As summed up from Watson’s medieval Green Revolution, Islamic agriculture got more produce out of the land by bringing more land under cultivation and by making old land much more productive than in the past.[17] It was highly capital intensive, and highly labour intensive; more capital being invested in the construction of irrigation works]
What role did early Muslims play in the development of Agriculture?
Early Muslim rulers were equally passionate about plants, gardens, water and greenery, and such passion played a major part in the rise of Muslim agriculture.
How did the spread of Islam affect African agriculture?
The Muslim introduction of many crops into Africa is interesting in many respects. The spread of Islam on the continent caused the converted to begin to wear clothes-as religion enjoined, which in turn stimulated the growth of cotton in many places to meet fast rising demand. [408]
What are the main features of the Islamic concept of Agriculture?
Field drainage, fighting pests, clearance of weeds, and other matters, are elaborated upon; and so are harvest, storage and even culinary uses of the commodity. [308] The Islamic diffusion of plants was not just geographical but also qualitative, through the crossing of plants.
What were the main crops of the Islamic empire?
The frontier-less, unified land of Islam allowed crops (rice, hard wheat, sugar-cane, watermelon, spinach, lemons, citruses…) to be taken from India and Persia to the Near East and North Africa, and to Europe. Many crops were probably found on the Indian sub-continent, such as the province of Sind, where the Muslims had a foot-hold. [317]
Which agricultural advances did the Muslims spread?
Medieval Islamic agronomists including Ibn Bassal and Abū l-Khayr described agricultural and horticultural techniques including how to propagate the olive and the date palm, crop rotation of flax with wheat or barley, and companion planting of grape and olive.
Why did trade flourish in the Muslim empire?
Why did trade flourish across the Muslim world? They traveled almost everywhere to trade goods. Muslims rode on camel caravans through the Sahara desert and into West Africa, followed the Silk Road to China, and used the Monsoon winds to sail ships from East Africa to India.
Why did the Islamic empire grow so quickly?
Islam spread through military conquest, trade, pilgrimage, and missionaries. Arab Muslim forces conquered vast territories and built imperial structures over time.
How was agriculture and trade help in the growth of Islamic land?
Political stability translated into agricultural prosperity. The state supported irrigation systems in many areas. Islamic laws gave tax concessions to people who brought land under cultivation. Land under cultivation expanded which resulted in increased productivity.
How did trade help to spread Islam?
Spread of Islam The expanse of Islamic trade had a direct result on the spread of the Islam religion. Traders brought their religion to West Africa where Islam quickly spread throughout the region. Areas in the far east such as Malaysia and Indonesia also became Muslim through traders and Islamic Sufis.
Why did trade networks lead to the spread of Islam?
After the advent of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, Islam started its expansion towards eastern regions through trade encouraged by the development of the maritime Silk Roads. Muslims were known to have a commercial talent notably encouraged by Islam, as well as excellent sailing skills.
What influenced Islam’s growth during these periods?
Missionaries and political expansion moved Islamic culture, but Islamic culture also traveled through trade. Caravans, groups of travelers who used camels to transport themselves and goods across land, were critical to the spread of Islam.
Why were the Islamic conquests so successful?
The success of the Arab Conquests can be easily broken down into two factors: the strengths of Islam and the weaknesses of their enemies.
How did Islam rise and spread?
The growth and spread of Islam began when the Prophet Muhammad began sharing his divine revelations and spreading messages he received from Allah (god). He and his followers were persecuted and had to flee to the neighboring city of Medina in 622. There he and his followers were welcomed and the faith grew.
How did Islam affect agriculture?
They took sugarcane from India and spread its cultivation to other parts of the world. They introduced coffee wherever they went. They popularised the use of the Persian water wheel that uses strength of draught animals to irrigate farms. Islam spread in coastal India through sea merchants.
How did farmers shape their land to better grow crops in medieval Arabia?
How did farmers shape their land to better grow crops in medieval Arabia? They developed terraces on the land.
What crops were introduced in Europe by the Arab farmers?
The crops introduced by the Arabs included sugar cane, rice, hard wheat (durum), citrus, cotton, and figs.
What caused the decline of Muslim farming?
The decline of Muslim farming, just as that of other aspects of Muslim civilisation, was in considerable measure caused by invaders, from the Banu Hillal invasion of North Africa (1050s), to the Crusaders (1095-1291), the Mongols (13 th century), Timur Lang (late 14 th century), and colonial powers.
What crops were traded in the Islamic world?
Cotton, (and cotton thread and cloth), rice, sugar, coconuts (as well as the fronds, branches, and trunks of the coconut palm), and doubtless other new crops were traded over long distances in the Islamic world. [93] .
Why is the book of agriculture blessed by God?
Just an instance here, how Bolens reminds us of a crucial element of early Islamic farming: In the definitions which open the Kitaab al-filaha (Book of Agriculture), this function is said to be blessed by God because it has as its end the production of the sustenance of life.
What were the major changes in the Islamic world?
These introductions, along with an increased mechanization of agriculture, led to major changes in economy, population distribution, vegetation cover, agricultural production and income, population levels, urban growth, the distribution of the labour force, linked industries, cooking, diet and clothing in the Islamic world.
Where did Islamic irrigation techniques originate?
Muslim irrigation skills were passed on primarily to Spain, which subsequently took many of them to its South and Central American colonies. The earliest agents of diffusion of Islamic techniques to neighbouring Christian parts were the Mozarabs. It is they who diffused waterwheels which they carried as early as the 9 th and 10 th centuries in the Asturias. [420] Other elements of this Mozarab influence are also prevalent in 887 in the documentation of the Monastery of San Vicente de Ovideo, with expressions relating technical terms from Andalusia referring to agricultural techniques of irrigation in the Valley of the Nalon. [421]
Who is the most prolific author on Muslim farming in Al Andalus?
One of the most prolific and most informative author on Muslim farming in Al Andalus is the Spanish scholar Garcia Sanchez Expira cion (École des Études Arabes (CSIC), Grenade (Spain). We will make a good use of one of her works further down. Her works are mostly in Spanish and need to be translated into English.
What are some of the products that came from the Orient?
Amongst these were sugar cane, rice, citrus fruit, apricots, cotton, artichokes, aubergines, and other products. [355] . Carra de Vaux points out to the large variety of flowers, plants and animals that came from the Orient, and are used in agriculture, pharmacy, gardens, luxury trade, and arts. [356] .
The Islamic Agricultural Revolution
As early as the 9th century, an innovative agricultural system became central to economic life and the organization of production in the Muslim land.
Agricultural Machines and Construction
Water that was captured through a variety of ways was then successively channeled, stored and lifted using the different techniques and varied devices for each operation. Irrigation became cheap, affecting lands previously impossible or uneconomic to irrigate.
The Islamic Agricultural Revolution
Agricultural Machines and Construction
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Water that was captured through a variety of ways was then successively channeled, stored and lifted using the different techniques and varied devices for each operation. Irrigation became cheap, affecting lands previously impossible or uneconomic to irrigate. Irrigated fields yielded as many as four harvests annually, which, as in Spain, laid the foundations for the country’s prosper…
Notes and References
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See A. M. Watson: Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, 1983; A. M. Watson, “The Arab Agricultural Revolution and its Diffusion”, in The Journal of Economic History 34 (1974), pp. 8-35; Thomas Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, 1979; T. Glick, Irrigation and Hydraulic Technology: Me…