Plants

In botany, Spanish Muslims made some great contributions. Some of them are even today known and identified as the greatest botanists of mediaeval times. These botanists were keen observers and were the first to discover sexual difference between plants. It was particularly common for them to roam about on sea-shores, mountains and in distant lands in their personal quest to locate and identify rare botanical herbs. As with other sciences, the Spanish Muslim botanists sought to classify their finds, separating them into plants that grew from seeds, those that grew from cuttings and those that grew of their own accord, for example, wild growth. Their advances went far beyond previous work by the Greeks. In fact Muslim botanists classified at least an additional 2,000 plants. Also out of this interest in botany came some of the finest botanical gardens in the world. Existing in locations as diverse as Cordova, Baghdad, Cairo and Fez, they were used for both teaching and experimental purposes. It is the Islamic gardens of Alhambra in Spain that remain, even to the present day, some of the finest gardens anywhere in the world.

The twelfth century Cordovan physician, al-Ghafiqi was a great botanist, who collected plants in both Spain and Africa, subsequently describing and classifying them remarkably accurately and precisely. In his descriptions, he gave each plant a name in Arabic, Latin and Berber!

Another botanist, Muhammad Ibn al-Awwan, who flourished at the end of 12 century in Seville was the author of an important work on botanical agriculture, entitled Kitab al-Filahah. The book described more than 585 plants and dealt with the cultivation of more than 50 fruit trees whilst also listing and describing numerous plant diseases alongside their suggested remedies. The book also presented new observations on the properties of soil and different types of manures.

Abdullah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baytar was another great botanist and pharmacist of Spain. In his search for plants and herbs he covered the entire Mediterranean strip, from Spain to Syria, in turn describing more than 1,400 medical drugs before comparing them with the records of more than 150 ancient and Arabian authors. This collection of drugs by him is the most outstanding botanical work to have been written in Arabic and was a truly encyclopaedic work on the subject. Having duly established himself, he then entered into the service of the Ayyubid king, al-Malik al-Kamil, as his chief herbalist in Cairo from where he travelled through Syria and Asia Minor, before dying in Damascus.

Numerous encyclopaedias were also written by various Arab and Persian botanists during this time, many of which contained sections on animals, plants and stones. The great advancement of botanical science in Islamic Spain therefore led to the development of agriculture on a grand scale. Some of the finest legacies of Islam can be found in the gardens of Spain to this day.