On the Muslim role in agricultural development, Cherbonneau holds:

`it is admitted with difficulty that a nation in majority of nomads could have had known any form of agricultural techniques other than sowing wheat and barley. The misconceptions come from the rarity of works on the subject… If we took the bother to open up and consult the old manuscripts, so many views will be changed, so many prejudices will be destroyed.’[1]

So many prejudices, which can be easily found with many authors such as Ashtor who says:

`The numerous accounts of these activities do not point to technological innovations within the irrigation system, which the Muslim rulers had simply taken over from their predecessors. The records in the writings of the Arabic historians show that those who drained the swamps and dug the canals were the Nabateans, not Arabs .’ [2]

 `The information which the Arabic authors provide us in the methods of agricultural work, besides the irrigation canals and engines, is rather scanty. But collecting these records from various sources one is inclined to conclude that the Arabs  did not improve the methods of agricultural work. There is only slight evidence of technological innovations in near eastern agriculture throughout the Middle Ages, whereas the history of European agriculture is the story of great changes and technological achievements.’[3] 

  This picture of inept Muslim farmers, shared by the overwhelming majority of historians is contradicted by historical evidence. In fact, an Islamic agricultural revolution preceded its European counterpart by at least six centuries, Muslims pioneering in many areas that were later on to be identified with the European agricultural revolution.[4]It was also from Islam that many such pioneering elements were to transfer to Western Christendom  as will be amply shown in this section.

 Before looking at such impacts, it is worth making a brief outline of Islamic early accomplishments in farming. Artz tells us that the great Islamic cities of the Near East, North Africa, and Spain were all supported by an elaborate agricultural system that included extensive irrigation and an expert knowledge of agricultural methods, which were the most advanced in the world.[5] The Muslims knew how to fight insect pests, how to use fertilizers, and they were experts at grafting trees and crossing plants to produce new varieties, and by these means areas that have since become lands of low agricultural production were able, in early Islam to support huge populations.[6] Cereal yields in Egypt  according to Von Sivers were around 10 for 1, yields, which will only be obtained in Europe at the end of the 17^th century.[7] In Muslim Spain, such was the quality of product some wheat could keep for a century in adequate storage conditions.[8] In Sicily , agriculture remained in Muslim hands  under Norman rule, and was, according to Scott `carried to the highest perfection.’[9] There, every plant or tree, whose culture was known to be profitable and which could adapt itself was to be found in the gardens and plantations; records were kept of the crops produced in each district; the methods of their disposition and the prices they brought were noted on the public registers; the breeds of horses, asses, and cattle were improved; and the greatest care was taken of them; and food, which after experiment was found to be the most nutritious, was adopted.[10] Bolens, thus, concludes that Islamic farming represented: `a culmination of a unique balance derived from a deep love for nature… a relaxed way of life, ecological balance, and the acquisition of knowledge of many `civilized traditions.'[11] 

  Gardens  and gardening, for pleasure, experimentation, or as subsidiary economic outlet, used to form an integral part of Islamic life. In Algiers, a visitor once counted 20,000 gardens, and all around the city grew all sorts of fruit trees; great varieties of flowers, and all sorts of plants; fountains abounded, and in these gardens, on the lush greenery, families used to come and find enjoyment and solace.[12] In Spain, writers speak endlessly of the gardens and lieux de plaisance of Seville , Cordova and Valencia , the last of which was called by one of them ``the scent bottle of al-Andalus.’[13] Market gardens, olive groves, and fruit orchards made some areas of Spain—notably around Cordova, Granada, and Valencia—"garden spots of the world." The Island of Majorca, won by the Muslims in the 8^th century, became under their husbandry `a paradise of fruits and flowers, dominated by the date palm that later gave its name to the capital.’[14]

   The picture that emerges, according to Watson , is that of `a large unified region which for three or four centuries, and in places still longer, was unusually receptive to all that was new,’[15] and also was `unusually able to diffuse novelties;’ and more crucially: `both to effect the initial transfer which introduced an element into a region and to carry out the secondary diffusion which changed rarities into commonplaces.’[16]To accomplish this, attitudes, social structures, institutions, the economy, infrastructure, science all played their part; and not only in farming, but also in other spheres of the economy, and outside the economy; all `touched by this capacity to absorb and to transmit.’[17]

  How Islamic civilisation  diffused all such green science to the Christian West is what focus is on here