- This topic has 4 voices and 56 replies.
-
Posts
-
In the 12th century, Europe owed Islam an agricultural revolution (see Muslim Agricultural Revolution), due to the progressive introduction into Europe of various unknown fruits: the artichoke, spinachs, aubergines, peaches, apricots.
The 12th century agricultural revolution was due to two factors, neither of them were Muslim contributions.1) Cistercian monks moved to remote, un-populated areas to get away from society. They cultivated forests into fields increasing the land's agricultural yield. Even though their intent was to get away form society, society eventually followed them as their new cities became some of the most propserous centers in Europe.2) The 3 field crop rotation was introduced (or re-introduced, depending on how you look at it). This method of farming was adapted from the Romans, not Islam.
How about irrigation of dry areas? Technology brought from North Africa by the Moors if I'm not mistaken.
But didn't Rome bring irrigation tech to the Middle East?
Muslims developed a scientific approach based on three major elements; sophisticated systems of crop rotation, highly developed irrigation techniques, and the introduction of a large variety of crops which were studied and catalogued according to the season, type of land and amount of water they require. Numerous encyclopaedias on farming and botany were produced, with highly accurate precision and details.As early as the 9th century, an essentially modern agricultural system became central to economic life and organization in the Arab caliphates, replacing the largely export driven Roman model. Cities of the Near East, North Africa, and Moorish Spain were supported by elaborate agricultural systems which included extensive irrigation based on knowledge of hydraulic and hydrostatic principles, some of which were continued from Roman times. Muslims introduced what was to become an agricultural revolution based on several key areas:- Development of a sophisticated system of irrigation using machines such as norias, water mills, windmills, water-raising machines, dams and reservoirs.- The adoption of a scientific approach to farming enabled them to improve farming techniques derived from the collection and collation of relevant information throughout the whole of the known world.- The introduction of new crops transforming private farming into a new global industry exported everywhere, including Europe, where farming was mostly restricted to wheat strains obtained much earlier via central Asia. Spain received what they in turn transmitted to the rest of Europe, many agricultural and fruit-growing processes, together with many new plants, fruit and vegetables.And so on ...Whether or not you dislike the Muslim world, it seems particularly strong to deny any contributions from them to the Western world , especially for historians! 😉
This has nothing to do with my dislike of Muslims but has everything to do with giving credit where credit is due and actual historical fact. Islam squelched science and technology far more than Christianity or Judaism did because they considered it heresy.The Romans developed the crop rotation system and they also developed an irrigation system, which became ruins after Rome's collapse. (can provide links and sources if needed, after I get home) Maybe the Muslims improved the technology, (as did the Europeans and Jews over the next few centuries) but they certainly didn't contribute this to Western civilization as if it was something new. It was already invented centuries earlier by the Romans.
Here is a timeline for irrigation. The Muslims may have improved irrigation techniques but they were not the only ones to do something to improve irrigation techniques.Irrigation Timeline
But didn't Rome bring irrigation tech to the Middle East?
Yes but I'm looking at the Iberian Peninsula in particular when i refer to the Moorish influence... also we have a minor disconnect in the Middle Ages when many of the Roman accomplishments fell into disuse. This was a great opening for the Muslims to show their stuff. No?
That begs a question to me then. Outside of Iberia, where in continental europe is irrigation practiced on any large scale? I havent seen any irrigation pipes or trenches in Germany. They were everywhere in Iraq but that is a desert; you also see them in Texas, which is semi-desert. I just dont see how irrigation techniques and improvement contributed to western civilisation because the vast majority of Europe does not use or need irrigating. Now if the Muslims had invented a more efficient way of heating a castle we could talk, but when you get the kind of rain Europe typically gets you want the water gone from your fields not vice-versa.
I just dont see how irrigation techniques and improvement contributed to western civilisation because the vast majority of Europe does not use or need irrigating.
Well, if you're building big metropolises in Africa, like Hadrian did, then you need irrigation. It's too bad the Arabs didn't maintain them though and let them go to ruin, huh?Now, Aeth, do you still want proof of Islam's view of science? I'm not talking about Arabs here, I'm talking about fundamentalist, orthodox Islam.In the chapter I just read about the rise of Aristotelian philosophy in the 13th century, the author makes mention of the contribution of Muslim Spaniard, Ibn Rushd, AKA Avarroes to Europeans: Speaking of Islam's reaction to him: "It was not hard for the defenders of the traditional avenues to truth by way of revelation and mystical experience to convince the Muslim princes to take measure against the continuance of free speculation. The great schools declined, Averoism was condemned, and the Arabic mind passed under ther long tyranny of fanaticism and ignorance." 11 Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages (New York: Harper Collins, 1993). 363.The world of post-modern historical revisionism with it's overemphasis on Islamic contribution to Western society is such a fun thing to refute. ::)
....I just dont see how irrigation techniques and improvement contributed to western civilisation because the vast majority of Europe does not use or need irrigating. ....
Never said it was major... just a contribution... something to store away in the collective memory until expansion took one into arid lands.
Now, Aeth, do you still want proof of Islam's view of science? I'm not talking about Arabs here, I'm talking about fundamentalist, orthodox Islam.The world of post-modern historical revisionism with it's overemphasis on Islamic contribution to Western society is such a fun thing to refute. ::)
Contribution. Definition: be partly responsible forAbout revisionism (Advocacy of the revision of an accepted, usually long-standing view, theory, or doctrine, especially a revision of historical events and movements.) I would suggest some cautions when using this. A difference of opinion is not necessarily revisionism 8)
