al-Filāḥah al-Nabaṭīyah

"The Nabatean agriculture is a treatise of agronomy written in the III-IVth century of our era in Syriac (Aramean) by Qûtâmä, and translated into Arabic at the beginning of the Xth century by Ibn Waḥšiyah (Ibn Wahshîya). The translation was achieved in 904 and dictated to a cop[y]ist in 930, a date at which the translator was dead ; the cop[y]ist finished his work on the basis of the translator's manuscripts. This book suffered an eventful, and even scandalous fate, which leaves us puzzled about the way we consider our heritage. Scholars have long disagreed about the writing date of the original work in Syriac (nowadays lost) : XIIIth BC. for Chwolson, VIIth BC. for Quatremère, Xth AD. for von Gutschmid, Nöldeke and Brockelman. Finally, the opinion of Renan, III-IVth AD., is now making consensus. During all the Middle-Ages, the Nabatean agriculture was perceived as an esoteric and magical treatise, and as such a witness of pagan 'idolatry', by both Muslims and Jews (including Maimonides). This idea was later adopted by European orientalists in the XIXth century, and as a consequence it was neither the object of a critical edition or of a translation. In spite of that, Leclerc wrote