The Filaha Texts Project is looking for a new spiritual and physical home. If any academic institution (or individual attached to an institution) is interested in taking on the 'ownership', management and development of the project, please contact the co-ordinator at sfitzwilliam-hall@goldenweb.org
Many thanks.
 

Dr Sabina Asins has kindly alerted me to the marvellous The Manuscript@CSIC portal which presents the digitized collections of manuscripts in Hebrew, Arabic and Aljamiado held in the network of CSIC libraries: 

http://manuscripta.bibliotecas.csic.es/inicio

It includes Ibn Luyun's Kitāb ibdāʼ al-malāḥa wa-inhāʼ al-raŷāḥa fī uṣūl ṣināʽat al-filāḥa preserved in the manuscript held by the Biblioteca de la Escuela de Estudios Árabes (C.S.I.C.) in Granada. It can be accessed here

http://aleph.csic.es/imagenes/mad01/0006_PMSC/html/001349506.html#page/1/mode/2up

Thank you CSIC!

The Bibliothèque Virtuelle de la Méditerranée has published digital images of a complete manuscript of 11 folios, referenced tia 12/4 from the Bibliothèque de manuscrits Lmuhub Ulahbib in Bejaïa, Algeria, catalogued as the Kitab Mukhtassar al-Filaha (‘The Concise Book of Farming’) of Abi Abd Allah Muhammad ben Ibrahim ben Basal living 476/1086:

http://data.manumed.org/notices/88403/gallery/471358

I can find no other mention of this abridgement of Ibn Baṣṣāl or to the ms. in question (it is not mentioned in Carabaza et al., 1991, nor in Ṣālihīyya 1984). Since the manuscript is available online and is relatively brief, it would be most useful if one of the Arabists among the Filaha Texts Network could provide the Arabic text and English translation, or at least, a synopsis of the work. Any takers?

Also published on the Bibliothèque Virtuelle de la Méditerranée site is the complete ms. (reference asn) of al-Ra'diya, seemingly in the almanac tradition, by ‘Abī al-Riğāl al-Andalusī (5th/11th C.) or Ibn Abi Rijal, Hassan Al-Andalusi,

http://data.manumed.org/eng/search/results/98256-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-al-Ra-diya-l%E2%80%99eclaire-.html  

and also

the ms. Tuhfat al-Fallah fima lahu min al-Falah attributed to Abi'l-hassan al-Sufi,

http://data.manumed.org/notices/88402/gallery/

The International Alliance for Terraced Landscapes (ITLA) is planning to hold its Second Conference on Terraced Landscapes in April or May 2013 in Peru. For further information see http://www.alpter.net/The-International-Alliance-for.html or contact TimmiTillmann@gmail.com

Unfortunately I don't have the Arabic text at hand but Ibn al-'Awwam does indeed describe in some detail a method of planting onion seedlings on ridges. He adds that, according to Ibn Bassal, this method is used by the Sicilians to good effect (Ibn al'Awwam, French translation by Clement-Mullet revised and corrected by Mohammed El Faiz, 2000, p. 657). The complete Arabic text of Ibn Bassal can be found on this site (under Texts & Translations) so you should be able to locate the reference.

From a quick perusal, no mention of Sicilian onions in Philip Lord's translation of selected passages.

The International Conference on Traditional Knowledge for Water Resources Management will be held on 21- 23 February 2012, in Yazd, Iran. Please review the conference website and kindly contribute to this event by submitting your paper proposals:
http://conference.icqhs.org/Index.php/tkwrm/2012

The History of Bilâd al-Shâm Committee of the University of Jordan will devote its next symposium in April 2012 to agronomy in the Middle East from the late Byzantine Period to the end of Ottoman rule. See attached pdf

A glossary of plant names from alqanoon fi'l tibb would make an excellent addition to this website. 

We only have information about four Arabic agricultural manuscripts held in Indian institutions (Salihiyya 1984):
in the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna: 2211 - Al-Ṭighnarī ?, and 2500 - Al-Ḥusaynī ?
in the Al-Maktabat al-aṣ-Ṣifiyya, Hyderabad (transferred to Central National Library):
2/1198, no. 145 --- Kibrīt al-Ḥusaynī ?, and 348 فلسفة --- Ibn Waḥshīya.

The source is unreliable and it would be very useful if someone with access to these Indian institutions could do some research on these or other mss.

Our knowledge of the location and identification of Arabic agronomical mss. is incomplete and often inaccurate (see map of holding institutions). If you have any first-hand experience of any particular mss. please let us know here.

We would like to add more glossaries of technical/botanical terms to the site. If you have compiled a relevant glossary of Arabic words we'd love to hear from you. In the first instance please contact me at sfitzwilliam-hall@goldenweb.org

Does anyone have any information on any of the following four Arab agricultural authors?

Ibn al-Husayn. Abu ‘Abdullah, Muḥammad b. al-Husayn. died 6th C. hijri / after 1301. Al-Mukhtār min mustaḥsan al-asfār.

Al-Ahdal. Ḥuṣayn bin Abī Qāsim bin Abī Bakr al-Ahdal. d. after 1084 AH. Kashf al-qinā‘  ‘an ma’rifat aḥkām al-zarrā‘, ‘Lifting of the veil of understanding of the rules of the farmer’.

At-Tujībī. Abu ‘Uthmān bin abī Ja’far at-Tujībī. 1177 hijri / 1763. Urjūza f’il filāḥa, ‘Poem on Husbandry’.

Al-Ḥasanī. Ali b. Ḥasan b. Muḥammad Ibn Khaz‘al al-Ḥasanī. Mukhtaṣar iẓhār al-malāḥa fī’l falāḥa. Possibly the same as ‘Alī bin Hasan bin Muḥammad al-Husaynī, author of Mukhtaṣar kitāb al-filāḥat li-ibn Waḥshiyya, ‘Summary of “Nabataean Agriculture”’.

Thanks.