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Treaty of agriculture of Ibn Luyūn
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Didactic treatise in verse on agricultural techniques used in al-Andalus.

The complete title in Arab is: Kitāb ibdā’ al-malāha wa-inhā’ al-raŷāha fī usūl sinā`at al-filāha or Book of the ostentation of the beauty and the culmination of intelligence, about the foundations of the art of agriculture, although it is sufficiently known like Treaty of agriculture of Ibn Luyūn. Its author, the native of Almería Sa’ d b. Ahmad Ibn Luyūn (n. 1282/m. 1349) . Only 3 late copies are conserved, none of which, except for this one, gathers valuable marginal notes of the original.

It is the last agricultural treatise known in al-Andalus, which closes the fecund and rich production of the Andalusí agronomical school [J. Lirola and E. García Sánchez, 2004].

Its importance relies on the existence of 352 marginal notes -probably of the author- complementing the text with biographical and bibliographical data not included in other repertoires, precisions on concepts or techniques superficially treated in the main text, theories of outstanding earlier agronomists, references to geographical names and vegetal varieties of al-Andalus, etc.


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