Chinese Plants in the Persian Agricultural Manual <italic>Ā<underline>s</underline>ār va Aḥyāʾ</italic>, and a Discussion of Rashīd al-Dīn’s Chinese Knowledge and Agricultural Practice

Abstract

<p indent="0mm">The <italic>Ā<underline>s</underline>ār va Aḥyāʾ</italic> is a manual of agricultural production written in the early fourteenth century by the famous Iranian vizier and scholar Rashīd al-Dīn. Only chapter 6 to chapter 13 of the original work survive, dealing with agriculture and horticulture, and nearly a third of the pages of which are devoted to introducing Chinese plants and related knowledge. In addition to introducing botanical knowledge, the book also covered information on all the aspects of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), including the taxation system, monetary system, military system, economy and trade, manufacturing techniques, ethnic customs, food culture, and other fields, providing important materials for research on the dissemination of species, exchange of technologies, communication of ethnic groups, and integration of cultures between China and the world during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Rashīd al-Dīn, the book’s author, took advantage of his identities as a statesman and a businessman to collect rich information about plants all over the world. Motivated by his specific interest in Chinese culture, he included a huge amount of Chinese information in the book. Meanwhile, records in the <italic>Ā<underline>s</underline>ār va Aḥyāʾ</italic> reflect the author’s practice of researching, planting, and cultivating plants, making the book not only a compilation of agricultural knowledge, but also a report that recorded the author’s agricultural practice.