Editing Spinach (section)

==History==

Spinach is thought to have originated about 2,000 years ago in [[Name of Iran|ancient Persia]] from which it was introduced to [[India]] and later to [[History of China#Ancient China|ancient China]] via [[Nepal]] in 647&nbsp;CE as the "Persian vegetable".<ref name="vf">{{cite web|date=2019|title=Spinach history - origins of different types of spinach|url=http://www.vegetablefacts.net/vegetable-history/spinach-history/|access-date=2 November 2019|publisher=Vegetable Facts}}</ref> In 827&nbsp;CE, the [[Arab]]s introduced spinach to [[Sicily]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rolland|first1=Jacques L.|title=The Food Encyclopedia|last2=Sherman|first2=Carol|date=2006|publisher=Robert Rose|isbn=9780778801504|location=Toronto|pages=335–338}}</ref> The first written evidence of spinach in the [[Mediterranean]] was recorded in three 10th-century works: a medical work by al-Rāzī (known as [[Rhazes]] in the West) and in two agricultural treatises, one by Ibn Waḥshīyah and the other by Qusṭus al-Rūmī. Spinach became a popular vegetable in the Arab Mediterranean and arrived in the Iberian Peninsula by the latter part of the 12th century, where Ibn al-ʻAwwām called it ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|raʼīs al-buqūl}}'', 'the [[rais|chieftain]] of [[leafy greens]]'.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ibn al-ʻAwwām|first1=Yaḥyá ibn Muḥammad|title=Kitāb al-Filāḥah|year=1802|chapter=23.8|author-link1=Ibn al-Awwam|access-date=July 30, 2014|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daZEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA160}}</ref> Spinach was also the subject of a special treatise in the 11th century by Ibn Ḥajjāj.<ref>[[Clifford A. Wright]]. ''Mediterranean Vegetables: A Cook's ABC of Vegetables and their Preparation in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, with More than 200 Authentic Recipes for the Home Cook''. (Boston: Harvard Common Press, 2001). pp. 300-301.</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2022}}

Spinach first appeared in England and France in the [[14th century]],  probably via Iberia, and gained common use because it appeared in early spring when fresh local vegetables were not available.<ref name="vf" /> Spinach is mentioned in the first known English [[cookbook]], the ''[[Forme of Cury]]'' (1390), where it is referred to as 'spinnedge' and 'spynoches'.<ref name="vf" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Rolland|first1=Jacques|url=http://www.canadianliving.com/glossary/spinach.php|series=Spinach|last2=Sherman|first2=Carol|title=The Food Encyclopedia: Over 8,000 Ingredients, Tools, Techniques and People|publisher=Robert Rose|year=2006|location=Toronto|access-date=March 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724195456/http://www.canadianliving.com/glossary/spinach.php|archive-date=July 24, 2011|isbn=9780778801504}}</ref> During [[World War I]], wine fortified with spinach juice was given to injured [[Military of France|French soldiers]] with the intent to curtail their [[hemorrhage|bleeding]].<ref name="vf" /><ref name="GrieveGrieve1971">{{cite book|author1=Margaret Grieve|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KgfHxvGFHAoC&pg=PA761|title=A modern herbal: the medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and economic properties, cultivation and folk-lore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs, & trees with all their modern scientific uses|author2=Maud Grieve|date=1 June 1971|publisher=Courier Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-22799-3|pages=761–|access-date=13 August 2010}}</ref>