. London: The Orientalist Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Sold by W. H. Allen Ltd and M. Duprat. (, Abu’l-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī), was an Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist and theologian from al-Andalus. He was a teacher of fellow Andalusian botanist Ibn al-Baitar.Emilia Calvo, "Ibn al-Baytar." Taken from the Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, pg. 404. Ed. H. Selin. New York: Springer Publishing, 1997. The Book of Medicinal and Nutritional Terms at the World Digital Library. Last updated: March 16, 2012. Accessed June 3, 2013.
Life Though often referred to by multiple nicknames, Nabati's birth name was Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Mufarrij bin Abdillah. Nabati was a descendant of freed slaves, and the nickname Ibn al-RumiyahToufic Fahd, "Botany and agriculture." Taken from Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Volume 3: Technology, Alchemy and Life Sciences, pg. 819. Ed. Roshdi Rasheed. London: Routledge, 1996. or "son of the Roman woman" was due to his mother's Byzantine Greek ethnicity, a fact which was said to cause Nabati a measure of embarrassment.
Born in Seville, Spain in 1166, Nabati traveled to North Africa, the Levant and Iraq while pursuing his education, eventually spending a period in Alexandria in 1216.Salahuddin Khuda Bukhsh, Studies: Indian and Islamic, pg. 180. London: Routledge, 2001. He later returned to Seville and opened a pharmacy.K.H. Batanouny, Wild Medicinal Plants in Egypt: An Inventory to Support Conservation and Sustainable Use, pg. 8. In collaboration with S Abou Tabl, M. Shabana and F. Soliman and support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (Egypt), International Union for Conservation of Nature. Cairo: January 30th, 1999.
Nabati was also a theologian. Though he initially followed the Maliki school of Sunni Islam, Nabati later chose to switch to the Zahirite school, being described as a "fanatical" adherent of the teachings of Ibn Hazm.Ignác Goldziher, The Zahiris: Their Doctrine and Their History, Brill Classics in Islam Volume 3, pg. 171. Brill Publishers: Boston, 2008 He died in 1240.
Works Upon his return to Spain, Nabati authored his famous work Botanical Journey, an early book on plant and herb species which he based on his observations around the world.
Nabati wrote a commentary on the book of Pedanius Dioscorides which bore the title Materia Medica after the term.Martijn Theodoor Houtsma, Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 5, pg. 527. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1993. Nabati's commentary was itself encyclopedic in nature, seeking to bring together the work of both Dioscorides and Ibn Juljul, along with preceding traditions and Nabati's own original contributions on plants in the Iberian peninsula.Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, volume 1: Astronomy, Theoretical and Applied, pg. 264. Ed. Roshdi Rasheed. London: Routledge, 1996.
See also Islamic science Islamic medicine Muslim Agricultural Revolution Islamic scholars
Citations
References