Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ki
ª
k
) was an antidote to fever, and wash-
ing the body with it opened the pores,
a treatment also for exhaustion and for
travellers. Barley water had the proper-
ties of a diuretic and emenagogue. Barley
sawī
was good for fever.
These and other preparations are
also found in the mediaeval cookbooks
as purely food for pleasure. One barley
water recipe is designated especially for
Ramaān. Barley flour was also the chief
ingredient in the famous condiment
murrī.
A recipe for the beverage
fuā
(apparently
intended to be alcoholic) employs barley
flour, while in another similar prepara-
tion it is advised against as being harm-
ful; it was also used in the popular drink
asimā
and in the condiment of pickled
garlic. Finally, a recommended means of
preventing bunches of grapes from rotting
is to bury them in barley.
to be used as nourishment for those suffer-
ing from dropsy, whose stomachs should
be contracted and whose bodies should be
“desiccated”.
(A. Dietrich)
Barley
·
aīr
(Ar.) is barley (
Hordeum
L., Gra-
mineae family, the Arabic term being
applied to several different species), one
of the major cereals cultivated through-
out the Middle East from earliest times.
Mediaeval medical texts classify it among
the numerous “grains” (
ubūb
, which, nat-
urally, included wheat but also pulses like
lentils and beans) which, in bread prepa-
ration, formed an essential part of the diet
of all but the most well-off of the popula-
tion. The semantic association between
bread (of whatever substance), sustenance,
and life itself is found in several Semitic
vocabularies. Even if more widely con-
sumed than the scarcer (and hence more
expensive) and less hardy wheat cereal,
barley was judged less nourishing than
wheat. The term occurs in the Tradi-
tions, suggesting its use both in the baking
of inexpensive bread as well as in other
popular dishes like
¶
aīfa, talbīna,
º
arīd
and
sawī
.
By nature it was said to be moderately
cold and dry (in contrast to wheat, which
was hot and moist), which made it suit-
able for persons of hot complexion in
summer, or with a fever. Hence medical
opinion held that barley bread was also
convenient for young persons but not for
the elderly. The medical texts describe
the benefits of certain barley prepara-
tions: flour, or barley water applied to the
skin was said to remove blemishes as well
as providing protection against leprosy.
A preparation of barley and milk (called
(D. Waines)
Rice
Al-ruzz
(vars.
aruzz, uruzz
) is the Arabic
word for rice,
Oryza sativa
L., one of two
major cultivated species, the other being
the indigenous African variety
O. glaber-
rima
, both of which spring from perennial
rice. Arabic agronomical manuals do not
distinguish among the known varieties of
wild rice, although several types may well
have been employed in addition to the
domesticated kind.
From its place(s) of origin in India
or China
ca.
3,000 BC., the use of rice
spread to the Middle East, where it was
also cultivated in pre-Islamic times, albeit
in limited areas such as Mesopotamia
and Jordan. Knowledge of rice spread
slowly among the classical cultures of the
Mediterranean; its diffusion westward as
a cultivated crop is evident in Islamic
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