Islam and the culture of the Arabs and foreign lands

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Mar 15, 2014 at 11:01

Laina wrote

One last thought on cause and effect about desertification: there was a process of global warming going on and many areas once forested had been stripped and never came back. It wasn't all dietary, I don't think.

Do you have any historical evidence that there was indeed global warming in 633CE when the Arabs invaded let us say Egypt and North Africa?

In the case of Egypt the population of Egypt on the eve of the Arab invasion was around 7-8M and the population of Alexandria was around 400,000-600,000 and Egypt used to be the bread basket of the late antique world

Now pass forward to 1798CE then the French invaded Egypt and landed in Alexandria the population of the city was around 5,000 and the population of Egypt was down to 2,000,000 with widespread poverty and starvation and the goats and sheep of the Arab nomads were doing what they always did best and that is to eat the produce in the cultivated lands

It was Muhammad Ali that pulled Egypt out of this stagnation through improving land managment and irrigation et voila the rest is history and by 1952 on the eve of the Egyptian revolution the population of Egypt was up to 22M and Alexandria's population just surpassed its population in 642CE when it fell to the Arabs some 1400 years ago

And yes you are correct that it was not just the sheep and goat that led to such disasters but I do not believe that the climate was one of them

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