Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the name
aba
mint was well-known to
the Arab botanists. They describe it as a
fragrant plant with an acrid taste, square-
sectioned stalk and leaves similar to those
of the willow. It often grows near water
and resembles the water-mint, called
nammām
. The Beduins considered it as a
means to check in both man and animal
the longing for coitus.
The Arabic nomenclature of the mint
is abundant, as was already the Greek
one, but it is rather confused, and so the
identification of the individual kinds is
made considerably difficult. Ibn ulul
of Cordoba equates the
καλαμίνθη
of
Dioscorides, which appears as
ālāminī
(and variants) in Stephanos-unayn, with
fūan
(see Anonymous, Nuruosmaniye
3589, fol. 99a-b) and knows the follow-
ing three kinds of it: (a)
fūan nahrī
, the
“river-mint”, also called
awmarān
, appar-
ently
Mentha aquatica
L.; (b)
fūan abalī
,
the “mountain-mint”, also called
nābua
(< Latin
nepeta
).
This simple basic pattern was com-
pleted and differentiated by later pharma-
cologists. For the river-mint there appear
the Arabic terms
nammām, aba al-mā
and
aba nahrī
, in Egypt
aba al-timsā
,
in Andalusia the Mozarabic
mantarātaruh
(
mastranto
, etc.); the last term indicates in
fact another kind, namely
Mentha rotun-
difolia
L. In the literature of translations
the river-mint probably corresponds
with
σισύμβριον
=
sisinbaryūn
(and vari-
ants). The mountain-mint is later mostly
equated with the “rocky” (
al-arī
) and
with the wild mint. In Mozarabic the wild
mint is called
bulāyuh, fulāyuh
(
poleo
< Latin
pulegium
, German
Polei
), and also
ubayrā
or
irmi
. To this should be added above
all the “cultivated mint” (
fūan bustānī
),
that is, the pepper-mint,
Mentha piperita
,
the
ἡδύοσμον
īdiyāsmun
of the literature of
translation, well-known and favoured as
nana
or
nunu
. Other kinds are also men-
tioned, which can be omitted here; they
are not at all to be connected with the
genus mint (like
fayal
), or only with some
restriction (like
ufayrā
).
As still today, mint had a many-sided
medicinal effect, above all from the
menthol contained in the volatile oil of
the leaves of the peppermint. For the
preparation of fragrant peppermint tea,
Ibn Waiyya recommends a method
which is based upon all kinds of supersti-
tious notions. The juice of the river-mint,
taken with honey, has a strong heating
and sweat-producing effect; taken with
water, it helps against shooting pains and
sciatica, promotes menstruation, drives off
the tape-worm and is useful against jaun-
dice since it opens up the sluggishness
of the liver. Mountain-mint dilutes thick
and stickly fluids which accumulate in the
breast or lungs, and secretes them. Pepper-
mint, taken with vinegar, does away with
nausea and vomiting and checks haemor-
rhages. On the specific effect of menthol
is based its use, common until now, for
diarrhoea, gripes, flatulence and, above
all, catarrh of the respiratory tubes.
(A. Dietrich)
Myrtle
Ās
is Arabic for the
Myrtus communis
L. (Myrtaceae), the well-known fragrant,
evergreen shrub, growing to over a man's
height. The term, derived from Akkadian
āsu
came into Arabic through Aramaic
āsā
; the Greek term
μυρσίνη
(
μύρτος
)
exists also as
marsīnī
(and variants). Occa-
sionally, myrtle is mentioned in the
adī
,
by the Arab botanists and in the verses
quoted by them, but the plant was mainly
used as medicine. Like Dioscorides, the
Arabs knew the black garden-myrtle (
al-
ās al-bustānī al-aswad
) and the white field-
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