Isa 520

Md. Wasim Aktar *

Department. of EAB. Chemicals, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India.

There was an acute shortage of water and vegetation in the desert of Arabia. People who live there need plants to feed their animals. They wandered in search of vegetation, and went wherever they could find. The importance of plants in their license to become an important theme in Arabic literature.
The study of plants has been primarily made from points of view of medicine and agriculture. The Arabs already knew the medical use of herbs and shrubs (wa Aqaqir Hasha€'ish). With the advent of Islam in the context of preaching jihad, or certain other purposes, they came into contact with other peoples, they have an interest not only in the names and uses of plants, but they have also become interested in their culture. Then they tried to understand the issues related to agriculture such as planting methods, fertilization, the right timing for planting and harvesting, and soil type. They made accurate observations on sexual differences between plants such as palm and hemp. The plants were classified into those that grow from cuttings, those that grow from seeds and those that grow spontaneously.
knowledge of ancient scientists "of applied botany and agriculture can be estimated by reading the accounts of gardens and plants grown in different parts of learned antiquity, especially those of Spain. In ancient times Spain was proverbial in this respect. The Arabs introduced irrigation and agricultural methods there, with the result that has been transformed into a garden.
Cotton, rice, sugarcane, asparagus, oranges, lemons and pomegranates were some of the plants and fruits brought from outside and grown in Spain. Thanks to this country, Europeans became aware of the culture of many plants they did not know before. The famous gardens of Persia, Spain and Morocco, with many p1anned arrangements of trees, shrubs and flowers, with their cultivated soils, streams and water fountains, built with an aesthetic sense, to establish harmony between architecture and vegetation sheds light on their interest in agriculture, gardening and love for flowers.
Since the Arabs do not know much about the art of agriculture, they turned to other peoples, including Romans, Nabataeans and the Persians to learn it. They have also translated their botanical works into Arabic.
There are many lexicographers, geographers, travelers and physicians who have written on plants. One of them was Abu Sa'id 'Abd al-Malik Ibn al-Quraib Asma'a. He was a native of Basra, Baghdad and came to the reign of Harun al-Rashid. Asma'a was born in 739 and died in 831. He is the author of several books on various subjects. One of them is on plants and trees. In the preface to this book the author has provided a general discussion on the plants. Firstly, he mentioned the different types of soils with different conditions as regards their capacity for culture and vegetation. Then he mentioned the trees, reflecting their different stages of development. After that, he classified the plants, giving examples for each class. Finally, he describes the plants that grow in the plains and deserts. He mentioned 230 plants in total. (1)
Another lexicographer and grammarian who wrote on plants was Ibn Ahmad Ibn Daud Wanandi, nicknamed al-Dinawar. He also called al-Ashsha£b (the herbalist). He was a journalist worthy of confidence, an expert botanist, astronomer and logician who has compiled a number of works on various subjects.
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