|
Agriculture
 The
Medieval Iberian Peninsula enjoyed a Mediterranean climate,
like many of the coastal lands such as Morocco, Algeria,
Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. It was in many ways similar
to the irrigated lands farther east, in Iraq and Persia, on
the same latitudes. Because of this, Spain too shared in the
agricultural revolution of the Medieval period, which
brought many new crops under intense cultivation. In fact,
Al-Andalus was one of the centers of that agricultural
revolution. Food and fiber crops such as rice, sugar cane,
sweet oranges and hard wheat for bread and pasta were
introduced into Spain from farther east, along with the
migration of farmers and transfer of irrigation
technologies.
 Agriculture and gardening flourished in Muslim Al-Andalus,
and its crops of oranges, almonds, and other fine foods
enriched the tables and poetry of Europe. Oranges, lemons,
and limes would not have become such a popular fruit in the
west without the gardens of Spain. Figs were another
important fruit brought to Spain by Muslims. The best ones
were grown in Malaga, where they were exported as far as
India and China. This was possible because figs, with their
high sugar content, could be preserved by sun-drying and
transported over a year’s journey. Sugar was produced and
refined on a large scale, and played a part in the
development of fine cuisine and fancy desserts, but also in
the preservation of fruits before refrigeration. The taste
for sugar entered Europe from Spain and from European
contact during the Crusades.
 Cotton
was an essential non-food crop that made the textile
industry possible, and its cultivation in Spain was also
responsible for cotton’s spread to the New World. It would
have been unthinkable to introduce these new crops without
the intensive system of irrigation, water management, and
agricultural technologies such as crop rotation, management
of pests, and fertilizing crops by natural means. Spanish
agricultural books describe these technologies and
comprehensive knowledge about cultivation.
Ibn
Bassal (fl. 1038-1075 CE) was an original scientist and
engineer who lived in Toledo and wrote about agriculture. He
described different types of soil and stated how often each
should be plowed and irrigated to get the best yields. He
described how to best engineer hydraulic systems made up of
wells, ditches, and pumps. Other agricultural writers like
ibn al-Awwam, and Abul Khair (early 1100s CE), al-Ishbili
(late 1100s CE), and al-Tignari of Granada described
sophisticated techniques such as grafting fruit trees,
sugar-making, and preservation of fruits and vegetables. As
a result, much new land was brought into cultivation under
Muslim rule.
Irrigation systems were studied and policies were set down,
determining exactly when each crop was irrigated, how stored
reservoir and rainwater was used, and how water use by
farmers and city dwellers was managed. As an example of how
effective these systems were, the “Tribunal of the Waters”
in Valencia is a group of officials that is still
functioning from the time of Muslim rule until the present
day, despite the fact that many other Islamic institutions
were erased after the Reconquista and the expulsion of
Muslims. This, however, was too vital a system to lose.
Lasting
influences:
Sugar cane, cotton and rice were key crops that the Spanish
and Portuguese carried to the New World after the end of
Muslim rule. In the New World, these crops were grown on a
large scale in plantations using African slave labor.
French, British and Dutch colonists gained great wealth from
their possessions in the Caribbean. Without these cash
crops, colonization of the New World by Europeans would not
have been such an economic success. These global cash crops
and several others that came to the attention of Europeans
through trade and migration from Muslim lands were coffee,
tea, bananas, and vegetables such as spinach and asparagus.
Flowers
of many kinds that are common in gardens today also reached
Spain during the heyday of Muslim rule, and their
cultivation spread into Christian Spain and into other parts
of Europe. The agricultural advances of the Scientific
Revolution also owe much to the writings and practices in
agriculture that passed into Europe through Islamic Spain
and through their spread to the New World.
Further Reading:
Thomas
Glick.
Islamic and
Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages: Comparative
Perspectives on Social and Cultural Formation.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
Thomas
Glick.
Irrigation and
Society in Medieval Valencia. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1970. (available online at
http://libro.uca.edu/irrigation/irrigation.htm )
Andrew
Watson.
Agricultural
Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of
Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100. Cambridge
University Press, 1983.
See
articles on “Agriculture,” at
http://www.muslimheritage.com
Images:
Sugar
cane retrieved at
www.stellalabs.com/INFO_Nutraceuticals.htm
Valencia orange retrieved at
http://www.aaronscanna-amaryllis.com/citrus/images/37.jpg
Figs
retrieved at
www.alibaba.com/catalog/11028241/Dried_Figs.html
Cotton
retrieved at
www.apparelsearch.com/cotton_picture.htm
Back | Next
Back to
Top |
