Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati

Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Mufarraj bin Ani al-Khalil (fl. c. 1200), better known as Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, Ibn al-Rumiya or al-Ashshab, (, Abu’l-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī), was an Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist and theologian from al-Andalus. He was a teacher of fellow Andalusian botanist Ibn al-Baitar.

Life Though often referred to by multiple nicknames, Nabati's birth name was Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Mufarrij bin Abdillah. Nabati was a descendant of freed slaves, and the nickname Ibn al-Rumiyah or "son of the Roman woman" was due to his mother's Byzantine Greek ethnicity, a fact which was said to cause Nabati a measure of embarrassment.

Born in Seville, Spain in 1166, He later returned to Seville and opened a pharmacy.

Nabati was also a theologian. Though he initially followed the Maliki school of Sunni Islam, Nabati later chose to switch to the Zahirite school, He died in 1240. Nabati's commentary was itself encyclopedic in nature, seeking to bring together the work of both Dioscorides and Ibn Juljul, along with preceding traditions and Nabati's own original contributions on plants in the Iberian peninsula.