Holy botany : Plants of the Koran and the Bible
Regional, Religion, 2/4/2000

"I am a botanist who is fascinated with the flora of the Koran and the Bible and a scientists who loves the plants of Bilad al-Sham", US professor Dr. Lytton Musselman told ArabicNews.com on his objective behind choosing the theme Holy Botany: Plants of the Koran and the Bible as the research he presented at the American Cultural Center in Damascus on Sunday January 30.

Dr. Musselman said "I am working for many years, in Jordan with Muslim and Christian scholars in order to develop a course on religions' role in determining how we do think on the Environment," noting that his research will be completed by December this year. He added he is also commissioned by Queen Rania al-Abdullah of Jordan to work on a book "Jordan in bloom" motivated by the fact that Jordan is an Islamic country.

He said that since both the Bible and the Koran were born in the Middle East, so we can see correspondence. The culture was agrarian and agricultural one and that plants play a prominent role in the imagery of the these two holy books

Very often, he said, in the Koran, "food plants are often viewed as the gracious provisions of God." He explained that in the Bible, religious cult involves the use of prescribed plants and plan products , e .g , incense and anointing . In short, the imagery of plants in both books has a variety of meanings and applications. But the imagery are almost the same.

Dr. Musselman indicated a good example on that is the use of trees as figures of righteousness and stability. He said that this "Good tree / bad tree, good person / bad person" image is prominent in both the Koran and the Bible. He added that the Jordanian writer Pierre Bikai has written on the topic of the development of religion and its relationship to trees. He added that tree worship may sound like a practice restricted to the ancients but it is still possible to see trees in rural areas of Syria and Jordan decorates in honor to a dead person, i.e. a good person.

Dr. Musselman said the bible mentions about 120 plants and plants products, while the Koran gives mention to less than twenty. Most of the plants are familiar to us : barley, date palm, fig, garlic, grape ( or vine), olive, onion, pomegranate and wheat .

He said that in the bible we find many plants associated with the Mediterranean region while in the Koran these plants are mostly from other parts of the world into the local markets. For instance Ginger, like cinnamon, is thought to be native to southern India. Undoubtedly , it was brought to the Middle East by traders . Cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible in several places and it is clear that ginger is omitted

However, three fruits are mentioned in the Koran and have no existence in the Bible, They are Talh ( Banana) , Zaqqoom and the ginger. Musselman said that according to available data, bananas were first cultivated in the Mediterranean region about the time of the rise of Islam ( 650 A.D ). Before that, Alexander the Great has encountered bananas in his campaigns and brought knowledge of them back to eastern Europe. And thus, they arrive on the scene just in time to be included in the Koran.

Al-Zaqqoom ( the tree of hell) , according to the Koran has fruits like heads of the devils, based on the fact that it causes skin irritation in some people and is very toxic. Besides it grows in the desert of the port of Sudan ( eastern part of Sudan) .

Dr. Muselman indicated another interesting difference between the plants of the two holy books which is the manner in which the plants are used. He said that the most striking is the olive . In the Koran, the olive fruit is mentioned as condiment . Despite the many uses of olive oil in the bible for food, medicine, metal / wood perspective, soap and illumination- no mention is made of olives being eaten.

However, one of the scenes in Paradise in the Koran is characterized by choice fruits and fowls where the only greetings is "Peace." It is a place where the righteous will recline under the shade of thornless sidr (Lote) trees. This is in contrast to the sharp spines which are a feature of sidr trees in an early scene. Spines are borne in pairs with one sharply curved, the other straight. Both, however, are sharp, Dr. Musselman explained.

On some recent research on Bible plants, Dr. Musselman mentioned Tares, Darnel and Zawan. He added that two major grains, wheat and barley are mentioned often in the old and the new Testaments . Wheat was the preferred grain because it could be used to make yeast bread. Barley, on the other hand, lacks appreciable gluten so produced less desirable flat bread

In his debate Dr. Musselman indicated two names for Zawan: Lolium temulentum , and Cephalaria Syriaca. He said that Lolium species are related but differ in the size and shape of the grain. Lolium remotum is known as flax rye grass because the grains resemble the seeds of flax, noting I have seen no specimens of L. remotum from Bilad al-Sham.

Grains were also found at an archaeological location in Egypt and tentatively determined as L. temulentum.

He continued that a strong prospect for Zawan and another possibility for tares is Cephalaria Syriaca, noting that his paper deals with these two possible candidates for zawan and tares and is based on field research he made in Jordan and Syria from 1997-1999

He continued "at the threshing sites I visited , I found Cephalaria in the piles of wheat but not in the barley. Farmers are aware of C. syriaca ( as zawan) and told me that it occurs in wheat only not barley."

He said that Lolium temulentum was observed in wheat fields in the northern part of Syria, in the mountains east of Lattakia and at a threshing site near Quneitra. These areas have a higher rainfall than the wheat-growing region of Jordan.

On why there may be no Balm in Gilead, Dr. Musselman said that Balm of Gilead is an image familiar to Bible students even though it is mentioned in only two verses.

He noted that according to biblical account, Gilead is apparently the region from the middle of the Arnon Gorge ( Wadi Mujib) to Mount Hermon ( Jebel al-Sheikh) with the Jabbok River ( Zarqa River) being the middle of the territory. This included the domain of the Ammonites and the Amorites as well as the region known as Bashan.

Although a small area in terms of square kilometers , Gilead is diverse stretching from the margins of the Jordan valley and the peaks along the Rift Valley to the edge of the Badia ( steppe). In ancient times parts of Gilead were covered with forests. These forests were the southern-most extension of their kind, and the southern extreme of the range of the Aleppo pine. Today, only vestiges of these forests remain

A prime example is Dibben National park. At Dibbeen and scattered other remnants in the area, the forest is dominated by the Aleppo pine. This tree is familiar to anyone who has visited Jordan because it is widely planted . He noted that Cistus resin is fragrant and has been used for millennia to produce an incense. Even today, the resin can be harvested in a variety of ways, but it does not have any widespread use among modern Arabs. He continued that the resin is also used for medicine, as a balm that can reduce inflammation of the skin. He indicated that recent research on the bio-chemistry of the plant has shown the efficacy of compounds in the plant for dermatological disorders.

Dr. Musselman concluded his rich presentation which was illustrated by slides and won the great turnout of the crowded audiences at the American cultural center's auditorium questioned that what is certain is that the beautiful Cistus shrubs, perhaps the most likely candidate for the balm of Gilead, are much less frequent now then in previous years. This is due to the wide-spread destruction of the forest type that harbors them. To ensure that future generations of Jordanians, he said, can appreciate these attractive members of the indigenous flora, they need to be protected . He recommended that this can be done by preserving the forest in which they grow. Other wise, there will be no balm in Gilead.

Dr. Lytton Musselman who is a professor of biological sciences and director of the Herbarium at old Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia was a Fulbright Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Jordan Amman during the academic year 1998-1999.

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