Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-28T08:27:13.648Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Picture of the World in al-Bīrūnī’s ‘Pharmacognosy’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

Gotthard Strohmaier
Gotthard Strohmaier*
Affiliation:
Wisbyer Str. 8, 10439 Berlin, Germany
*
E-mail: strohmaier-wiederanders@t-online.de
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In his huge ‘Pharmacognosy’ the universal scholar al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) equates, in 1116 paragraphs, about 4500 names of medicinal plants, and also foodstuffs, in 27 languages. Before the introduction of an internationally recognised botanical nomenclature this kind of literature served a practical need. Al-Bīrūnī’s work is now a mine of information for the linguist and also for world history. It testifies, for example, to the fact that the spoken Greek vernacular of the time had become already quite different from the classical language. Thus, the Byzantine emperors in their efforts to defend their state helped to conserve a cultivation of the humanities, which would have disappeared under Muslim rule. In the article on ‘capers’, al-Bīrūnī also offers a rare insight into a seemingly relaxed bit of small talk between Constantinus VII and an Arab ambassador.

Type
Focus: Pharmacy in Islam
Information
European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 241 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Vernet, J. (1999) Lo que Europa debe al Islam de España (Barcelona: El Acantilado), pp. 155–165.Google Scholar
2.Bulgakov, P. G. (1972) Zhizn’ i trudy Beruni (Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo ‘Fan’).Google Scholar
3.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 66.Google Scholar
4.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 50.Google Scholar
5.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), nos. 55 and 62.Google Scholar
6.Strohmaier, G. (2003) Hellas im Islam. Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Ikonographie, Wissenschaft und Religionsgeschichte (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), pp. 1–6.Google Scholar
7. Abu Raykhan Beruni (1973) Farmakognoziya v medicine, translated and commented upon by U. I. Karimov (Beruni, Izbrannye proizvedeniya, vol. iv) (Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo ‘Fan’).Google Scholar
8.Meyerhof, M. (ed. and transl.) (1932) Das Vorwort zur Drogenkunde des Bērūnī. In: Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin 3 (fasc. 3) (Berlin: Julius Springer).Google Scholar
9.Mohammed Said, H. (1973) Al-Biruni’s Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica (Introduction, Commentary and Evaluation by S.K. Hamarneh), 2 vols (Karachi: Rashid & Sons).Google Scholar
10.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 84.Google Scholar
11. A. Dietrich (1988) Dioscurides triumphans. Ein anonymer arabischer Kommentar (Ende 12. Jahrh. n. Chr.) zur Materia medica. (1. Teil: Arabischer Text; 2. Teil: Übersetzung und Kommentar) (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen. Philologisch-historische Klasse. Dritte Folge, nos. 172 and 173) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht).Google Scholar
12. J. Stannard (1971) Byzantine botanical lexicography. Episteme, 5, 168–187 (reprinted in: J. Stannard (1999) Pristina Medicamenta: Ancient and Medieval Botany, edited by K. E. Stannard and R. Kay (Aldershot, Variorum Collected Studies Series: CS646) VIII).Google Scholar
13.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 3.Google Scholar
14.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 2.Google Scholar
15.Ullmann, M. (1970) Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden, Cologne: Brill), p. 104.Google Scholar
16.Ullmann, M. (1970) Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden, Cologne: Brill), p. 105.Google Scholar
17.Strohmaier, G. (1992) The Indian and the Greek Elements in the Sciences of Muslim Spain. In: Strohmaier, G. (1996) Von Demokrit bis Dante. Die Bewahrung antiken Erbes in der arabischen Kultur (Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Olms), pp. 376–381.Google Scholar
18.von Grunebaum, G. E. (1963) Der Islam im Mittelalter (Zurich, Stuttgart: Artemis), pp. 51, 56, 461–462.Google Scholar
19.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 83.Google Scholar
20.Strohmaier, G. (2007) Al-Bīrūnī. In den Gärten der Wissenschaft, 3rd edn (Leipzig: Reclam), no. 85.Google Scholar
21. See the equivalents to pp. 28, 15 and 32, 2 in H. Diller (ed.) (1999) Hippokrates Über die Umwelt (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum I 1,2), 2nd edn (Berlin: Akademie Verlag) in my forthcoming edition in the ‘Corpus Medicorum Graecorum. Supplementum Orientale’.Google Scholar
22. Cf. N. Serikoff (1996) Rūmī and Yūnānī: towards the understanding of the Greek Language in the Medieval Muslim World. In K. Ciggaar et al. (eds) East and West in the Crusader States: Context – Contacts – Confrontations. Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in May 1993 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 75) (Leuven: Peeters), pp. 169–194.Google Scholar
23. Cf. Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles (1914) Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Cambridge, MA, and Leipzig: Charles Scribner’s Sons) (reprinted Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Olms, 1992).Google Scholar
24.Raykhan Beruni, Abu (1973) Farmakognoziya v medicine, translated and commented upon by U. I. Karimov (Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo ‘Fan’), no. 198.Google Scholar
25.Raykhan Beruni, Abu (1973) Farmakognoziya v medicine, translated and commented upon by U. I. Karimov (Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo ‘Fan’), no. 368.Google Scholar
26.Raykhan Beruni, Abu (1973) Farmakognoziya v medicine, translated and commented upon by U. I. Karimov (Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo ‘Fan’), no. 972.Google Scholar
27. César Emilio Dubler and Elias Terés (1952–1957) La ‘Materia Medica’ de Dioscórides. Transmisión medieval y renacentista, vol. 2: La versión árabe de la ‘Materia Medica’ de Dioscórides (texto, variantes y índices) (Tetuán, Barcelona).Google Scholar
28.Mohammed Said, H. (1973) Al-Biruni’s Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica (Karachi: Rashid & Sons), p. 27, 11, translation p. 18, cf. the note 57 on p. 57.Google Scholar
29.Levi Della Vida, G. (1954) La traduzione araba delle storie di Orosio. Al-Andalus, 19, 257–293.Google Scholar
30.Raykhan Beruni, A. (1973) Farmakognoziya v medicine, translated and commented upon by U. I. Karimov (Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo ‘Fan’), no. 880.Google Scholar
31.Strohmaier, G. (1991) ‘Umāra ibn , Constantine V, and the invention of the elixir. In: Strohmaier, G. (2003) Hellas im Islam. Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Ikonographie, Wissenschaft und Religionsgeschichte (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), pp. 147–148.Google Scholar
32.Schütt, H.-W. (2000) Auf der Suche nach dem Stein der Weisen. Die Geschichte der Alchemie (Munich: Beck), pp. 191–194.Google Scholar
33.Samsó, J. (1992) Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus (Madrid: Mapfre), pp. 128–129.Google Scholar