Medieval agriculture and Islamic science

This volume is the first critical edition of a medieval almanac from the Arabian Peninsula. It presents the Arabic text, an English translation, and a detailed analysis of a thirteenth-century agricultural almanac (dated by internal evidence to A.H. 670-71/A.D. 1271) compiled by the Yemeni sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Umar ibn Yusuf, the third sultan of the Rasulid dynasty (13th-15th cent.). This almanac comprises one chapter of al-Ashraf's scientific treatise Kitab al-Tabsira fi ilm al-nujum (Instruction in the science of astronomy and astrology). Al-Ashraf's is the earliest and most detailed of eight extant Rasulid almanacs. . The almanac as a literary and scientific genre in Arab tradition has received little scholarly attention, although hundreds of manuscripts exist. This study of almanac information draws the reader across the arbitrary boundaries of disciplines into the full array of medieval science and esoterica. Al-Ashraf's almanac contains information on astronomy, astrology, time-keeping, meteorology, plants and animals, agriculture (including tax periods), health, and navigation not only for Yemen but for other parts of the medieval world as well. It is the earliest sourc