INTRODUCTORY. 19 
Syrian figs, these figs being generally valued higher than those of 
Italy and other Mediterranean districts. 
At the end of the Roman Empire, near the close of the fifth century 
A. D., the fig may be considered as distributed along the coast of the 
Atlantic as well as along the shores of the Mediterranean. ‘Toward 
the south the coast of Africa abounded in fig trees, while on the other 
side fig culture stretched over the wild coast region of Portugal, 
France, the Channel islands, and perhaps over the southern part of 
England. But nowhere else had the cultivation and the drying of 
figs reached such a height of development as in Syria. 
Nearly seventeen hundred years after the Phoenician colonization 
the Arabie conquest began to follow that same route. The Arabs in 
their turn carried with them the fig tree, now developed into many 
new varieties, and raised fig culture to a degree of importance which 
it has never since attained outside of its old home, Syria. The Ara- 
bic invasion extended through northern Africa to Spain and Portugal, 
and in these countries fig culture began to flourish and rapidly became 
of even greater importance than in Italy and Greece. The Arabs 
held the fig in the highest esteem and considered it superior to any 
other fruit. It is even related by Zamakhschari,’ an Arabian com- 
mentator on the Koran, that Mohammed, the prophet, himself, in his 
enthusiastic enjoyment of the delicious figs, once exclaimed: ‘‘If I 
should wish a fruit brought to Paradise it would certainly be the fig.” 
The Arabic invasion, during the medieval ages, has indelibly stamped 
its mark on fig culture in the territory it occupied, and to this day 
the varieties of figs grown there are to a great extent different from 
and superior to those grown in countries colonized by the Greeks and 
Romans. Thus Portugal, the most southern province of Greece out- 
side of the Pillars of Hercules, became especially famous for its figs. 
‘Algarve, with an almost perfect climate, produced a most superior 
article of dried figs, the commerce in which became of the greatest 
importance. Algarve almost exclusively supplied western Europe 
with dried figs for over one thousand years, and until late in the 
present century Portuguese figs dominated the English markets. It 
is only comparatively of recent date that the Smyrna figs have sup- 
planted all others in English and American markets. Evenas regards 
names, Arabic fig culture has left its influence to this day in the 
various countries of the ancient Arabie caliphate. Thus in Portugal 
the caprifig is known as “fico de toca,” the Arabic name being 
‘“‘tokkar,” while in Malta the name ‘‘tokar” is yet in use and almost 
unchanged. * 
If we again turn to the extreme Orient we find that the fig tree 
traveled much more slowly toward the east than toward the west. In 
the time of Herodotus, when all Greece had for centuries enjoyed the 
'O, Celsius, c. 11,371, according to Solms-Laubach p. 2. 
> Solans-Laubach, p. 83. 
