Rappresentazioni del regno vegetale nell’enciclopedia mamelucca Masālik al-abṣār di Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umarī (m. 1349)

This article aims at analyzing the representation of the plant kingdom in the Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār, an Arabic encyclopaedia written by one the leading scholar of the Mamluk period, Šihāb al-Dīn Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umarī (1301-1349). The first part of the article offers an insight into the work of al-‘Umarī by presenting it in the framework of the encyclopaedic activities that characterize the fourteenth century. It also analyzes a number of special features of the Masālik al-abṣār and provides a detailed presentation of all its contents. The second part focuses on the plants (al-nabāt) which al-‘Umarī discusses along with the animals (al-ḥayawān) and the minerals (al-ma‘ādin). In drafting his encyclopedia, al-‘Umarī used various sources, ranging from Greek authors, such as Dioscorides, to Ibn Sīnā’s Qānūn fī l-ṭibb, Ibn al-Bayṭār’s Ǧāmi‘ and al-Qazwīnī’s ‘Aǧā’ib al-maḫlūqāt. Al-‘Umarī provided a new organization of all the information previously known to botanists of his time. Hence, the plants are classified into three types, the trees (al-šaǧar), the herbs (al-a‘šāb) and the plants (al-nuǧūm), arranged alphabetically and distributed according to their region of provenance.