ECONOMIC BOTANY AND ETHNOBOTANY IN AL-ANDALUS (IBERIAN PENINSULA, 10TH-15TH CENTURIES), AN UNKNOWN HERITAGE OF MANKIND

The Hispano-Arabic culture in the Iberian Middle Ages is a major chapt er in the history of the use and knowledge of plants. The Andalusi agr onomists, botanists and physicians assimilated their heritage of Iberi an, Hispano-Roman, and Hispano-Visigothic cultures with North-African and Eastern influences. They developed a profound knowledge of the pla nt world and managed a high diversity of species. A part of this ethno botanical and agronomic heritage was transmitted not only to the local cultures and generations that followed, but also to peoples on the ot her side of the Atlantic Ocean by the Spanish colonists in the New Wor ld. This paper presents a study of the principal works of the so-calle d Andalusi Agronomic School (10-15th centuries) and their agronomist a uthors: Arib ben Said, Ibn Wafid, Ibn Hayyay, Abu l-Jayr, Ibn Bassal, al-Tignari, Ibn al-Awwam and Ibn Luyun. We also raise questions about Andalusi ethnobotany, the introduction of Oriental species in the Iber ian Peninsula and the prospects for ethnobotanical research through th e philological study of Hispano-Arabic writings.