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Abd Al-Aziz Al-Sulami: Imtihan al-alibba li-kaffat al-atibba;
(The Experts Examination for All Physicians); Cairo (1208)
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Taken from: Questions and Answers for Physicians Questions and Answers for Physicians: A Medieval Arabic...
As for turmeric (a plant from the ginger family), it is called saffron; and ambergris (qindid) and by others Ethiopian turmeric, but it does not grow in Ethiopia at all. Instead it can fall (like rain from the sky) in China. It is imported from China to India and called Indian turmeric. It can also fall in Yemen. There are three kinds. The first falls in China and is imported to India. The second is Ethiopian and falls in Ethiopia and is imported to Mecca. The third is Yemini.
Note; this plant is from India and Indochina. Traders on the east African coast as well as in Yemen were bringing it as middlemen further to the Arabian countries.
How many kinds of bitumen are extracted from inside the earth? Answer: Eight kinds. This is recorded in the eleventh treatise of al-Tamimi al-Murshid. They are ambergris (anbar), sandarach, Persian pissaphalt, Maghribi pissaphalt, Jews bitumen, Iraqi tar, naphtha, and sulpher.
How many hot and dry medicines in the second degree does Ibn Wafid mention? Answer: Sixty-one��.. ebony��ambergris(anbar),aloe��.
