Ancient Muslim agro-technologies can help us cope with water scarcity and food insecurity

Unlike today – when so many Arab and Muslim societies are devoted to wars, terror, infighting, and aggression against neighbors – their best and most creative minds actually spent time improving the world during the early Islamic period in the late ninth to the early 12th centuries.

Then, as today, sources of potable water in the region were inadequate. Scholars in Iran, Gaza, Egypt, and Algeria, as well as the Atlantic coast of Iberia, have now cooperated with residents of Israel’s Mediterranean coast to create innovative water-harvesting and soil-enrichment technologies. 

Researchers at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in Ramat Gan, together with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in Jerusalem, suggest that such beneficial techniques could be adapted to cope with the water and agricultural needs of today to confront the growing challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity in arid and marginal regions. 

They have just published a 35-page study in a special issue in the journal Environmental Archaeology entitled “Character and evolution of sunken groundwater-harvesting agroecosystems in aeolian sand since early Islamic times, between Iran and Iberia.” 

Aeolian sandy soils are typically developed from sandy material through the action of wind. 

The study

The paper resulted from an international workshop held at BIU in 2023 on the continuity-discontinuity of ancient water-harvesting agricultural systems. 

This study evolved into an investigation of the long-term viability of regional sunken groundwater-harvesting agroecosystems in coastal and inland sand (SGHAS) as a sustainable agricultural model. 

These methods of using water, typically found near urban settlements, used local organic material and urban refuse to enrich the inert sandy substrate, creating fertile grounds for growing crops like vegetables, watermelons, dates, and grapes. Importantly, SGHAS systems provide a model for long-term water security by using shallow groundwater together with rainfall for irrigation and groundwater replenishment.

Amazingly, the authors wrote in the paper that they were grateful to “several Middle Eastern Muslim researchers who confidentially shared their valuable knowledge on traditional agriculture and irrigation with us.”

The Israel Science Foundation-funded study was jointly headed by Prof. Joel Roskin, who is head of the sedimentology and portable luminescence lab from BIU’s environment, planning, and sustainability department, and Dr. Itamar Taxel of the IAA’s archaeological research department, along with post-doctoral students Drs. Lotem Robins and Ruben Sanchez (of BIU), Prof. Revital Bookman, and doctoral candidate Adam Ostrowski (at the University of Haifa). 

Many dry and marginal regions where human populations reside are growing, leading to increasing competition for decreasing water resources and lower quality. This situation – compounded by changes in climate, land use, and modernization – are challenging sustainable human cultures. 

Despite an intensive search for Arabic documents, no historical texts were found on these agrotechnological methods, and the crop types are unknown. The team said that this gap calls for learning the history and practices of similar traditional agroecosystems in sand. 

DESPITE THEIR initial success, early Islamic Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agricultural ecosystems in Israel were largely abandoned after the Crusader conquest and, surprisingly, were not reestablished. But these traditional systems found renewed application in regions such as Iran, Algeria, the Gaza Strip, and parts of Iberia since the Middle Ages, where they continue to support agriculture in marginal environments. 

A berm is a level space, shelf, sandbar, or raised barrier separating areas in a vertical way, especially part of the way up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road and is often created to separate or protect an area. The sand is deposited in berms in shallow water to prevent flooding.

With many arid and marginal regions facing expanding populations and decreasing water resources, these ancient water-harvesting practices can address the global challenge of sustainable agriculture. 

The researchers suggest that the early Islamic agroecosystems were ahead of their time, offering a glimpse into agricultural practices that were remarkably advanced compared to agricultural systems that were developed later. 

This understanding helps explain the 400-year gap between the abandonment of early Islamic systems and the reappearance of SGHAS in the 15th century.

The long-term use of these agroecosystems contributed to continuous, shallow groundwater availability, which is vital for agricultural production and local food security in arid regions. These systems, which include advanced soil-enrichment techniques and groundwater harvesting methods, show the resilience of traditional agricultural practices and their potential for modern adaptation in regions where water is scarce.

“We could neither find written or factual evidence of the crops grown in early Islamic times nor decipher the know-how and motivation for this original, exhaustive, and ingenious effort to earthwork, enrich, and cultivate sand. However, the inception of traditional Middle Age on SGHASs probably stemmed from a growing demand to cultivate the extensive new world influx of fruits and vegetables from arid zones and the Americas,” Roskin wrote. 

“We speculate that the Islamic agroecosystems provided several similar species to those found today in the traditional SGHASs. The reappearance in the Middle Ages and the third expansion of SGHASs in the late 19th century [and] early 20th century in Iberia suggests that this type of agriculture is adaptable to varying economic and cultural settings and therefore may possess potential for certain current socio-agronomic scenarios.”

While modern agriculture often relies on intensive water usage and depleting soil quality, traditional systems like SGHAS offer more sustainable, low-impact alternatives that can be adapted to contemporary needs, he continued. 

“While traditional agricultural methods cannot entirely replace modern, industrialized farming, they remain valuable in preserving local knowledge and expertise that have been honed over centuries. The study underscores the potential for integrating traditional agricultural practices such as SGHAS into modern sustainable agriculture solutions, particularly for communities facing water scarcity and environmental stresses.”

The research further suggests that SGHAS-style systems, which rely on rainfall-replenished groundwater, offer a pathway for community-driven, ecologically sensitive farming practices, the team declared. 

“These systems are not only sustainable but also promote community engagement, resilience to climate change, and environmental stewardship. As traditional farming methods gradually fade in the face of industrial agriculture, these agroecosystems offer important models for creating locally adaptive, sustainable food systems.”