Kitāb al-filāḥah كتاب الفلاحة Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad ابن العوام، يحيى بن محمد

Content

Comprehensive treatise on agriculture by the Andalusian agronomist Abū Zakariyā Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ishbīlī (أبو زكريا يحيى بن محمد بن أحمد الإشبيلي, fl. late 12th century?), known as Ibn al-ʻAwwām (ابن العوام).

The copy was made by an anonymous Spanish Arabist, reputedly from Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, Gayangos Collection, Ms. IX, which was previously part of the Escorial collections ('Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Kitāb al-filāḥa', The Filāḥa Texts Project, http://www.filaha.org/author_ibn_al_awwam.html).

The text is divided into a preface subdivided into sections (فصول), an introduction (مقدمة), thirty-five chapters (باب) numbered consecutively across two books (سفران) or parts (جزآن) only the second of which is announced with a heading. A list of the chapters with extensive titles and descriptions is given in the introduction (ff. 3v-7v):

• Preface (ff. 1r-3r);
• Introduction (مقدمة, ff. 3r-7v);

Book/Part One (السفر/الجزء الأول, chapters 1-16, ff. 8r-119r);

• Chapter One (الباب الأول, on soils, ff. 8r-24r);
• Chapter Two (الباب الثاني, manures, ff. 24r-33r);
• Chapter Three (الباب الثالث, waters, ff. 33r-37r);
• Chapter Four (الباب الرابع, garden planning, ff. 37r-37v);
• Chapter Five (الباب الخامس, establishing trees, ff. 37v-45v);
• Chapter Six (الباب السادس, planting, ff. 45v-50v);
• Chapter Seven (الباب السابع, names of species for cultivation in al-Andalus, ff. 50v-84v);
• Chapter Eight (الباب الثامن, grafting, ff. 84v-98r);
• Chapter Nine (الباب التاسع, pruning, ff. 98r-99r);
• Chapter Ten (الباب العاشر, tillage, ff. 99r-101v);
• Chapter Eleven (الباب الحادي عشر, applying manures, ff. 101v-102v);
• Chapter Twelve (الباب الثاني عشر, irrigation, ff. 102v-106r);
• Chapter Thirteen (الباب الثالث عشر, artificial pollination, ff. 106r-107r);
• Chapter Fourteen (الباب الرابع عشر, treatments for trees, ff. 107r-113r);
• Chapter Fifteen (الباب الخامس عشر, methods for improving quality of produce, ff. 113r-115v);
• Chapter Sixteen (الباب السادس عشر, storage and preservation of produce, ff. 115v-119r);

Book/Part Two (السفر/الجزء الثاني, chapters 17-35, ff. 119a-v-204r);

• Chapter Seventeen (الباب السابع عشر, tillage and land preparation, ff. 120r-121r);
• Chapter Eighteen (الباب الثامن عشر, grains and pulses that ameliorate soil, ff. 121r-123r);
• Chapter Nineteen (الباب التاسع عشر, cultivating grains, ff. 123r-125v);
• Chapter Twenty (الباب العشرون, cultivating rice, millet, sesame etc., ff. 125v-129r);
• Chapter Twenty-one (الباب الحادي والعشرون, cultivating fava beans, chickpeas, lupins etc., ff. 129r-131r);
• Chapter Twenty-two (الباب الثاني والعشرون, cultivating flax, hemp, cotton etc., ff. 131r-134v);
• Chapter Twenty-three (الباب الثالث والعشرون, establishing a kitchen garden, ff. 134v-139r);
• Chapter Twenty-four (الباب الرابع والعشرون, cultivating root crops, ff. 139r-143r);
• Chapter Twenty-five (الباب الخامس والعشرون, cultivating melons and gourds, ff. 143r-147r);
• Chapter Twenty-six (الباب السادس والعشرون, cultivating culinary and medicinal spices, ff. 147r-148v);
• Chapter Twenty-seven (الباب السابع والعشرون, cultivating aromatic plants, ff. 148v-151v);
• Chapter Twenty-eight (الباب الثامن والعشرون, cultivating garden plants, ff. 151v-154v);
• Chapter Twenty-nine (الباب التاسع والعشرون, harvesting, ff. 154v-161r);
• Chapter Thirty (الباب الثلاثون, miscellaneous, ff. 161r-169v; diagram of tiller on f. 169v);
• Chapter Thirty-one (الباب الحادي والثلاثون, livestock, ff. 169v-172r);
• Chapter Thirty-two (الباب الثاني والثلاثون, beasts of burden, ff. 172r-182v);
• Chapter Thirty-three (الباب الثالث والثلاثون, equine medicine, ff. 182v-199r);
• Chapter Thirty-four (الباب الرابع والثلاثون, poultry, pigeons and bees, ff. 199r-204r);
• Chapter Thirty-five (الباب الخامس والثلاثون, dogs; announced in introduction but not found in manuscript).

Begins (f. 1r, lines 3-6):

قال مؤلفه الشيخ الفاضل أبو زكريا يحيى ابن محمد بن أحمد بن

العوام عفي الله عنه الحمد لله رب العالمين وصلى الله على

النبي محمد خاتم النبيين وعلى آله وصحبه الطيبين وسلم

تسليمًا أما بعد فإني لما قرأت من كتب الفلاحة المسلمين

Ends (f. 204r, lines 38-42):

...ثم (!) السفر الثاني من كتاب

الفلاحة في الأرضين والحيوان مما علي بجمعة من كتب الفلاحين و

الحكماء المتقدمين يحيى بن أحمد بن محمد بن العوام

الإشبيلي عفا الله عنه

وحمه (!) آمين

Extent and format

Codex A collection of pages, usually gathered into quires, and bound between covers. ; ff. ii+205+iv

Physical characteristics

Material: Western laid paper

Dimensions: 305 x 210 mm leaf [285 x 165 mm written]

Foliation: Western Arabic historic pagination in brown ink; British Museum foliation in pencil; unfoliated leaf between ff. 119 and 120 now foliated as 119a

Ruling: No ruling visible; ca 34-52 lines per page; vertical spacing ca 12-15 lines per 10 cm

Script: Naskh ; more than one scribal hand is visible (changes of hand at, e.g., ff. 71r and 87r)

Ink: Brown

Decoration: None

Binding: British Museum half leather binding

Condition: Waterstains (ff. 187-204)

Marginalia: Very few by hand of main scribe

Seals: British Museum stamp ff. 1r, 16r, 35r, 79, 114r, 136r, 155r, 178r, and 204v

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Add MS 10461

History of this record

Date(s)

18th century (CE, Gregorian)

Context of creation

Spain (Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial?)

Provenance

• Spanish note, cancelled (f. 204v)
• Note dated March 1829 naming a previous holding library (f. iii-v [first end flyleaf])
• Acquisition note: 'Bot. (?) from Rodd 1836 (f. iii-v [first end flyleaf])
• Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector: former owner; volume sold at Sotheby's, Heber sale, lot 670 (1836) (f. vi-v [second end flyleaf])
• Spanish note without name or date stating that a copy of this manuscript made by the annotator's father is thought to be in the Real Biblioteca de S. Magd[alena] (f. vi-v [second end flyleaf])

Immediate source of acquisition

Purchased from Thomas Rodd, April 1836

Related material

Finding aids

Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), Item 998, p. 462

Select Bibliography

Editions and Spanish translations:

• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, Kitāb al-Filāḥah muʼallifuhu al-shaykh al-fāḍil Abū Zakariyā Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-ʻAwwām Ishbīlī. Libro de Agricultura su Autor el Doctor Excelente Abu Zacaria Iahia Aben Mohamed Ben Ahmed Ebn el Awam, Sevillano , 2 vols. edited and translated by Josef Antonio Banqueri (Madrid: La Imprenta Real, 1802)
• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, Libro de agricultura , revision of the Spanish translation of Josef Antonio Banqueri by Claudio Boutelou (Sevilla: Administration de la Biblioteca científico-literaria, 1878)
• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, Libro de agricultura , edited and translated by J. A. Banqueri, 2 vols., facsimile of 1802 edition with preliminary study and notes by E. García Sánchez and J. E. Hernández Bermejo (Madrid: Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación and Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, 1988)

Edition and French translation:

• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, Kitāb al-Filāḥah ou Le livre de la culture , Bibliothèque arabe-française vol. 5, Edited by Henri Pérès and translated by Auguste Cherbonneau (Algiers: [s.n.], 1946)

French translations:

• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, Kitāb al-Filāḥah, Le livre de l’agriculture , translated by Jean Jacques Clément-Mullet, 2 vols (Paris: Librairie A. Franck, 1864-7)
• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, Le livre de l’agriculture , translated by Jean Jacques Clément-Mullet, new edition with introduction by M. El Faïz (Arles: Actes Sud - Paris: Sindbad, 2000)

Partial English translation:

• Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad, A Moorish Calendar: from the Book of Agriculture of Ibn al-Awam , translated by Peter Lord (Wantage: The Black Swan Press, 1979)

Studies:

• 'Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Kitāb al-filāḥa', The Filāḥa Texts Project, http://www.filaha.org/author_ibn_al_awwam.html (accessed 16 December 2021)
• Ullmann, Manfred, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 447-48

Subjects

Agriculture--Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-ʻAwwām

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Kitāb al-filāḥah كتاب الفلاحة Ibn al-ʻAwwām, Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad ابن العوام، يحيى بن محمد, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Add MS 10461, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000042.0x0003d4> [accessed 5 June 2026]

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