From Herbals to Walled Gardens

Chapter ten focuses on botanical thought of the Middle Ages in the Roman, Eastern and Islamic Empires when herbals devolved from practical field guides to decorative status symbols, and Dioscorides developed his classifications of sex in plants according to anthropomorphic criteria, such as hardness or softness. Dioscorides’ authority endured into the sixteenth century. Sources including The Book of Idols and the Ethiopian Book of Enoch inform the discussion of pre-Islamic vegetation goddesses Allat and Al-’Uzza, and the Satanic Verses. Zakariya Muhammad Qazwini suggested the palm was human-like, with two sexes and “a sort of copulation” required for fruit production. The Quranic story of Mary and the date palm reprised “The Cherry Tree Carol,” both evidencing her assimilation of pagan goddesses. After the Council of Ephesus’s sanction of the cult of the Virgin as Theotokos, her cult bourgeoned. Her imagery often centered on gardens, fruits, and flowers symbolizing her purity.