Food history: How saffron became indispensable to recipes for Spanish paella

The spread of saffron in Europe can be largely attributed to the spread of the Roman Empire, but when the empire collapsed in 476 CE, ushering in the Middle Ages, saffron production declined. It took another three hundred years before the Moors – Muslims from North Africa – brought saffron to Spain, where they had established hegemony in the Iberian peninsula that would last for eight hundred years.

During this period, considered the “Dark Ages” throughout Europe, arts, culture and science in the Islamic empire flourished. With their arrival in Spain, the Muslim conquerors established irrigation systems that dramatically increased productivity of native produce but also allowed for the import and cultivation of the foods of their homelands – notably the saffron crocus. Areas like La Mancha became centres of saffron production, with fortunes being built upon its trade. Several family coats of arms and municipal crests from this area of Spain prominently feature the saffron crocus, and the Spanish word for saffron, azafrán, comes from the Arabic word for the spice: zafaran. Both words are pronounced very much like “saffron”, with either a harder “z” sound at the beginning of each and more pronounced “ah” sounds in the middle, or...

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