Tulips are the national flowers of Holland. Every year three billion tulip bulbs are produced there. Yet, it was the Muslims who played a major hand in introducing it there. The name tulip probably comes from the Turkish word dulban or tuliban, meaning turban, since the shape of the blooms suggest an inverted turban. Changed into Latin, this became tulipa. It's considered as the King of Bulbs.
Tulips originated in the Tien-Shan and the Pamir Alai Mountain Ranges near modern day Islamabad, Pakistan. The Persians were familiar with tulips, but they didn't domesticate them as thoroughly as the Turks. The Turks cultivated it and along with other bulbous plants such as the narcissus, the hyacinth and the daffodil, have grown them for centuries. Occasionally they are found in southern France and Italy, leading botanists to speculate that they may have been brought back by Crusaders. Or they could be a remnant of Arab rule there.
In 1554, an Austrian Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, ambassador to Istanbul, took some tulips from Turkey home and grew them. Less than 10 years later a trader in Belgium imported the first shipment of bulbs from Istanbul; a year later they reached Holland. So the Dutch tulip was born. By 1620 tulips were regarded as a must for every palace garden in northern Europe.
Muslims had a hand in bringing beauty to Europe.
Tulips
