Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
from being the most important of the
Arabo-Hispanic agronomists. His work is
essentially an extensive and useful compi-
lation of quotations from ancient writers
and from his Hispanic predecessors, Ibn
Baāl, Ibn a
¡¡
ā
¡
, Abu 'l-
‡
ayr and
ā
¡¡
al-
fi
arnāī. It is only occasionally
at the end of a chapter that he records his
own personal observations (introduced by
the word
Lī
“this is my own”), made in
the neighbourhood of Seville, especially in
the district of
·
araf.
Finally, towards the middle of the 8th/
14th century, a scholar of Almeria, Abū
U
º
mān Sad b. Abū
⁄
afar Amad Ibn
Luyūn al-Tu
¡
ībī (d. 750/1349) wrote
his
Kitāb Ibdā al-malāa wa-inhā al-ra
¡
āa
fī uūl ināat al- filāa
. The work of an
amateur, it is an abridgement in verse
(
ur
¡
ūza
), based essentially on Ibn Baāl
and al-i
∞
narī; but it also contains
certain valuable information which the
author recorded in the words of local
practitioners (
mimmā
ª
āfahahu bih ahl al-
ta
¡
riba wa 'l-imtiān
).
These treatises on
filāa
contain far
more than their titles would indicate;
in fact, they are true encyclopaedias of
rural economy, based on a plan closely
in line with that followed by Columella
in his
De re rustica
. Naturally, the essen-
tial feature is of course agronomy (
filāat
al-araīn
): the study of types of soil, water,
manure; field cultivation of cereals and
legumes; but arboriculture is also dealt
with at length (particularly vines, olives
and figs), with additional matter on prun-
ing, layering and grafting; and also horti-
culture and floriculture. Zootechny (
filāat
al-ayawānāt
) also takes a leading place:
the rearing of livestock, beasts of bur-
den, fowls and bees; veterinary practice
(
bayara
). All these fundamental questions
are completed by chapters on domestic
economy: farm management, the choice
of agricultural workers, storage of pro-
duce after harvest, etc. Some writers also
provide information on measurement of
land (
taksīr
) and the seasonal agricultural
calendar.
We may imagine that specialists of
many sorts were led to contribute to
such encyclopaedic works. To start with,
there were practitioners and professional
workers: farmers (
fallāūn
), fruit-growers
(
ª
a
¡¡
ārūn
), horticulturists (
¡
annānūn
); but
there were also “scientific workers”—
herbalists (
a
ªª
ābūn
), botanists (
nabātiyyūn
),
doctors interested in medicinal plants
(
mufradāt
) and dietetics; and there were also
pure theoreticians (
ukamā, mutakallimūn
).
On the other hand, Hispano-Arab trea-
tises on
filāa
were often the work of many-
sided writers (
mu
ª
ārikūn, mutafanninūn
).
Beside Ibn Baāl who was essentially
an agronomist, Ibn Wāfid was primarily
a doctor. Ibn a
¡¡
ā
¡
was described
by Ibn al-Awwām as
imām
and
¶
aīb.
Al-i
∞
narī and Ibn Luyūn are well-
known poets. Finally, the enigmatical
Seville botanist Ibn Abdūn could well be
the same as his contemporary Ibn Abdūn
of Seville, the author of a treatise on
isba
.
In this connexion one is reminded of Aris-
totle, both philosopher and naturalist and
creator of a botanical garden, and Virgil,
author of the
Georgics
.
The Hispano-Arab agronomists were
familiar with and made wide use of
ancient writers. A list of them (in which
the names are often inaccurate) will be
found at the beginning of the translation
edition of Ibn al-Awwām by Banqueri.
Among the Arab sources, they made
use of
Kitāb al-Nabāt
of the polygraph
al-Dīnawarī and, in particular, the
Filāa
nabaiyya
of Ibn Wa
ª
īyya, though for
the most part leaving out his farrago of
magic recipes. However, in this branch
of instruction they have not confined
themselves to repeating their precursors'
writings. They made their own personal
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