The Islamic Caliphate spread literacy and a high level of education all across the lands that came under it's control. The literacy standards became the highest and most widespread in all the world during that time.
Quote:The ability to read and write was far more widely enjoyed in the early medieval Islamic empire and in fourth-century-B.C.E. Athens than in any other cultures of their times.
Education benefitted all communities across the Islamic Caliphate, not just Muslims (as is sometimes claimed). In fact some of the greatest scientists of Islamic civilisation were Jews.
Quote:One of the most dramatic examples of how education markets have permitted the peaceful coexistence of disparate groups is the case of early medieval Islam. Skeptics and agnostics coexisted with orthodox Muslims, and both in turn were generally tolerant of Hebrews and Christians. Historian
Abraham Blinderman observes that: “Perhaps few other periods in the tragic history of the Jewish people have been as meaningful to them as this period of Judaeo-Arabic communion. The renaissance of Jewish letters and science in Arab lands is a glorious testimonial to the cultural cosmopolitanism
of the Arabs at a time when Jews in Europe were being burned as witches, plague-begetters, and ritualistic murderers.”
(Andrew J. Coulson, Delivering Education, Hoover Institution)
In the Agricultural industry, Islam brought about the most fundamental changes seen perhaps since the beginning of setttled farming. The first 500 years of Islam were known as the
Muslim Agricultural Revolution.
Quote:As early as the 9th century, an essentially modern agricultural system became central to economic life and organization in the Arab caliphates, replacing the largely export driven Roman model. Cities of the Near East, North Africa, and Moorish Spain were supported by elaborate agricultural systems which included extensive irrigation based on knowledge of hydraulic and hydrostatic principles, some of which were continued from Roman times. In later centuries, Persian Muslims began to function as a conduit, transmitting cultural elements, including advanced agricultural techniques, into Turkic lands and western India.
The fruits of this Agricultural revolution were certainly never limited to the capital of the Caliphate, nor to the birthplace of Islam. They were spread to every single part of the Islamic Caliphate, enhacing the lives of those living there:
Quote:The two types of economic systems that prompted agricultural development in the Islamic world were either politically-driven, by the conscious decisions of the central authority to develop under-exploited lands; or market-driven, involving the spread of advice, education, and free seeds, and the introduction of high value crops or animals to areas where they were previously unknown. These led to increased subsistence, a high level of economic security that ensured wealth for all citizens, and a higher quality of life due to the introduction of artichokes, spinach, aubergines, carrots, sugar cane, and various exotic plants; vegetables being available all year round without the need to dry them for winter; citrus and olive plantations becoming a common sight, market gardens and orchards springing up in every Muslim city; intense cropping and the technique of intensive irrigation agriculture with land fertility replacement; a major increase in animal husbandry; higher quality of wool and other clothing materials; and the introduction of selective breeding of animals from different parts of the Old World resulting in improved horse stocks and the best load-carrying camels.
(Zohor Idrisi (2005), The Muslim Agricultural Revolution and its influence on Europe)
The sugar industry as we know it was largely pioneered by the early Islamic Caliphate. It's for this reason the English word "sugar" actually comes from the Arabic "sukkar" which is originally Persian.
Quote:During the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, sugar production was refined and transformed into a large-scale industry by the Arabs. The Arabs and Berbers diffused sugar throughout the Arab Empire from the 8th century. Many other agricultural innovations were introduced by Muslim farmers and engineers, such as new forms of land tenure, improvements in irrigation, a variety of sophisticated irrigation methods, the introduction of fertilizers and widespread artificial irrigation systems, the development of gravity-flow irrigation systems from rivers and springs the first uses of noria and chain pumps for irrigation purposes, the establishment of the sugar cane industry in the Mediterranean and experimentation in sugar cultivation, numerous advances in industrial milling and water-raising machines (see Industrial growth below), and many other improvements and innovations.
The list goes on and on. If you read through some of the wiki articles provided you'll find plenty of references to scholarly articles that detail all of these industrial achievements and more.
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