The Filāḥah al-Nabaṭīyah contains agricultural and botanical
information and a wealth of facts concerning popular customs,
religion and magic. It is the most important of the works ascribed
to Ibn Waḥshīyah, an 'author' whose very existence has been
called into question. Whether real or fictional, Ibn Waḥshīyah
is famous as a transmitter of supposedly ancient Babylonian
writings. In the Filāḥah he claims that he translated the work
from the 'language of the Chaldees' (i.e. Syriac) into Arabic in
the year 904, but that the book was written thousands of years
before by a certain Babylonian, who drew on even older works.
Opinions differ on whether the Arabic really was translated from
the Syriac; some scholars favouring a Pahlavi (Middle Persian), or
a Greek original. This book was extremely popular in the Islamic
world, despite its pagan character.
Opening.
