Rice is a staple for a large part of the world's human population. Muslims played a huge role in helping it spread around the world. The word rice came from Indo-Itanian origin which produced the Arabic ar-ruzz, from which the Portuguese and Spanish word arroz originated, the Latin oriza, which led to the Greek óryza, Italian riso, Old French ris (the same as present day French riz) and then to the English rice.
Domesticated rice originated about 6400 BC in China. By 4500 BC it reached India, and to Japan and Korea by 1200 BC. It reached Indonesia before the 8th century. Indonesia, the country with the biggest Muslim population, is the world's third largest paddy rice producer. African rice has been cultivated for 3500 years but its cultivation declined in favour of the Asian species, brought to Africa by Muslim Arabs between the 7th and 11th centuries CE.
Muslims took this rice to Europe via Spain and Portugal by the 700’s. By the 15th century, rice spread throughout Italy and then France, later propagating to all the continents with European exploration. The Spanish took rice to the USA by the 16th century and South America in the 18th century. The popularity of this important world food owes a great debt to the early Muslims, not only for the name but for spreading it as well.
Real Rice
