Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran

A boom in the production and export of cotton made Iran the richest region of the Islamic caliphate in the ninth and tenth centuries. Yet in the eleventh century, Iran''s impressive agricultural economy entered a steep decline, bringing the country''s primacy to an end.

Richard W. Bulliet advances several provocative theses to explain these hitherto unrecognized historical events. According to Bull...