202 r Leigh N. Chipman
Other clues to al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar’s religious identity appear mainly in
the chapter on drug synonyms, of all places. In a work written in Arabic
characters and aimed principally at a non-Jewish audience, a few plants
are given names in Hebrew, as well as different Arabic names (in contrast
to one of the most famous works in this genre, Maimonides’ Sharh asma’
al- ̔uqqar,^26 which gives no Hebrew names). In this chapter, al-Kuhin
al- ̔Attar gives his readers interesting information about various plants,
sometimes in addition to a list of synonyms and sometimes instead of it.
One interesting anecdote, particularly in light of the author’s identity
as a Jew of the priestly caste (from which his title al-kuhin = ha-kohen
derives) appears in the entry for ̔ushar (Calotropis gigantea or Asclepias
gigantea):^27
Milkweed: this is the plant from which the sugar known as sukkar
al- ̔ushar^28 comes. It is a plant bearing fruit about the size of a pome-
granate, green on the outside and white on the inside. In it is a wool
softer than silk, from which the clothes of the priest who served in
the Temple used to be made. I have been told that it is unlucky in the
house, and I do not know the reason for this. It is reported that the
priest would use it for serving exalted God and was not permitted
to change it for another.This tale does not appear in any of the other sources used in this sec-
tion, while the secondary literature knows of ̔ushar only as a source of
sugar.^29 However, R. Sa ̔adya Gaon^30 in his Tafsir on Exodus 25:4 states
that ̔ushar is a kind of flax found only in Egypt , completely white and
not colored.^31 Indeed, the general consensus of Rabbanite tradition is
that the words shesh and bad appearing in the biblical descriptions of
the priestly garments refer to linen,^32 whereas the Karaite tradition is that
these garments were of silk.^33 Although the Karaites are also likely to have
accepted Sa ̔adya’s identification of ̔ushar, we suggest that the reference
to the priestly garments as being made of a kind of linen indicates that
al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar—for whom no biographical details survive—is more
likely to have been a Rabbanite Jew.
What then can we say of the relevance of their Jewish identity for our
two authors? In a discussion of the medical works of Maimonides, surely
someone whose Jewish identity was important to him in other intellectual
spheres, Lieber has pointed out that