Ghāfiqī's Jāmiʿ and the Science of Botany

Ghāfiqī (6th/12th century) is an Andalusian botanist whose al-Jāmiʿ fī al-Adwiya al-Mufrada is one of the principal pillars of the science of botany in Andalusia and one of the most important sources for knowing and reconstructing the past history of this science. This book ows much to earlier botanical works, especially al-Nabāt of Dīnawarī and al-Qānūn of Ibn Sīnā. In this paper, first the most famous manuscripts of this book introduce are introduced. Then on the basis of the Malik manuscript the things cited by Ghāfiqī from earlier and contemporary works are discussed, and thus the eminent role of this book in preserving the past heritage is underlined. Then the book is analysed on the basis of modern botanical science. Ghāfiqī’s method in botany consists of empirical observation, exact recording of these data and comparing them with each other. By this method, classes, babitats, plant geography and morphology of plants are characterized. Mentioning the names of the plants in Andalusian, Barbar, Greek, Syriac and even Persian is another salient point of this book.