PLANTS IN AL-ANDALUS IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY

Abstract

As the title indicate, this paper is a list of plants which names were already registrated, in our Peninsula, in the eleventh century. For making this list, we have started from one Andalousian agricultural book entitled al-Muqni̔ fī l-filāḥa(Basic Knowledges for the agriculture), ascribed to the eleventh century Sevillian agronomist Ibn Ḥaŷŷāŷ. With each plant of this list we include a brief lexicological and semantic study, taking into acount the following points: origen and emigration of each plant; the Greek and Latin names of these plants; etymology of the Arabic words; most important synonymous; meanings of these names in al-Andalus; Spanish romance names for these Arabic words, and Arabic expressions from these plants names. We finish this paper with a brief conclusions about the importance of the Hispano-Arabic agricultural books for the Spanish botany history, and the present situation about the studies of these Andalousian agricultural treatises.