Introduction

Abstract

For nearly two and a half millennia al Jazirat al’Arabiyah (the Island of the Arabs) has attracted botanists, naturalists and travellers from far and wide. Some were intrigued by the fertility and agricultural wealth of Arabia Felix in the southwest, others by the harshness and romance of Arabia Deserta, the relatively barren central desert. This interest in the Arabian Peninsula and its plants began as early as 420 BC, when frankincense was traded from southern Arabia to Egypt and through to Europe (Groom 1981). Later on, botanical observations were made by the Arab explorers of the 9^th to the 14^th centuries, noteworthy amongst them being ash Sharif al Idrisi (1100–1165/66 AD), Abbas Annabati (c. 1216 AD), Ibn Baithar (d. 1248 AD) and Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/69).

“Hence, a traveller should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief embellishment. Group masses of naked rock even in the wildest forms, and they may for a time afford a sublime spectacle, but they will soon grow monotonous. Paint them with bright and varied colours, they will become fantastic; clothe them with vegetation, they must form a decent, if not a most beautiful picture.”

From Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, Charles Darwin (1839)