Agriculture Reference
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in which hemiplegia and fever were cured
by a scorpion sting.
Ibn al-Bayār mentions a
adaf al-bawāsīr
which, according to its name, was appro-
priate for the treatment of hemorrhoids; it
was indigenous to the Red Sea coast. Ibn
Hubal mentions a Babylonian and a Red
Sea snail (
adaf bābilī/ulzumī
).
In pharmaco-zoology, all varieties of
mussels and snails are grouped together
as
Limnaces
. Since Dioscurides, the burnt
shells of various land and sea snails, mus-
sels and oysters have been in use. Burned
with salt in a pan, the shells proved to be
a good dentifrice. With the ashes, ulcers
could be cleansed and the healing of
fresh wounds be quickened. The meat
of the trumpet snail is tasty and digest-
ible. Common mussels, when burned and
mixed with honey, soften swollen eye-lids,
remove obscuration of the pupils, etc.
( J. Hell*)
Mollusc
adaf
(A., sing.
adafa
) denotes two
classes of molluscs: 1. Mussels (
Lamel-
libranchiata
); 2. Snails (
Gastropoda
), both
including the mother-of-pearl. To the
edible mussels belong the oysters (
aūrū
<
ὄστρειον
) and, as a popular foodstuff,
the common mussel,
Mytilus edulis L., Gr.
μύακες
, which, from the ancient pharma-
cology of Dioscurides, came into the Ara-
bic pharmacopoeias as
miyāis
. The same
applies to the flat mussel,
Tellina planata
,
Gr.
τελλῖναι
, Ar.
dillīnas
. The juice of
mussels known as
χῆμαι
, Ar.
¶
īmī
(prob-
ably
Chana Lazarus
L.) is said to get the
digestion going.
Among the snails, the most important
are several varieties of the Murex species
of the family of the Purpura (
adaf furfūrā
or
adaf al-firfīr
, Gr.
πορφύρα
). The hypo-
branchial gland, situated in their mantle
cavity, secretes the costly purple dye. Ibn
⁄
ul
¡
ul relates that this snail is found in
the Algarve and near Algeciras, and that
only the Byzantine Emperor is entitled to
wear purple. The horny shells of various
water-snails, among which the Gr.
ὄνυξ
,
Ar.
ūnis
, are valued because of their
aroma; with regard to their claw-shaped
feet, they are also called
afār al-īb
“aro-
matic claws”. The interior of the Purpura
and of the trumpet-snail (
Tritonium nod-
iferum
L., Gr.
κήρυκες
, Ar.
adaf īrūkis
),
known as Gr.
κιόνια
, Ar.
kiyūniyā
, “col-
umella”, used to be burned for its etch-
ing power. The general term for snail in
Arabic is in general
alazūn
; in addition to
this, the
κοχλίας
of Dioscurides was taken
over as
ku
¶
liyās
and explained by way of
awan
, the usual term in Hispano-Arabic.
(A. Dietrich)
Anemone
·
aīat al- Numān
(Ar.) is the anem-
one. It flourishes in the lands around the
Mediterranean and in Asia Minor. The
Anemone coronoria L.
or the
Anemone horten-
sis L.
, Ranunculaceae, qualify as mother
plants. Both
ª
aīat
(
ª
aāi
)
al-numān
and the words
ª
aāi
and
numān
taken
separately are in general synonymous.
Other synonyms are
ª
air
, Persian
lāla
,
Berber
īkūk
, in Spanish Arabic
ababawar
< Castilian
hamapola < papaver
, Greek
ar
∞
āmūna
(=
ἀργεμῴνη
, the poppy, instead
of
ἀνεμῴνη
). So far a satisfactory explana-
tion of the name has not been given.
In medicine, the anemone at present
seems hardly to be used any more. In
the drug bazaar in Cairo, pulverised pet-
als of the anemone are sold as decoctions
against ailments of the eye. According to
the Arab authors, the anemone is above
all useful against skin diseases, and it dis-
solves ulcers and supports their ripening.
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