Abū al-Khayr al-Ishbīlī, who also had the kunya al-Shajjār, was a famous medieval agriculturist. Apart from the fact that he was born in Seville (Ishbīliyya), there is almost no biographical information on him. He is known to have been in contact with Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥajjāj, a writer and botanist from Seville, some time towards the end of the 5th/11th century, while he was conducting his field trips in the woods, orchards and farms of Aljarafe (al-Shara…