Iran: A page from ‘The Book of Medicinal Herbs,’ published in Isfahan, Persia, in 1658. The vines in the picture are black pepper (above) and water pepper (below).

‘The Book of Medicinal Herbs’ or ‘Kitab al-Hasha’ish’, is a 10th-century Arabic manuscript containing nearly 500 illustrations and texts relating to botanical plants and their healing properties. It was probably based on the ancient ‘Materia Medica’, published by Greek physician Dioscorides in the 1st century CE. This 17th-century version is a Persian translation of the original written in the 10th century by Ishaq ibn Hunayn.

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Provider: Pictures From History