The Science of Agriculture

This craft is a branch of physics.

It concerns the study of the cultivation and growth of plants through:

• irrigation
• proper treatment
• improvement of the soil 734
• observance of the suitable season
• the care for plants by applying these things

The ancients were very much concerned with agriculture. Their study of agriculture was general.

They considered the plants 2 points of view:

1. Planting and cultivation
2. Their properties, spirituality, and the relationship of their spirituality to the spiritualities of the stars and the heavenly bodies, which is also used in sorcery.

One of the Greek works about agriculture, the Kitab al-Falahah anNabatiyah from Nabataean scholars, 735 was translated.

The Muslims who studied it noticed that it belonged to sorcery, wich is forbidden.

So they restricted themselves to the part of the book dealing with plants from the point of view of their planting and treatment.

They completely banished all discussion of the other part of the book.

Ibn al-‘Awwam 736 abridged the Kitab al-Falahah an-Nabatiyah.

The other part of it remained neglected.

Some of the main problems of that other part were transmitted by Maslamah in his magical works.

There are many books on agriculture by recent scholars.

They do not go beyond discussion of the planting and treatment of plants, their preservation from things that might harm them or affect their growth, and all the things connected with that.