A pestle and mortar is a device used since ancient times to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder. The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone. The pestle is a heavy and blunt club-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The history of pharmacy dates back to the first third of the 19th century. Before then, pharmacy evolved from antiquity as part of medicine. In Baghdad the first pharmacies were established in 754 during the Islamic Golden Age. By the 9th century, these pharmacies were state-regulated. The advances made in the Middle East in botany and chemistry led medicine in medieval Islam substantially to develop pharmacology. Al-Biruni wrote one of the most valuable Islamic works on pharmacology, Kitab al-Saydalah (The Book of Drugs), where he gave detailed knowledge of the properties of drugs and outlined the role of pharmacy and the functions and duties of the pharmacist.