This article examines what the Muslim world contributed to the materialization of a cultural appraisal of fruits and the trees that bear them. This contribution was not only carried out through the propagation and incorporation of these plants, particularly from Al Andalus, but also by providing them with considerable cultural significance with their inclusion in Arabian Nights. While Andalusian botanists and agronomists achieved significant scientific breakthroughs in the methods involved in the cultivation and proper utilization of fruit trees, Muslim literary tales complimented these developments by placing both fruits and fruit trees in the cultural spotlight, in highly prominent locations (gardens, palaces, halls) and by bonding them with sensuality, beauty and pleasure. Muslims acted as biocultural intermediaries.
biocultural intermediaries; fruit culture history; fruit appreciation; Arabian Nights