IBN AL BAITAR
(Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn Al Baitar Dhiya
Al Din Al Malaqi)
(Died 1248 AD)
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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 (Mala-ga) 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 travelled
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 (Constanti-nople), 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 Damaseus, 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.
--Editor in Chief
