oa IBN Al Baitar (Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn A1 Baitar Dhiya A1 Din A1 Malaqi) (Died 1248 AD)

Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Ahmad Ibn A1 Baitar Dhiya A1 Din A1 Malaqi was one of the greatest scientists of Muslim Spain and was the greatest bota-nist and pharmacist of the Middle Ages. He was born in the Spanish city of Malaqa (Mala-ga) towards the end of the 12th century. He learned botany from Abu A1 Abbas A1 Nabati, a learned botanist, with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain. In 1219 he left Spain on a plant-collecting ex-pedition and travelled along the northern coast of Africa as far as Asia Minor. The exact modes of his travel (whether by land or sea) are not known, but the ma-jor stations he visited include Bugia, Qastantunia (Constanti-nople), Tunis, Tripoli, Barqa and Adalia. After 1224, he entered the service of al-Kamil, the Egyptian Governor, and was appointed chief herbalist. In 1227 A1 Kamil ex-tended his domination to Damaseus, and Ibn A1 Baitar accompanied him there which provided him an opportu-nity to collect plants in Syria His researches on plants ex-tended over a vast area: including Arabia and Palestine, which he either visited or managed to collect plants from stations located there. He died in Damascus in 1248.