Images of the plant kingdom in the Mamluk encyclopedia Masālik al-abṣār by Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umarī (d. 1349)

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the representation of the plant kingdom in the Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār , an Arabic encyclopaedia written by one the leading scholar of the Mamluk period, Sihāb al-Dīn Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umarī (1301-1349). The first part of the article offers an insight into the work of al-‘Umarī by presenting it in the framework of the encyclopaedic activities that characterize the fourteenth century. It also analyzes a number of special features of the Masālik al-abṣār and provides a detailed presentation of all its contents. The second part focuses on the plants ( al-nabāt ) which al-‘Umarī discusses along with the animals ( al-ḥayawān ) and the minerals ( al-ma‘ādin ). In drafting his encyclopedia, al-‘Umarī used various sources, ranging from Greek authors, such as Dioscorides, to Ibn Sīnā’s Qānūn fī l-ṭibb, Ibn al-Bayṭār’s Ǧāmi‘ and al-Qazwīnī’s ‘Aǧā’ib al-maḫlūqāt . Al-‘Umarī provided a new organization of all the information previously known to botanists of his time. Hence, the plants are classified into three types, the trees ( al-saǧar ), the herbs ( al-a‘sāb ) and the plants ( al-nuǧūm ), arranged alphabetically and distributed according to their region of provenance.