Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 18

speak and advises his mother to shake the
tree; succulent dates fall from it in profu-
sion, while a spring of fresh and limpid
water emerges from the sand. Refreshed
and nourished, the Virgin takes heart
and, strengthened by divine support, she
rejoins her kinsfolk with her child.
Besides dates, the date palm provides
other useful products. In dietary terms,
the pith of the young trunk or palmite
( ka º ar, ¡ a £ ab, si £ āb, ¡ ummār ), white and
of starchy consistency, resembles cheese
and is a delicacy still much appreciated
by gourmets. Similarly, when boiled, the
outer bounds or “palm-cabbage” taste
rather like artichoke. The sap rising in
the trunk may be extracted, providing the
drink known as “palm-wine” ( lāgmī ); it is
obtained either by pollarding the tree and
surrounding the cut section with a recep-
tacle which fills rapidly, or by slashing the
stem vertically, and collecting the secre-
tions in a manner similar to the procedure
used for the extraction of rubber. This
very sweet and refreshing liquid has the
disadvantage of fermenting quite quickly,
becoming charged with alcohol which
renders it intoxicating; as such, Muslims
must abstain from consuming it. In the
field of craftsmanship, the dried folioles
of the palms are collected by the basket-
maker ( ¶ awwā ) who weaves them into
mats ( alīl , pl. illa, ulul, ailla ) and small
baskets for dates ( daw ¶ ala , pl. dawā ¶ il ).
The ligneous fibres ( ¶ ulb, latīf ) of the
trunk are very durable and provide the
material for stout cables and ropes much
used by fishing fleets and coastal trading
vessel; after carding, this fibre provides
excellent packing material ( disār ) for the
caulking of ships and the stuffing ( a ª w ) of
mattresses and cushions, especially those
of pack-saddles and stools. Finally, for the
carpenter ( na ¡¡ ār ), the large trunks, well
dried and squared, constitute the base
material for building work in the form of
girders, rafters and pillars.

For the desert populations, the palmer-
ies ( adāi al-na ¶ l ) have always been
centres of sedentarisation and civilisation.
In Biblical times the date palm was quite
abundant in Palestine, and Phoenicia or
“land of palms” owes to it its name, from
the Greek φοινιξ . Theophrastus and Pliny
agree in attesting the abundance of date
palms in Judaea, and this is confirmed by
other historians, Strabo, Pausanias, Taci-
tus and Aulius Gallus. These testimonies
explain the representation of the date
palm on the Roman and Hebrew coinage
struck in this country, as a symbol of pros-
perity. It is thus that the city of Jericho was
known as the “city of palms”, and Strabo
described its rich palmery with admira-
tion. Similar evidence is to be found in
accounts of pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
in various periods, until the 17th century.
The enclosed valley of the Jordan and the
region of the Dead Sea also enjoyed this
source of nourishment, as did the out-
skirts of Jerusalem, Samaria and Galilee.
According to the remnants of Egyptian
and Assyrian monumental decorations, it
may be asserted that the date palm was
to be found in abundance from the Nile
to the Euphrates. Solomon had built the
city of Tadmur (Palmyra) “city of palms”
between Damascus and the Euphrates; it
was destroyed by the Emperor Aurelian
in 273 A.D. For their part, Muslim geog-
raphers and travellers of the Middle Ages
have not neglected to mention in their
accounts the great palmeries and oases
from the Ma ∞ rib to Irā and Persia. It
is necessary only to follow Ibn Baūa
who, in the 8th/14th century, travelled
throughout the Muslim world, from
Morocco to the Indies, to have, by means
of his valuable Rila , a virtually exhaustive
list of the great palmeries of the period,
most of which still exist today. In particu-
lar, he notes the comparable excellence of
the dates of Bara and those of Si ¡ ilmasa
and Iwalaten, in southern Morocco. At