Alboti$
Albotin/Albotim sic corrupte proferunt latini putantes quod .m. finale dictionis sit .i. et n. littere botin vero arabice est terebintus et sic scribitur in arabico ... {ﺑﻄﻢ /buṭm/, /buṭum/} cuius fructus est granum viride, et in illo capitulo de ipso loquitur {Avicenna}. Et gumi eius est terbentina quam sepe nominat glutinum albotim, aliquando vero reperitur alimbat quod idem est sed corrupte scriptum.
Apparatus:
Albotin B efj | albotin p {not rubricated; added on to previous entry Alblage | Albotĩ ACH
{quod} .m. AB efjp | M print C | I print H
dictionis | de…o͞nis? ms. e
sit AC fjp | sint H | fit B | sicut ms. e
i & n {littere} ABC fjp | .I. & .N. print H | I•m ms. e
botin (Bo- H) BH | botĩ AC f | botoni or bottom ms. e | batim p | b’atm or b‘atin j with Botm added in margin by different hand
arabice om. f
terebintus ej | | t’ebintus B | terebĩntus p | terrabĩtus (tera- AH) ACH | terbñtina f
scribitur B efjp | describitur ACH
{in arabico} mss. ep add empty space presumably to be filled in with Arabic writing | ms. j adds what could be very distorted Arabic characters.
fructus | fructex B
{loquitur} aui͡c {= Avicenna) add. f
gumi (gũi p) ABCH fp | gũmi ej
noĩat ACH ejp | nõinant B | noĩant f
{glutinum} albotim AC | albotin B fjp | albothin H | alboti ms. e
alimbat (alĩbat H) ABCH e | ali…bat j {’m’ or ‘n’?} | alũbat p | alhubat f
Translation:
Albotim {or Albotin?} - Latin speakers pronounce this word in such a corrupt manner that the word final ‘m’ is pronounced /i/ + /n/: botin. But in Arabic, where it means terebintus {“the terebinth tree”} it is written like this {missing: botm/botom, possibly also written in Arabic letters}. Its fruit is called granum viride {lit. “green drupe”}, and a description is given of it {by Avicenna?} in its pertinent chapter. And its gum is called terbentina which is often also called glutinum albotim {lit. “gum of the terebinth tree”}, but sometimes it is called alimbat, which is the same but spelt wrongly.
Commentary:
The Arabic lemma is ﺑﻄﻢ /buṭm/, /buṭum/ “terebinth (bot.)” (Wehr);
Siggel (1950: 20): ﺑﻄﻢ /buṭm/ Pistacia terebinthus (Anacardiac.) Terebinthe. {i.e. “terebinth”} - in Simon’s entry with article ﺍﻝ /al/ i.e. ﺍﻟﺒﻄﻢ /al- buṭ(u)m/.
Cf. also J.D. Latham (1972: 43), s.v. Albotim.
Simon comments on the insecurity found in the Latin literature concerning the ending of this word, i.e. whether it is Albotim or Albotin.
alimbat:
This is a ghost word that owes its origin to the misinterpretation of a name for 'terebinth resin': ﻋﻠﻚ ﺍﻻﻧﺒﺎﻁ /ʕilk al-anbāṭ/ lit. “gum of the Nabataeans”. Presumably the Arabs received this substance – a form of turpentine - at some time from or through the Nabataeans.
Obviously Gerard of Cremona, in whose translation of Avicenna’s Canon this word appears as gluten alimbat, interpreted the expression to mean “the resin {called} alimbat” and Simon simply accepted this misinterpretation.
Gluten alimbat was used by Gerard in the Canon’s chapter 314. De glutine {“On resin, gum”}, where it occurs three times, and furthermore he also uses gluten/viscum alimbat when listing the ingredients for alleviating burns etc. in chapter 620. De sulfure {“On Sulfur”}.
Concerning chapter 314 De glutine, in the Arabic original p. 229 headlined: ﻋﻠﻚ /ʕilk/ {“resin, gum, pitch”} [[1]], one finds ﻋﻠﻚ ﺍﻻﻧﺒﺎﻁ /ʕilk al-anbāṭ/ in all three cases, but concerning chapter 620, in the original Arabic p. 191 headlined ﻛﺒﺮﻳﺖ /kibrīt/ {“sulphur”} [[2]], Gerard used gluten/viscum alimbat to translate ﻋﻠﻚ ﺍﻻﻧﻄﻢ /ʕilk al-buṭm/ “resin of the terebinth tree”.
Simon has in fact two entries for the full expression ﻋﻠﻚ ﺍﻻﻧﺒﺎﻁ /ʕilk al-anbāṭ/, i.e. Elcalimbat, Helkalimbat , and in both cases he clearly states that this word means terbentina.
Entry Elcalimbat is interesting because there he again states, as he does in this entry, that alimbat is nothing but the ‘wrong spelling’ for albotim. Since he lists an unusual alternative vocalisation: Batim of this latter word - see entry Batim – he apparently sees in al-im-bat a metathesised al-bat-im.
Botanical identification:
Siggel and most other authors see ﺑﻄﻢ /buṭm/ as Pistacia terebinthus L. “terebinth” [[3]].
WilfGunther (talk) 20:31, 22 November 2015 (GMT)
See also Batim, Botin, Terebintus. Terbintina, Gluten albotin, Alimbat, Elcalimbat, Helkalimbat , Granum viride
