Moorish Spain, though far from China, was such an intellectual dynamo in the early medieval period that it influenced medicine, science, philosophy, and presumably cultural ecology throughout the Islamic world. Indirect influence on China is possible, but, more to the point, understanding Spain s Islamic culture is basic to understanding anything about the Near East.
Continuities are fascinating.
The olives grow on the poor, eroded, stony soil of the hills. The vineyards grow on good soil and almost always on slopes. The wheat takes over the intermediate soils and the flatter lands. Pigs are by far the most important food animal. This pattern was established by the Romans, long before the Islamic period.