Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 10

‡ ūzistān and southern Fārs. Recently
citrus cultivation has been extended to
Bam. Dates are widely cultivated in south
Persia and on the coastal plains border-
ing the Persian Gulf. The female plant
is impregnated by the male in March or
April, some two males going to a planta-
tion of fifty. Nut trees, especially almonds
and pistachios, are of importance. Olives
were cultivated in early Islamic times in
Nī ª āpūr, Gurgān, Daylam, and Fārs.
The main area of cultivation at the pres-
ent day is Rūdbār in Māzandarān, where
cultivation increased after the decline of
silk production in the middle of the nine-
teenth century. The grafting of vines and
other fruit trees has long been practised.
At the present day in Kirmān and Fārs
almonds and pistachios are grafted on to
the wild almond tree ( bāna ).
Although large landownership has
been the dominant form of land tenure,
large-scale farming was not (and is not)
practised, except exceptionally. The agri-
cultural unit was the ploughland ( ¡ uft,
¶ ī ª , zaw ¡ ) and agriculture was carried
on mainly as subsistence agriculture; this
is still predominantly the case. Broadly
the ploughland consists of an area which
a pair of oxen can cultivate annually; but
it varies in size according to the nature
of the soil, the type of agriculture prac-
tised (dry or irrigated), practices with
regard to fallow, the kind of crops grown,
the draught animals used, and the pres-
sure or otherwise on the land. The aver-
age ploughland ranges from some 60 to
20 acres; but in some areas holdings are
much smaller, as for example in Mārbīn,
one of the districts of Ifahān, where cul-
tivation is mainly carried on by spade.
The relation between the peasant and
the landowner was formerly usually reg-
ulated, and to some extent still is, by a
cropsharing agreement. The ploughland
or peasant-holding is usually run as a fam-

also to cultivate sugar cane in Gīlān and
Ifahān. In recent years the cultivation of
sugar cane in ‡ ūzistān has begun on a
more extensive scale as a result of new
irrigation developments. Planting takes
place in March or April and the cane is
cut in November.

Minor crops
Pulses and oil seeds are widely cul-
tivated; and some fodder crops, such
as lucerne and clover. A great variety
of vegetables is grown especially near
urban centres. Potatoes were introduced
into Persia by Sir John Malcolm during
the reign of Fat Alī · āh. Dye-plants,
mainly in the central Zagros region and
Kirmān, and other plants used in indus-
try such as saffron, hemp, flax and, in the
Dizful and · ustar areas, indigo (which
was introduced by the Būyid, Aud al-
Dawla), madder, and, round Yazd and
Kirmān, henna, and, in Māzandarān,
jute, have been cultivated since early
times. Vegetable gums, including gum
tragacanth and asafoetida, are cropped
mainly for export. The latter was known
in early Islamic times. Oak-gall is pro-
duced mainly in Kurdistān. A variety of
flowers and a kind of willow were culti-
vated for scent; the former also contrib-
uted to bee-keeping.

Fruit
Persia has been famous for fruit-grow-
ing since early times. Many varieties
of vine are cultivated and found up to
an altitude of 4,500 ft. Vine cultivation
is mainly by irrigation, except in some
areas of Kurdistān. On the plateau the
vines are covered with earth in the win-
ter. Apricots, peaches, nectarines, figs,
melons, pomegranates, plums, cherries,
pears, and apples are widely grown. Cit-
rus fruits are important in the Caspian
provinces and south Persia, especially in