Ibn Bassal | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1050 C.E |
| Nationality | Andalusian |
| Known for | Botany, agronomy, horticulture and arboriculture. |
Ibn Bassal (Arabic:ابن بصال)[1] was an 11th-centuryAndalusianArab[2]botanist andagronomist inToledo andSeville,Spain who wrote abouthorticulture andarboriculture. He is best known for his book onagronomy, theDīwān al-filāha (An Anthology of Husbandry).
Ibn Bassal worked at theAbbasid court ofAl-Mutamid, for whom he created theHā’īṭ al-Sulṭān botanicalgarden inSeville. Originally from Toledo, Ibn Bassal moved to Seville afterAlfonso VI conquered Toledo in 1085.[3]
He travelled (on pilgrimage) to theHejaz, visiting Egypt, Sicily, Syria, and seemingly also countries from Abyssinia and Yemen to Iraq, Persia, and India. He returned with knowledge of the cultivation of cotton, and he may well have brought seeds and plants with him for the Toledo botanical garden.
His book, 'Kitāb al-Kasd wa 'l-bayān' is primarily abouthorticulture.[3] He is best known for his book onagronomy, theDīwān al-filāha. He also wrote the treatiseThe Classification of Soils, which divided soil fertility into ten classifications.[4][5][6]
Ibn Bassal'smagnum opus, his treatise on agronomy entitledDīwān al-filāḥa (ديوان الفلاحة)(An Anthology of Husbandry), was originally a copious manuscript that had been dedicated to his botanical garden of Al-Ma’mūn at Toledo. His seminal work was subsequently abridged, during the author's lifetime, and made into a single volume, styledKitāb al-qaṣd wa’l-bayān (The Book of Concision and Clarity). Although it had originally been compiled in Arabic, the work was later translated intoCastilian in the 13th century,[7] and many years later intoSpanish.[8]
Ibn Bassal's practical and systematic bookDīwān al-filāha lacks references to other agronomists, and appears to be a record of his own experience. In the book, he describes over 180 cultivated plants, including chickpeas, beans, rice, peas, flax, henbane, sesame, cotton, safflower, saffron, poppies, henna, artichoke; herbs and spices including cumin, caraway, fennel, anise, and coriander; vegetables requiring irrigation or plentiful watering such as cucumbers, melons, mandrake, watermelons, pumpkins and squash, eggplant, asparagus, caper, and colocynth; the root vegetables carrots, radish, garlic, onion, leek, parsnip, the Sudanese pepper, and the dye-yielding madder; leaf vegetables including cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, purslane, amaranth, and chard. He also covers arboriculture, detailing the propagation of the palm, olive, pomegranate, quince, apple, fig, pear, cherry, apricot, plum, peach, almond, walnut, hazelnut, grape, citron, orange, pistachio, pine, cypress, chestnut, holm-oak, deciduous oak, tree of paradise, arbutus, elm and ash.[6][9]
He describesmanure withstraw or sweeping mixed in asmudaf, implying that it is not composed of only one material (animal dung) but is a mixture. The sweepings from hot baths includedurine and human wastes, which Ibn Bassal describes as dry and salty, unsuitable for use asfertilizer unless mixed with other types of manure. Ibn Bassal gives two recipes for composting pigeon (hamam) and possibly donkey (himar) manure, though the translation is uncertain. Bassal says the excessive heat and moist qualities of pigeon dung works well for weaker and less hardy plants, especially those affected by cold temperatures. Human waste, on the other hand, Bassal advises using in hot temperatures because there is no heat to it. Pig dung, he cautions, will destroy pastures and poison plants, a view also shared by non-Arab writers likeColumella andCassianus Bassus.Compost made without manure is considered less desirable; Ibn Bassal calls this typemuwallid, made withherbage, straw and grass, ashes from ovens, and water. Some of Bassal's text was copied by the Yemeni writersAl-Malik al-Afḍal.[10]
Ibn Bassal's works were studied several centuries later by Abu Jafar Ahmad Ibn Luyūn al-Tujjbi (d.1349) ofAlmeria who based his treatiseKitāb Ibdā' al-malāha wa-inhā' al-rajāha fī usūl sinā'at al-filāha on Bassal's work.[11]
In the middle of the 12th century, two Arab authors in booksOn Agriculture considered the "culture of aromatic plants". One, Ibn Bassāl, was in charge of the botanical garden at Toledo and later at Seville;
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "Agriculture in Muslim civilisation : A Green Revolution in Pre-Modern Times "], MuslimHeritage.com
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