Amoung other things, the Arabs introduced new techniques for the irrigation and cultivation of crops, as well as grain mills and sugar refineries. They also brought ingredients from the Arab world that were new to the island. In kitchen gardens aubergines and spinach were planted; orchards with lemons, oranges, and mulberries; fields were sown with rice and sugar cane; and date palms appeared in many gardens.
In the second half of the eleventh century, the brothers Robert and Roger de Hauteville conquered Sicily, and Roger (1031-1101) became
