COMUNICACIÓN Y PRENSA

• Editor: Fernando Nuez
• Valencia: Editorial UPV,  2002

Agriculture has been one of the central pillars of development of the world’s great civilisations and the agriculture of Al-Andalus made a key contribution to the advance of wellbeing in the western world.  
Prior to the arrival of the Arabs in Spain, agriculture had been based on a trio of crops, namely cereals, olives and vines. When the Arabs settled in Spain, they greatly enriched local farming with the introduction of other cereals (rice, sorghum), other vegetables (aubergines, artichokes, spinach and cardoons), other fruit trees (almonds, fig trees, mulberries, date palms, and citrus fruits) and other textile plants (cotton, hemp).  They also used aromatic, medicinal, and ornamental plants.
We should not forget that the increased variety of plant species was accompanied by the development of new methods of cultivation and the expansion of irrigation systems. The Arabs also perfected new methods for catching and storing subterranean and surface water and developed systems for terracing, draining and improving land.
All of these aspects are analysed in this collection of twelve essays in which different authors highlight the importance of the Arabic influence on western agriculture.
More books on this subject can be consulted at the Alhambra Library.