His main contribution was to systematically record the additions made by Islamic physicians in the Middle Ages, which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity.

[3] Ibn al-Baitar was born in the city of Málaga in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) at the end of the twelfth century, hence his nisba "al-Mālaqī".

[4][5] Ibn al-Bayṭār learned botany from the Málagan botanist Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Nabātī with whom he started collecting plants in and around Spain.

[7][8] Ibn al-Bayṭār’s largest and most widely read book is his Compendium on Simple Medicaments and Foods (Arabic: كتاب الجامع لمفردات الأدوية والأغذية).

[9][10] One of the sources he quotes most frequently is the Materia Medica of Dioscorides who was inspired by Magon, another Amazigh, having also written an Arabic commentary on the work.

Ibn al-Bayṭār’s second major work is Kitāb al-Mughnī fī al-Adwiya al-Mufrada, كتاب المغني في الأدوية المفردة .an encyclopedia of Islamic medicine which incorporates his knowledge of plants used extensively for the treatment of various ailments, including diseases related to the head, ear, eye, etc.