بصل الفأر

The bulb was employed as rat poison.

• IPA^(key): /ba.sˤal al.faʔr/

بَصَل الفَأْر • (baṣal al-faʔr) m

1. sea onion (Drimia maritima)

   Synonyms: عُنْصُل (ʕunṣul), إشْقِيل (ʔišqīl), بَصَل بَرَّانِيّ (baṣal barrāniyy), بَصَل الْخِنْزِير (baṣal al-ḵinzīr)

   • c. 1200, يحيى بن محمد بن أحمد بن العوام [yaḥyā ibn muḥammad ibn ʔaḥmad ibn al-ʕawwām], edited by José Antonio Banqueri, كتاب الفلاحة [Book on Agriculture], volume 2, Madrid: Imprenta Real, published 1802^IA, Cap. 29, Art. 15, pages 385–386:

     والعنصل هو بصل الفأر بذلك لأنه يقتلها وورقه يكون كورق السوسن ولون رهره إلى السواد ويسمى أيضا بصل الخنزير ومنه ما هو قتال خبيث وهو البصلة الواحدة المنفردة في نباتها في الأرض وحدها وفي ط العنصلان بصل الفأر يسمى بالفارسية الإشقيل ويسمى أيضا البصل الحار والبصل البراني والأشكلة.

     The squill is called onion of rats because it kills them and its leaves are like lily leaves and the color of its blossoms tends towards black and it is also called onion of swine and direly deadly, and it is the only onion distinguished by its plant growing alone on the soil, and in the Nabataean Agriculture the squill is onion of rats called in Persian also scilla and it is also called hot onion and wild onion and squilla.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sābūr ibn Sahl to this entry?)