DiyÃÂþ al-Dën Abà « Muḥammad ÿAbd AllÃÂh ibn Aḥmad al-MÃÂlaqë, commonly known as Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr () (1197âÂÂ1248 AD) was an Andalusian Arab physician, botanist, pharmacist and scientist. His main contribution was to systematically record the additions made by Islamic physicians in the Middle Ages, which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity. He was a student of Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati.
Ibn al-Baitar was born in the city of Málaga in al-Andalus, Almohad Caliphate (now Province of Málaga, Spain) at the end of the twelfth century, hence his nisba "al-MÃÂlaqë". His name "Ibn al-Baitar" is Arabic for "son of the veterinarian", which was his father's profession. Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr learned botany from the Málagan botanist Abà « al-ÿAbbÃÂs al-NabÃÂtë with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain.
In 1219, Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr left Málaga, travelling to the coast of North Africa and as far as Anatolia, to collect plants. The major stations he visited include Marrakesh, Bugia, Constantinople, Tunis, Tripoli, Barqa and Antalya.
After 1224, he entered the service of the Ayyubid Sultan al-KÃÂmil and was appointed chief herbalist. In 1227 al-KÃÂmil extended his domination to Damascus (now Syria), and Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr accompanied him there, which provided him an opportunity to collect plants in Syria. His botanical researches extended over a vast area including Arabia and Palestine. He died in Damascus in 1248.
Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr used the name "snow of China" (in Arabic, thalj al-Ṣën) to describe saltpetre while writing about gunpowder.
Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr's largest and most widely read book is his Compendium on Simple Medicaments and Foods (). It is a pharmacopoeia (pharmaceutical encyclopedia) listing 1400 plants, foods, and drugs, and their uses. It is organized alphabetically by the name of the useful plant or plant component or other substanceâÂÂa small minority of the items covered are not botanicals. For each item, Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr makes one or two brief remarks himself and gives brief extracts from a handful of different earlier authors about the item. The bulk of the information is compiled from the earlier authors. The book contains references to 150 previous Arabic authors, as well as 20 previous Greek authors. One of the sources he quotes most frequently is the Materia Medica" of Dioscorides who was inspired by Magon, another Amazigh, having also written an Arabic commentary on the work. Another book often cited by him is Book Two of the Canon of Medicine of Ibn Sënà(Avicenna). Both of those sources have similarities in layout and subject matter with Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr's own book, but Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr's treatments are richer in detail, and a large minority of Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr's useful plants or plant substances are not covered at all by Dioscorides or Ibn SënÃÂ. In modern printed edition, the book is more than 900 pages long. As well as in Arabic, it was published in full in translation in German and French in the 19th century.
Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr provides detailed chemical information on the rosewater and orangewater production. He mentions: The scented shurub (syrup) was often extracted from flowers and rare leaves, by means of using hot oils and fat, they were later cooled in cinnamon oil. The oils used were also extracted from sesame and olives. Essential oil was produced by joining various retorts, the steam from these retorts condensed, combined and its scented droplets were used as perfume and mixed to produce the most costly medicines.
Ibn al-Bayá¹ÂÃÂr's second major work is KitÃÂb al-Mughnë fë al-Adwiya al-Mufrada, ÃÂêçè çÃÂàúÃÂàÃÂàçÃÂãïÃÂÃÂé çÃÂàÃÂñïé .an encyclopedia of Islamic medicine which incorporates his knowledge of plants used extensively for the treatment of various ailments, including diseases related to the head, ear, eye, etc.