Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Mufarraj bin Ani al-Khalil, better known as Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, Ibn al-Rumiya or al-Ashshab, ( ar, أبو العباس النباتي, ''Abu’l-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī'') (c. 1200) was an Andalusian

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

, botanist, pharmacist and

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. He is noted for introducing the experimental

scientific method The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific ...

in the area of materia medica. His techniques such as separating verified and unverified reports led to the development of the field of pharmacology. He was a teacher of fellow Andalusian botanist

Ibn al-Baitar Diyāʾ al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Mālaqī, commonly known as Ibn al-Bayṭār () (1197–1248 AD) was an Andalusian Arab physician, botanist, pharmacist and scientist. His main contribution was to systematically record ...

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-Rumiyah or "son of the Roman woman" was due to his Byzantine Greek ethnicity, a fact which was said to cause Nabati a measure of embarrassment."Ibn al-Rumiyya." Taken from the Encyclopaedia of Islam, fascicules 5-6, pg. 396. Eds.

Clifford Edmund Bosworth Clifford Edmund Bosworth FBA (29 December 1928 – 28 February 2015) was an English historian and Orientalist, specialising in Arabic and Iranian studies. Life Bosworth was born on 29 December 1928 in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire (now ...

Bernard Lewis Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...

and Charles Pellat. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1982. Born in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 1166, Nabati traveled to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

while pursuing his education, eventually spending a period in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

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 Usepg. 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 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

: January 30th, 1999. Nabati was also a theologian. Though he initially followed the

Maliki The ( ar, مَالِكِي) school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century. The Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary ...

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

of Sunni Islam, Nabati later chose to switch to the

Zahiri The Ẓāhirī ( ar, ظاهري, otherwise transliterated as ''Dhāhirī'') ''madhhab'' or al-Ẓāhirīyyah ( ar, الظاهرية) is a Sunnī school of Islamic jurisprudence founded by Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī in the 9th century CE. It is chara ...

te school, being described as a "fanatical" adherent of the teachings of

Ibn Hazm Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم; also sometimes known as al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064Ibn Hazm. ' (Preface). Tr ...

. 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 Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of '' De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vo ...

which bore the title ''Materia Medica'' after the term. 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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

, 1996.

Citations

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abu al-Nabati Pharmacologists of Al-Andalus Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world Botanists of the medieval Islamic world Herbalists 12th-century scientists 12th-century Al-Andalus writers People from Seville Scholars of Al-Andalus 1166 births 1239 deaths 12th-century jurists 13th-century jurists

Life

Works

See also

Citations

References