Further reading: Farhad Daftary, A Short History of the
Ismailis (Princeton, N.J.: Marcus Wiener Publishers,
1998); Willi Frischauer, The Aga Khans (London: The
Bodley Head, 1970); Renata Holod and Darl Rastorfer,
eds., Architecture and Community: Building in the Islamic
World Today (New York: 1983).
agriculture
Agriculture is farming—cultivating the land to
produce crops and raising and caring for livestock.
Archaeologists have found the earliest known evi-
dence for the domestication of plants and animals,
which occurred before 8000 b.c.e., in mountainous
areas of iran, iraq, tUrkey, and palestine. Farm-
ing, assisted by irrigation technology, contributed
to the rise of the first cities in the river valleys of
ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) and egypt by 3100
b.c.e., and it shaped significantly the pre-Islamic
religious beliefs and practices of these civilizations.
Contrary to the stereotype of nomads traveling
across vast deserts, during the era of medieval
Islamicate civilization (seventh century to 17th
century c.e.), settled agriculture was the real basis
of the economy and remains so to this day in
many countries where Muslims are a majority of
the population. Moreover, cotton and many foods
consumed today, such as rice, citrus fruits, sugar,
and coFFee, were introduced to Europe and the
Americas via Islamicate lands in the Middle East,
where they had been transplanted from Asia and
Africa during the Middle Ages.
The importance of agriculture in Islamicate
societies is reflected in Islamic religion and reli-Vegetable market, Marrakesh, Morocco (Federico R. Campo)
agriculture 21 J