Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ent. The important role which has always
been played by the date palms and their
fruits in the diet of sedentary and nomadic
populations of these zones is attested, in
Arabic, by the rich terminology devoted
to them. Regarding the tree itself, each
element of its structure is defined by one
or several terms which, for the most part,
have been retained in the local dialects.
After germination of the stone of the
date (
nawā
n
; Tamaa,
akebbu
, pl.
ikebba
),
there emerges from the sand a turion
(
fasīla, sālī, wadiyya
; Tamaa,
alkem
) which
can be transplanted. The young cultivated
plants (
a
ª
ā
) are arranged in rows to form
and orchard (
awr, āi
ª
). When the stem
of each (
¡
i
£
) has its crown of young
palms within reach of human hand, it
is known as a
āid
(Tam.,
te
∞
eleft, tesak-
ent
) and, above the height of a man, it is
called
rala
, then
aydāna
. When, after five
to six years, it has attained its final height,
which can be between 15 and 20 m., it
becomes the
bāsia
or
awāna
if it is a sin-
gle isolated tree. The date palm planted
beside water is called
kāria
or
mukraa
. If
it leans excessively and is in danger of
being uprooted, it needs propping up and,
when supported, it becomes
ru
¡
abiyya
. In
old age, the date palm loses its garland of
palms and bears no more fruit; it becomes
desiccated and is then
saū
or
unbūr
, suit-
able for felling. The overall mass of foli-
age (
¶
ū
) in a cluster consists of some fifty
broad leaves serrated in pinnate fashion;
the leaf or palm (green,
ª
aba
, dry
saaf
;
Tam.,
takarart
) has a firm central stem
known as
¡
arīd
which, when stripped
of the leaf, is used for various purposes.
It is this
¡
arīd
, used in the manner of a
javelin, which gave its name to the well
known equestrian sport which has been so
popular in Abyssinia, the Near East and
Turkey, from the period of the Mamlūks
to the present day, rivalling the game of
polo and the “bouzkachi” of the Afghans
and Mongols. The inflorescence, in spike
or spadix form (
ala, abba
) is enveloped
in a bract (
ināba, unnāba
), the spathe
(
kāfūr, kufurrā, ka
º
ar
) which opens with
the blossoming of the flowers (
ak,
∞
arī,
i
∞
rī
; Tam.,
a
∞
atū, eherer
). Those of the
male date palm (
fuāl
and pl.
£
ukkāra
)
produce pollen (
lāā
) which, in natural
conditions, is transported by the wind and
honey-gathering insects and deposited in
the calyx of the female flowers to fertilise
them. Natural fertilisation (
talī,
¡
ibāb
) is
often imperfect, being too dependent on
chance, and at a very early stage humans
developed a procedure for artificial polli-
nation (
ta
£
kār, tabīr
) of female date palms,
climbing the tree and shaking a bundle
of male flowers over the female flowers
to ensure good fertilisation. This practice
was followed by the Babylonians, accord-
ing to Herodotus, and was later men-
tioned by Aristotle's pupil, Theophrastus,
and by Pliny; it is still in use in com-
mercial palmeries. The fertilised female
date palm is called
mabūr
and at its first
pollination it is described as
muha
¡¡
ana
.
Certain date palms can be precocious
in producing (
bakūr, bakīr, mutaha
¡¡
ina
)
while others bear fruit only in alternate
years (
sanhā
). It can also happen, accord-
ing to the atmospheric conditions of the
season, that the dates of a productive tree
fall when they are still green; the tree is
then described as
¶
aīra
.
The date palm is often cited in the
urān (19 mentions) as an example of the
beneficence of Divine Providence towards
humanity; it is often associated here with
the vine, the olive, the pomegranate and
with cereals. Worth recalling is this touch-
ing legend evoking the miracle of the
birth of Jesus Christ (sūra XIX, 24-26):
the Virgin Mary retires alone beneath a
palm-tree to give birth to her child and
the latter having arrived, she laments,
driven to despair by her desolation and
loneliness; but the God-child, placed at
the foot of the tree, is immediately able to
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