Zohar Amar

Zohar Amar (born 1960) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University, whose research specialties are: natural history in ancient times; the identification of the flora of the Land of Israel and identification of the fauna of the Land of Israel according to descriptions in classical Jewish sources; the material culture and realia of daily life in the Middle Ages as reflected in agriculture and commerce; the history of medicine and ethno-pharmacology. His research integrates diverse fields of knowledge, including branches of natural science, history, archaeology, linguistics, and Judaic studies.

Notable research in recent years: Documents from the Cairo Genizah as a source of information about medicine in the Middle East in medieval times; pigments in ancient textiles; the early papermaking industry; kermes oak coccid as the source of the Biblical scarlet dye; purple dye; the balsam plant; traditional medicinal drugs in the land of Israel; documentation of traditions regarding the kashrut of various animals.

Zohar Amar, born in 1960, lives in Israel, married and the father of six children. He attended a yeshiva high school and Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem. In his youth he worked as a tour guide and in the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. Between 1985 -1990 he was the director of the Ecological Botanical Garden at Abu Kabir on the old Tel Aviv University campus.

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