Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Millet
The predominance of wheat was uni-
versal in Muslim lands. Only in very dry
regions, such as Kirmān and Nubia, was
£
ura
(sorghum) grown. Of course the
wheat grown was not of the same vari-
ety elsewhere. The geographer al-Bakrī
says that in the province of Si
¡
ilmāsa,
in western Morocco, there was grown a
small-grain “Chinese” wheat. All the texts
quoted so far refer to the golden age of
Muslim civilization. In the later Middle
Ages the cultivation of wheat declined
in many regions of the Muslim world, as
regards both the extent of the areas cul-
tivated and the quality of the grain, this
being a result of bedouinization.
The papyri, the Arabic chronicles and
the writings of various Arabic authors
contain extensive data on the prices of
wheat and of barley. In the Near East in
the Abbāsid period their price ratio was
2:1 and in the later Middle Ages 3:2. It is
evident that grain prices rose under the
Umayyad and the Abbāsid caliphs, both
in Irā and in Egypt, by 900 per cent or
even more. Prices in Egypt were however
much lower than in Irā. From the end
of the 4th/10th century the price of wheat
began to fall in Irā and from the end
of the 5th/11th century in Egypt, a fact
probably connected with the main trends
of demographic development: the growth
of population (i.e., of consumers) in the
caliphal period and the decrease from the
period of the Crusades.
The measures in which the grain prices
are given are in the classic period the
kurr
(2925 kg.) in Irā, the
∞
irāra
(208.8 kg.) in
central Syria, the
makkūk
of Aleppo (about
82 kg.), the
tillīs
(67.5 kg.) and later the
irdabb
(69.6 kg.) in Egypt and various
mudd
in the provinces of North Africa.
Arabic
djāwars
(< Persian
gāwars
) is
millet,
Panicum miliaceum
L. (Gramineas),
one of the oldest cultivated plants. While
in Europe it is now almost only used as
fodder, millet plays a prominent role as
cereal and victuals in many areas of Asia
and Africa. Although the ancient Spartans
ate millet, Dioscorides considers millet as
the least nutritious of all cereals. This is
adopted by the Arab translator, who ren-
ders the Greek
κένγχρος
with
kan
¶
arūs
(and variants). But already Ibn Māssa, a
contemporary of unayn, says that mil-
let, cooked in milk, or broth mixed with
millet flour and fat, is an excellent food.
On the nomenclature, the following can
be remarked: occasionally,
kan
¶
arūs
is
understood as both
¡
āwars
and
£
ura
,
and the first of these is equated with
the Mozarabic
banī
ª
uh.
Others consider
¡
āwars
as a kind of
du
¶
n
(also
alūmus
<
ἔλυμος
), by which may be meant the
small sorghum (Pennisetum spicatum),
widespread in the Sudan and also called
Moorish millet, while
£
ura
, also called
¡
āwars hindī
“Indian millet”, indicates the
great sorghum (
Sorghum vulgare
). In his topic
on plants, Abu anīfa equates
du
¶
n
with
¡
āwars
and considers it as a kind of
£
ura
.
In the course of time,
£
ura
has become
the leading expression for millet. Bīrūnī
knows already the Turkish term
dārī
for
this, and names the Indian synonyms.
As a foodstuff,
¡
āwars
has the incon-
venience of causing constipation, of
being hard to digest and of promoting
urine, but the constipation effect can be
removed by adding fat or purgatives,
and also by diluted wine or by baths. On
the other hand, when applied in a warm
compress, it proves to be a good rem-
edy against gripes and cramps. It has an
astringent effect and is therefore suitable
(E. Ashtor)
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