Abstract
Cotton (
Gossypium
sp.) is and was an important textile fiber in Asia and Africa, where two cotton species have been domesticated,
Gossypium arboreum
and
Gossypium herbaceum
. The precise place and time of their domestication are still unknown, but genetic, archaeological, and textual sources allow the tracing of the first uses, dating back to the sixth to fourth millennia
bce
in the Indian subcontinent, the late emergence and dispersal of cotton in Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Africa from the first millennium
bce
onward, and the spread of cotton production during the medieval period in western Africa and the Mediterranean regions. Different written sources indicate that cotton was cultivated as a perennial crop in the form of trees or shrubs and that its production probably required less water than today.