They were cultivated in ancient China as early as the 20th century BC and in ancient Greece around the 8th century BC.

In the 12th century, methods for growing these trees were written down in an agricultural manual by Abu Zakariya Ibn al-Awwam. He was a famous Arab farmer for the time, living in the area near Seville. His work, containing more than 1000 pages, was translated into Spanish and French in the 19th century.