[Herbalist] medieval agriculture and islamic science

[Gaylin Walli]

I got the coolest book at auction and it just arrived in the mail.
"Medieval Agriculture and Islamic Science: The Almanac of  Yemeni
Sultan" by Daniel Martin Varisco. (1994: ISBN 0-295-97378-1). From
the front cover:

" This volume is the first critical edition of a medieval almanac
from the Arabian Peninsula. It presents the Arabic text, an English
translation, and a detailed analsysi of a thirtheenth-century
agricultural almanac (dated by internal evidence to A.H.
670-71/A.D.1271) compiled by the Yemeni sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf
'Umar ibn Yusuf, the third Sultan of the Rasulid dynasty (13th-15th
cent.). This almanac comprises one chapter of al-Ashraf's scientific
treatise _Kitab al-Tabsira fi'ilm al-nunjum_ (Instruction in the
science of astronomy and astrology)...." [note: my pardon for not
being able to type some of the special characters for some of those
words]

So what, pray tell, could we possibly learn from this? Without going
deep into rhetorical theory on the veracity or verisimilitude of
almanac texts in history and ethnography, my friends...plants. And
lots of them. Animals. And still more of those. Crops. Times of years
for plantings. Why chicken meat tastes the way it does and how you
can tell when it's going to rain based on how chickens are behaving
(Abbot Johan may be very interested in some of this now that I think
of it, I says to myself). As I start reading this, if I find some
truly interesting tidbits, I'm going to lob them across the bow here
and see what anyone thinks.

If anyone is interested in this book, let me know, and I'll bring it
to the next event we both are at and you can take a look at it. And
if anyone has read this book or possibly the Calendar of Cordova
almanac *please* seek me out. I'd love to talk about it. *happy dance*

Iasmin "I have a new toy" de Cordoba
iasmin at comcast.net