1197- 1248 Ibn Al-Baitar

Ibn Al-Baitar(1197- 1248 C.E.)

Al-Baitar
Born	1197 Málaga
Died	1248 Damascus
Fields	Botanist, Scientist, Pharmacist,Physician
Known for	Scientific classification Oncology
Influences	Al-Ghafiqi, Maimonides
Influenced	Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, Amir Dowlat,Andrea Alpago[1]

Ibn al-Bayṭār al-Mālaqī, Ḍiyāʾ Al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdllāh Ibn Aḥmad (or just Ibn al-Baytar, Arabic: ابن البيطار‎)  (1197–1248) was a pharmacist, botanist, physician and scientist. His main contribution was to systematically record the additions made byIslamic physicians in the Middle Ages, which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity.^[1]

Biography

Born in the Andalusian city of Málaga at the end of the 12th century, he learned botany from the Málagan botanist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain.^[2] Al-Nabati was responsible for developing an early scientific method, introducing empirical and experimental techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous materia medica, and separating unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and observations. Such an approach was thus adopted by Ibn al-Baitar.^[3] (The statue depicted is in Benalmadena Costa and the inscription states that al-Baytar was born in Benalmadena).

In 1219, Ibn al-Baitar left Málaga to travel in the Islamic world to collect plants. He travelled from the northern coast of Africa as far as Anatolia. The major stations he visited include Bugia, Constantinople, Tunis, Tripoli, Barqa and Adalia.

After 1224, he entered the service of al-Kamil, an Ayyubid Sultan, and was appointed chief herbalist. In 1227 al-Kamil extended his domination to Damascus, 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. He died in Damascus in 1248.

Al-Baytar used the name "snow of China" (Arabic: ثلج الصين‎ thalj al-ṣīn) to describe saltpetre while writing about gunpowder.^[4][5]

Kitāb al-jāmiʿ li-mufradāt al-adwiya wa al-aghdhiya[edit]

Ibn al-Baitar’s largest and most widely read book is his Compendium on Simple Medicaments and Foods (Arabic: كتاب الجامع لمفردات الأدوية والأغذية‎).^[1] It is a pharmacopoeia(pharmaceutical encyclopedia) listing 1400 plants, foods, and drugs and their uses. It is organized alphabetically by the name of the useful plant or plant component or other substance -- a small minority of the items covered are not botanicals. For each item, Ibn al-Baitar makes one or two brief remarks himself and gives brief extracts from a handful of different earlier authors about the item. The bulk of the information is compiled from the earlier authors. The book contains references to 150 previous Arabic authors, as well as 20 previous Greek authors.^[6][7] One of the sources he quotes the most frequently is the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, and another is Book Two of the Canon of Medicine ofIbn Sina. Both of those sources have similarities in layout and subject matter with Ibn al-Baitar's own book, but Ibn al-Baitar's treatments are richer in detail, and a large minority of Ibn al-Baitar's useful plants or plant substances are not covered at all by Dioscorides or Ibn Sina. In modern printed edition, the book is more than 900 pages long. As well as in Arabic, it was published in full in translation in German and French in the 19th century.^[8]

Ibn al-Baitar provides detailed chemical information on the Rosewater and Orangewater production. He mentions: The scented Shurub (Syrup) was often extracted from flowers and rare leaves, by means of using hot oils and fat, they were later cooled in cinnamon oil. The oils used were also extracted from sesame and olives. Essential oil was produced by joining various retorts, the steam from these retorts condensed, combined and its scented droplets were used as perfume and mixed to produce the most costly medicines.

Kitāb al-mughnī fī al-adwiya al-mufrada[edit]

Ibn Al-Baitar’s second major work is Kitāb al-mughnī fī al-adwiya al-mufradaa, an encyclopedia of Islamic medicine which incorporates his knowledge of plants used extensively for the treatment of various ailments, including diseases related to the head, ear, eye, etc.^[6]

Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Baitar Dhiya al-Din alMalaqi 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 (Malaga) 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 (Constantinople), 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 Damascus, 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 encyclopaedia 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-Mufradais an encyclopaedia 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 characterised 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.