“Spinach is thought to have originated about 2000 years ago in ancient Persia from which it was introduced to India and later to ancient China via Nepal in 647 CE as the “Persian vegetable”.^[8] In 827 CE, the Arabs introduced spinach to Sicily.^[9] 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 raʼīs al-buqūl, ‘the chieftain of leafy greens‘.^[10] Spinach was also the subject of a special treatise in the 11th century by Ibn Ḥajjāj.^{[11][better source needed]}

“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.^[8] Spinach is mentioned in the first known English cookbook, the Forme of Cury (1390), where it is referred to as ‘spinnedge’ and ‘spynoches’.^[8][12] During World War I, wine fortified with spinach juice was given to injured French soldiers with the intent to curtail their bleeding.^[8][13]