', ' As stated by the editors, and as a first stage of a wider enterprise, this reference work seeks to analyse and systematize the vast intellectual production of al-Andalus by means of an alphabetic catalogue and study of virtually all those authors who left a trace in the sources; that is, more than 1600 authors and more than 10.000 works covering the most varied fields of knowledge. Students and the general public seeking to approach a particular author, work, or aspect from al-Andalus will find a wealth of information and a most complete bibliography. Researchers and specialized scholars will meet with a doubly indispensable tool containing, on the one hand, a detailed biography based on a number of new available sources, often written by a specialist in the Andalusi author described; on the other, as the Biblioteca de al-Andalus draws on works such as those by F. Sezgin and C. Brockelmann —or M. Ullmann, in the case of medicine and allied sciences— researchers and specialists will also find here a thorough and up-to-date report of all the works attributed to a given author, the description of the preserved ones, the list of extant manuscripts, bibliography for each title (sources as well as secondary literature), and a well-balanced discussion regarding the “state-of-the-art” when appropriate. Additionally, lesser known Andalusi authors have been incorporated, even if they are only shadowy figures vaguely quoted in disparate sources. The full commitment and strong scholarly background of J. Lirola and J.M. Puerta Vílchez (originators of the idea and directors of the project) means that volumes appear at a good pace, so that the whole work will hopefully be available in four or five years, which, in comparison with the second English edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is splendid news.\r\n
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Obviously, it is not usual policy to start an encyclopaedia with the third volume as in this case. The Biblioteca de al-Andalus has had its particular history in which not only the complex coordination of a large number of contributors was involved. Originating with another title and publisher, its development was halted after the publication of the first volume in 2002, reviewed by M. Marín in Suhayl 4. Only two years later, the project reappeared with its aims strengthened, its contents improved, and its physical aspect renovated. The bio-bibliographical studies have been revised and often expanded, and a number of new Andalusi authors have been incorporated, as well as illustrative texts, maps, plates, and genealogical trees. In general, with regard to the disciplines developed by a given author, well-balanced information is to be found within each biography, since the directors have done their best to commission particular sections of each entry to specialized scholars. This reference work, a true encyclopaedia in its own right, will also be helpful to avoid the confusion amongst figures of similar names or amongst members of long-standing  families, since specific entries have been devoted to each person and the onomastic chain carefully noted. Multiple indexes (of biographies, of authors’ nisba, nasab, laqab, and shuhra, of places, work titles, subject-matter, genealogical trees, illustrations, and even of contributors) facilitates the location of entries in each volume. \r\n
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Many entries constitute virtual monographs on Andalusi authors who, even if known and studied for many years, have seldom deserved such a systematic and comprehensive bio-bibliographical approach in any reference work. This is particularly important with regard to Andalusi science and medicine, since works such as the Dictionary of Scientific Biography (ed. by Ch. C. Gillispie, 10 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981), the Medieval Science, Technology and Medicine: An Encyclopaedia, (ed. by T. Glick, F. Wallis, S. Livesey.  London and New York: Routledge, 2005), or the forthcoming Dictionary of Medical Biography (ed. by W.F. and H. Bynum in 5 vols.), however useful, do not include as many Andalusi scientists, and its bio-bibliographical studies are not as exhaustive as in the work under discussion. This aspect becomes evident when we look at the number and names of the Andalusi scholars who specialized in -or wrote treatises on- scientific matters (medicine, pharmacology, dietetics, astronomy, astrology, mathemathics, arithmetic, veterinary, medicine, etc…). In the third volume, they are the following: Abu Muhammad Ibn al-Dahabi,  Abu Bakr Ibn al-Farra’, Ahmad b. Faris al-Munajjim, Abu l-Walid Ibn al-Fath, Abu Ishaq b. Fattuh, Manahim b. al-Fawwal, ‘Abbas b. Firnas, Ibn Galinduh, Marwan b. Gazwan, ‘Abd al-Malik b. Habib, Abu l-Taqi b. Hadram, Ibn al-Ha’im, Ibn al-Hannat, Ishaq b. al-Hasan al-Zayyat, Abu l-Fadl b. Hasday al-Saraqusti, Abu Ja‘far Ibn Hasday, Abu l-‘Ala’ Ibn Hassan al-Quda‘i, Abu Ja‘far Ibn Hassan al-Quda‘i, ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn al-Haytham, al-Husayn b. Hajj, Yahyà b. al-Hajj al-Ma‘afiri, Ibn Hajjaj, Ibn Hazm al-Qurtubi, Ibn Hisham al-Lakhmi, Ibn Hudayl, Ibn Idris al-Qalalusi, Yahyà b. Ishaq, Ibn Ishaq al-Ya‘muri, Ibn Khalaf al-Istiji, Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi, Ibn Khalaf al-Saydalani, Ibn Khalaf al-Umawi, Abu ‘Umar b. Khalil al-Sakuni, Muhammad b. Khalsun, Ibn al-Khatib, Ibn Khatima, Abu Bakr ‘Aziz Ibn al-Khattab, Abu Bakr Ibn al-Khajjat, Ibn al-Kammad, and Abu ‘Abd Allah Ibn al-Kattani. With regard to the fourth volume, the Andalusi authors to be found are: Ibn al-Lunq (al-Lunquh), Ibn Luyun, Abu ‘Amr Muhammad b. Manzur, Musà b. Maymun, Ibn Mu‘adh al-Jayyani, Ibn al-Mu‘allim al-Yahudi, Ibn Mun‘im al-‘Abdari, Abu ‘Abd Allah b. al-Munasif, Ibn Muratayr, Ibn al-Murkhi, Abu ‘Imran  Ibn Musà, Ibn Musà al-Ilbiri, Ibn Mutarrif al-Qattan, ‘Abbas b. Nasih,  Ahmad b. Nasr, Abu l-Qasim b. Qarluman, Ibn Qastar, Ibn al-Qattan, Ibn al-Raqqam, Ibn Rashiq al-Taglibi, Ibn Razin al-Tujibi, Abu Bakr b. Rifa‘a, Khalid b. Ruman, Ibn al-Rumiya, Abu l-Walid b. Rushd al-Hafid, and his son Abu Muhammad ‘Abd Allah b. Abi l-Walid b. Rushd.  \r\n
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Once the Biblioteca de al-Andalus is completed, a whole picture of Andalusi culture and —for what we are concerned here— Andalusi science, will for the first time be available to a much wider audience in the academic community, both to specialist in medieval Islamic science and Muslim Spain, within and abroad Spanish borders. The author of this review endorses M. Marín’s words about the great service done by Jorge Lirola and José Miguel Puerta to the scientific community, not only with their own contribution as editors and coordinators of this ambitious collective project, but also as originators of an endeavour which certainly deserves to become as indispensable and authoritative as other well-known reference works. \r\n
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Publicado en Suhayl, Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (volumen 6), pp. 249-251. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 2006