Watermelon, chate melon and cucumber: New light on traditional and innovative field crops of the middle ages

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Dr. Yaron Serry, Zefat Academic College, Safad, Israel, Prof. David Jacoby of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem for their useful comments and Sara Kemp and Betty Sigler Rozen for their editorial work. This article has reviewed the history of certain vegetables of the Cucurbitaceae family, and the change they underwent in their cultivation and distribution from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The watermelon, the melon, and the chate melon were undoubtedly well established in Levantine agriculture and diet from biblical times to the Classical period. Because of the Islamic conquests, new types of sweet and fleshy watermelons similar to our own were developed and distributed. The cucumber, a new vegetable, joined them and was added to the diet. These are but a few examples of many crops, medicinal substances and spices that were distributed and dispersed during the Middle Ages from South and East Asia to the Middle East, and thence to Europe.