Natura e ambiente nella prima tradizione lessicografica araba (VIII-XI sec.)

This paper examines Arabic lexicographical works from the eighth to eleventh centuries as primary sources for reconstructing conceptions of the natural world during the early Abbasid period. Although not explicitly environmental in focus, both monothematic and multi-thematic lexica contain lists of terms that reflect how philologists understood animals, plants, minerals, and weather conditions. Rooted in the linguistic traditions of the fuṣaḥāʾ and informed by Bedouin knowledge, these works also preserve earlier insights into what may be described as “Arabian ecology”. The study examines early treatises on specific natural categories and their later reuse in encyclopaedic compilations. Attention is given to how these texts represent social and material life in relation to the environment.