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. Every millimetre of the landscape is intensively used. Above that is oak forest, more or less degraded by heavy harvesting of firewood etc., plus intensive grazing by sheep and goats. On the other hand, they are there, they are extensive, they are reasonably well managed, and they save an awful lot of fauna and flora that would otherwise be gone. We visited an excellently managed lake that is one of the last refuges of the rare White-headed Duck.