Plants of the Quran: History & Culture
The Qur’an is one of the world’s foundational religious texts, a source of wisdom and spiritual guidance to the 1.8 billion adherents of Islam worldwide. It has been analyzed as a historical work of narrative art, an exemplar of classical Arabic poetry and prose, and a code of human morality, but one aspect of it has remained unexplored until the plants written about its pages.
Plants of the Qur’an is the first book to explore the plant life in this holy book. Looking at familiar flora like pomegranates, grapes, ginger, and garlic, Ghazanfar illuminates the contexts in which they’re mentioned in the Qur’ as food, medicine, beauty products, and even simple shade. She reframes the historical and cultural associations of the thirty plants featured most prominently, including citations of where the plant is mentioned in the Qur’an, detailed etymologies, and botanical descriptions. Additionally, each plant described is beautifully depicted in full-color botanical paintings by Sue Wickison, making this book also the first illustrated collection of Quranic plants. Ghazanfar and Wickison take us on a fascinating journey with these important Middle Eastern plants that is brought to life with vivid paintings, shining a new light on a literary pillar of world religion.