Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 118

1. Products consumed
The formation of new cultural frontiers
leads to the spread throughout the terri-
tory concerned of products which have
formerly been known only in one section
of it. In the case of products too heavy to
transport, this spread can take place only
by their being grown or made locally. The
most striking phenomenon in the Muslim
world was the spread of the growing of
rice and of sugar cane.
Rice, originally from India, was already
in pre-Islamic times being cultivated in
Iran, in Irā and in Syria, but had hardly
been used as food in the Roman world
(only as a thickening for sauces); it spread
as a crop and as food as far as Spain. It
became a common item of food and espe-
cially of the poor (particularly in the form
of bread made from rice flour) in the areas
where it was intensively cultivated, but
elsewhere it remained relatively a luxury
food, used only in recherché dishes. In
any case it did not take the place of wheat
and did not acquire the importance which
it had in India and in the Far East.
Sugar, introduced to Iran from India
perhaps shortly before the Muslim con-
quest, spread after this through the whole
of the Mediterranean world. It was used
in the food of princes and wealthy people,
but among the poor was found chiefly
as a medicine. Honey was generally less
expensive, and in particular dibs , a treacle
of grapes, carob etc., was the sugar of
poor people.
Large-scale transport was particularly
necessary to bring to the towns from the
surrounding countryside food products
such as wheat which were consumed in
large quantities. Wheat was everywhere a
commodity traded on a large scale.
Certain heavy products regularly con-
sumed were however transported by cara-
vans or by ships (river or sea transport)
considerable distances from the specific

region in which they were originally
grown. Examples are Syrian olive oil
coming down the Euphrates, the dates of
Lower Irā or of Arabia, etc., and, later,
coffee from Arabia. Thus there were great
differences in price for the same commod-
ity in the regions in which it was produced
and those which were at varying distances
from them, a further factor being the dif-
ficulty or otherwise of the transport (the
price of rice rose in Istanbul when unfa-
vourable winds delayed the ships from
Alexandria).
The products of all the regions of
the Muslim world were thus available
throughout every part of it to those who
could afford the sometimes high prices;
but in addition there were available prod-
ucts imported from outside. Thus, in the
Middle Ages, the Near East imported
from Russia and the Slav countries dried
and salted fish, honey and hazel nuts. In
times of scarcity, Egypt in the 5th/11th
century imported wheat from the Byz-
antine Empire. Imports from Europe
became numerous from the 6th/12th
century onwards. Frederick II sold cere-
als to Tunisia and Andalusia, the Pisans
exported Tuscan oil to Tunisia, southern
France in the 7th/13th century sent to the
Marib wine, chestnuts, broad beans,
saffron etc. Tuscan saffron was on sale in
the Marib, in Egypt and in Frankish
Syria. Egypt imported cheese from Sicily
and from Crete. In the Middle Ages, Iran
imported from India peas, wheat, bar-
ley and millet. In the 12th/18th century
Europe exported to the Levant spices,
sugar, coffee etc.
Spices were imported from still more
distant places, their lightness for transport
and the high prices they commanded jus-
tifying the long journeys. From China, the
Sunda Isles, India and East Africa came
pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, carda-
mom, mace, betel, musk and nutmeg.