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Water in Hispano-arabic Food and Cooking during the Middle-Ages

For Hispano-arabic physicians of the Middle-Ages, water was not only a natural element but the essential condition of health and civilization. The ancient philosophical doctrine regarding the function of water was further amplified : from hydraulics developed a theory of taste to be found in the agronomical literature ('Awwārn), cooking-books (Kitāb al-tābikh), as well as in Beyṭār's considerable pharmacopoeia. As a liquid, water is also capable of effecting decompositions and new mixings ; cooking thus becomes an alchimie process involving dessication (couscous), fermentation (bread) and the determination of suitable tastes for health and pleasure.

L'origine des plantes domestiques identifiées et la précoce sélection des grains mentionnée par les géoponiciens antiques relèvent des premiers rituels d'offrandes aux dieux plus que de la consommation alimentaire elle-même. J. R. Harlan et J. G. Hawkes s'accordent pour admettre que les groupes humains utilisèrent toutes sortes de plantes partout où ils vécurent, les ressources locales étant exploitées selon une économie des moyens où s'insèrent tous les éléments des éco-systèmes ; le bilan entre énergie fournie et résultat de la récolte reste en faveur de l'économie de cueillette, pour peu que la diversité originelle des herbes et des grains soit réalisée.

Graft and the Metamorphoses of Gardens in Andalusia (11th-12th Centuries).

Grafting such as it appears in Hispano-Arabie treatises dating from the Middle Ages, presents the double caracter of having modified the Mediterranean garden much before the Renaissance and of having played a fundamental role in the history of botanical classification — a role that has remained till now totally unrecognized, that of a link between the Ancients and the Renaissance.
Renaissance authors such as Matthiolo, Cesalpino, O. de Serres, have said nothing concerning these matters that cannot be found already in the work of the Moroccan writer al-Gassani (16th century). And even in the 12th century, the essential can be traced in the description of plants given by the "Anonymous Botanist of Seville". Now the importance given to grafting by Hispano-Arab agronomists, their efforts to establish affinities between plants, show that if grafting, in the Andalusian Middle Ages, became the preliminary step to a new botanical classification, it was through these profuse, and at times even aberrant, empirical experiences; and if needs be, further proof is seen in the fact that Matthiolo quotes the Arabs.