Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)
Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)
Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) available on March 19 2016 from Amazon for 39.18
ISBN bar code 9780521068833 ξ1 registered March 19 2016
Product category is Book
Manufacturered by Cambridge University Press
Product weight is 0.92 lbs.
This study describes and explains the revolutionary changes which transformed the agricultural life of the Islamicized world in the four centuries following the early Arab conquests. Professor Watson discusses eighteen crops - from sorghum and rye to the watermelon - which spread through the Near East and North Africa during this period. Their origins, diffusion and uses are reviewed. The book investigates the mechanics of diffusion, the routes by which plants spread, and the processes by which they were acclimatized in their new environment. The social and economic history of agriculture in the medieval Islamic world is assessed in a review of wide importance. Professor Watson sets out to refute the view that the early Islamic period was one of agricultural decline in the Near East. He shows that, in contrast to the late Roman and Sasanian periods, it was a time of agricultural and demographic expansion. Agricultural innovation in the early Islamic world will be of interest to economic, social and agricultural historians and to those concerned with Islam and its effect on Africa and Asia.
^Andrew M. WatsonAgricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization), Cambridge University Press. Amazon. ISBN 9780521068833 (revised Mar 2016)
This is a book-length version of Andrew Watson's groundbreaking 1974 Journal of Economic History article. There he noted a fundamental transformation preceding "The Columbian Exchange" described by Alfred Crosby. Islam unified much of the Middle East and Asia, enabling the transfer of valuable plants and farming techniques within the Muslim world. Some crops, such as sorghum from Africa, traveled farther east. But many others came west to enrich the diets and econo..
This book provides a refreshing perspective about the rise and fall of Islamic world through the lens of agriculture. It is concise, well-written, and accessible to even non-experts.The main argument is that between 700 and 1100 Muslims made substantial contributions to agriculture by developing numerous farming techniques and cultivation of various new crops (sorghum, Asiatic rice, hard wheat, sugar cane, old world cotton, as well as spinach, artichoke, colocasia, eggplant, w..
