THE EMINENT HISTORY OF THE DATE

"Like a thread of peaceful, life-giving green, the concern with this tree and its cultivation runs through the almost six thousand years of a history that was as distinguished and fascinating as it was turbulent and beset by wars and violence."
(Hilda Simon, The Date Palm: Bread of the Desert)

Ancient Mesopotamia

The green line, to adopt Simon’s metaphor, begins with the cradle of civilization. The earliest evidence of date palm cultivation, from 4000 BC, comes from Ur, lower Mesopotamia, where it played a predominant role in Sumerian economic life. The temple of the moon god itself was constructed from its trunks. From lexicographical lists from the early second millennium BC, we learn of about 150 words for the various types of the palm and its different parts. When Herodotus visited Babylonia in the fifth century BC, he was fascinated by the sight of the date palms. Such a beautiful and generous tree that imposed itself upon the ancient scene was bound to play a central role in its people’s spiritual and religious rituals.

An impression of a third-millennium BC Akkadian cylinder seal at the British Museum shows a female figure sitting on a chair facing a male figure (a god, as identified by his horned headdress), with a date palm standing between them, and a serpent in the background undulating upwards. This scene suggested to some the temptation story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden but others see this as no more than a worshipper facing her god, and the date palm and the serpent as symbols of fertility. Whether Garden of Eden or worship act, the scene significantly depicts the date palm as an important tree worthy of being included in sacred rituals.

The date palm was seen as a divine gift, which possessed a special power. Dates were offered at marriage ceremonies as a symbol of plenty and fecundity, and fronds were used during magic ceremonies to protect from evil. The sorcerer would trace a circle around himself and whomever he was protecting with the words, ‘In my hand I hold the magic circle of Ea, in my hand I hold the cedar wood, the sacred weapon of Ea, in my hand I hold the branch of the palm tree of the great rite.’

The date palm was their livelihood, and cutting it down was a crime punishable by law. According to Hammurabi’s law, ‘If a landlord cut down a tree in another landlord’s orchard without the consent of the owner of the orchard, he shall pay one-half mina of silver [approx. 10 oz/285 g].’ And yet the date palms of the conquered in times of war were cut down. A Sumerian text entitled Lament of Sumer describes how they were destroyed in vengeance:

"The palm-trees, strong as mighty copper, the heroic strength, were torn out like rushes, were plucked like rushes, their trunks were turned sideways. Their tops lay in the dust, there was no one to raise them. The midribs of their palm fronds were cut off and their tops were burnt off. Their date spadices were torn out."

The aim of the enemy was no doubt to depopulate the city and prevent people from resettling.

According to a Sumerian legend, the date palm was the first fruit tree created on earth. The myth tells how in the city of Eridu in southern Mesopotamia, Enki (Akkadian Ea), god of the freshwater ocean, created the date palm with the help of Inanna (Akkadian Ishtar) and a raven. The raven performed actions which would be allotted to man, such as climbing the palm and pollinating it, and using the shaduf to irrigate the date palm grove.

It is not surprising then that the date palm in Mesopotamia was one of the most ancient symbolic forms of the concept of the ‘Tree of Life’, the sacred tree that connects heaven, earth and the underworld, and is the giver of gifts: wisdom, immortality and fertility.

Wherever the palm grew, it fascinated people with its beauty and utility. The mythical deification of the date palm as the tree of life is not unique to Mesopotamia. Myths related to Nigeria’s Yoruba people tell the story of a great god who looked down and saw the world beneath him as only a vast sea. He sent his sons down to start creating the earth. As they descended, he lowered a great palm tree that settled on the waters. The brothers landed on the leaves and almost at once one of the sons began hacking at the bark and made a strong palm wine from the sap. He got intoxicated and fell asleep, while the other son went down and established the world.

Ancient Egypt

When Herodotus visited Babylonia in the middle of the fifth century BC, he raved about the date palms he saw there. Not so when he went to Egypt, but he mentioned the palm wine used in mummification. Still, from abundant archaeological and architectural evidence we know that the date palm was grown and revered in the western Saharan oases and along the Nile Valley from early times, perhaps simultaneously with Near Eastern countries in Asia. However, the culture of the date palm did not become important until the third and second millennia BC. Many pictorial records from the Nile region depict the date palm. The third-millennium BC granite temple pillars of King Sahure at Abuseer were shaped like date palms, and bas relief sculptures and paintings illustrate stages of palm cultivation. A carving from the kingdom of Memphis shows a priest irrigating palms, and in decorations on tomb walls, date palms are shown as growing around rectangular pools.

The date palm was the abode and emblem of several deities. As a symbol of femininity, it was associated with goddess Hathor, the counterpart of the Mesopotamian Ishtar, goddess of life, joy, music, dancing and fertility. The date palm was also depicted as the abode of goddess Nephtys, who offered dates and water to the deceased.

The Egyptians used the leaves as a symbol of longevity and fertility. The god of infinity, Heh, was often shown holding two palm midribs symbolic of the passage of time. In temples the midribs were notched to record the cycle of time.

Ancient Judaism

Among the ancient Jews, the date palm had a special place. It featured prominently on the decorated gilded walls and doors of Solomon’s temple, ‘within and without’. In the Psalms, the righteous are said to flourish like the date palm. It is also invoked in one of the enchanting love songs of Solomon:

"How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof."

In the book of Genesis, the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden is understood by most to be a date palm. It is mentioned once again in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, ‘And on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her ruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’ The symbolic significance of the number twelve lies in the belief that ‘the palm tree was popularly believed to put forth a shoot every month, and hence became, at the close of the year, a symbol of it; and was the origin of the Christmas tree’.9 This ultimately drew on the ancient Egyptian notion that the trunk stands for ‘year’ and the leaves for ‘months’.

Like the ancient Egyptians, Jews carried palm branches during festivals. It was the symbol of the Kingdom of Judea, as a provider of food, shelter and shade. In the Old Testament, the land of ‘milk and honey’ was the land of Canaan located on the banks of the Jordan River, where date palms and date honey were abundant. In the Psalms of David the righteous are promised prosperity ‘like the palm tree’. Jericho was described as ‘the city of palm trees’.

The palm tree featured on Hebrew coins, as well as Phoenician and Carthaginian ones. To commemorate the conquering of the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a new, special bronze coin called ‘Judaea Capta’ was minted. It showed the Jewish state as a weeping woman beneath a date palm. Palm tree images were also struck on Greek and Roman coins. All this emphasizes the importance of the tree as an economic resource, and reveals that the date palm left its stamp even in places where palm trees were not traditional or native.

Classical Antiquity

Greeks and Romans loved the date palm as a decorative motif, and depicted it especially in mosaics. The tall Greek marble columns with their curling bushy tops are evocative of it. The date palm was associated with their chief god, Apollo. In the Odyssey, Ulysses compares Nausicaa to a palm he once saw on the altar of Apollo in the temple of Delos:

"Never, I never viewed till this blest hour
Such finished grace! I gaze, and I adore!
Thus seems the palm, which stately honors crowned
By Phoebes alters; thus overlooks the ground;
The pride of Delos."

In Greek myths, Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were born under a palm tree. The Delian palm gained increasing significance, as the island became the resort of Apollo’s pilgrims.

The ancient Greeks and Romans adopted the palm leaves as symbols for victory, worn by champions of games or military leaders as wreaths or carried by hand. Whereas some scholars trace such customs to Semitic origins, others argue that the sacredness of the palm fronds is more related to the myth of Heracles. The date palm was the first thing he saw on his return from the netherworld, and he crowned himself with its leaves.

Christianity

Christians use the palm branch to symbolize the victory of the faithful, as on Palm Sunday. It all started when Jesus entered Jerusalem as a victor and his followers greeted him with palm fronds, as was the custom in the region at the time. Soon enough, the Christan church adopted the palm frond as a symbol for victory and martyrdom, which led to the planting of large palm groves in Italy to supply Rome with palm fronds for Easter ceremonies. More expensive and much prized were the white fronds, which gradually gained in popularity. Today, from about the middle of summer, the leaves of the palms are tied together in a bunch so that the inner ones gradually lose their greenness and turn white due to lack of chlorophyll. The Spanish groves in Elche, which grow sweet edible date palms, are also a source of these peculiar leaves. The white frond became a symbol of heavenly purity in addition to the already inherited meaning as an ancient pagan symbol of victory.

To this day Elche is famous for its annual festival, known as the Pilgrimage to Elche. One of the activities included is a medieval miracle play featuring the death and ascension of Mary. It begins with an angel descending in a golden cloud shaped like a date palm to the aged Mary. The angel carries a golden palm frond, which he hands to her with the explanation that from it a date palm will grow on her grave.

Islamic Lore

To Muslims, the date palm and its fruit was a God-sent gift, a miracle food capable of healing body and soul. According to a famous saying by the Prophet, ‘A house empty of dates is a poor house indeed.’ It was their livelihood and Tree of Life. The forbidden tree in paradise was said to be a date palm. It is repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’an as a token of God’s bounty to his creatures. In one of the verses, a beneficent word is compared to a beneficent tree with roots deep in earth and head high up in heaven.

In the story of the miraculous birth of Jesus in the Qur’an, Mary was to shake the trunk of the date palm so that she might eat the falling dates. The miracle here is not only having the strength to shake the trunk, but also a date palm carrying fresh dates in winter.

A saying by the Prophet urges Muslims to honour the palm, for it is their paternal aunt. It is Adam’s sister. According to Muslim lore, the date palm was created from what was left of Adam’s clay. When the angel appeared to Adam after the creation, he said to him, ‘You were created of the same material as this tree which shall nourish you.’ The analogy between humans and the palm is elaborated on. It stands upright, the sexes are separate, it needs to be pollinated by the male to produce, the pollen itself is said to smell like semen. If its head is cut off, it dies; and if its fronds are cut off, it cannot grow new ones in the same place. Adam is described by the Prophet as a tall man with lots of hair on his head, like a tall date palm.

Circulated legends tell how the date palms were honoured and moved by the presence of the Prophet. Once a date palm bent its head and said, ‘Peace be upon you’, when he ate from its fruit. The mosque in which the Prophet was buried was the first Islamic mosque built in Medina after he and his followers migrated to it. It was built mostly of palm trunks and fronds. The first muezzin, Bilal, used to climb palm trees to call the faithful to prayers five times a day. The Islamic minaret was inspired by the date palm.

When the Arabs ruled Andalusia for almost eight centuries, they spread their love and knowledge of the date palm to many regions in Spain and Italy, climate permitting. The tree became their identifier. When in the fifteenth century the Arabs were expelled from Spain, the palms were almost completely exterminated by the Christians, who uprooted them as they were looked upon as the relics of the non-believers. Only the date palm groves of Elche in southern Spain escaped the ravages of politics and religion.

Tree of Love

To the Arab mind, the date palm is perfection itself, and its beauty and utility never ceased to fascinate. Aside from religious writings, the tree prominently featured in their belles lettres and folklore. A couple of didactic verses advise:

"Rise above ignobility and be like the date palm.
When stones are thrown at it, it retaliates with sweet dates."

Being on top of the date palm is a common metaphor for glory, and the coveted unattainable. Since goodly appearances can sometimes be deceptive, an impressively attractive person with no real substance is said to be as tall as a date palm with the brain of a goat. A beautiful anonymous Arabic poem was freely translated into English in the nineteenth century by Bayard Taylor, whose imaginative rendition complemented the poet’s infatuation with the palm:

"Next to thee, O fair Gazelle!
O Bedowee girl, beloved so well,
Next to the fearless Nejidee,
Whose fleetness shall bear me again to thee –
Next to ye both I love the palm
With his leaves of beauty and fruit of balm.
Next to ye both, I love the tree,
Whose fluttering shadows wrap us three.
In love and silence and mystery.
The noble minarets that begem
Cairo’s citadel diadem
Are not so light as his slender stem.
He lifts his leaves in the sunbeam glance
As the Almehs lift their arms in dance;
A slumberous motion, a passionate sigh
That works in the cells of the blood like wine.
O tree of love, by that love of thine
Teach me how I shall soften mine."

When the American writer Mark Twain was asked to describe the date palm, he said it looked like a liberty pole with a haycock on top of it.

Celebrating the Date

It used to be that the seasons for harvesting the dates and pollinating them were big occasions for celebrations and revelries. In ancient Mesopotamia, for instance, springtime was a big time for New Year festivities, during which theritualistic marriage between Ishtar, patron of the date palm, and the ruling king was performed to bless the crops. Of the rare places where the date harvest is still celebrated like in the old days is the Tibesti village at the borders between south Libya and northern Chad. A largely isolated Muslim tribe of Teda lives there, to whom date palm cultivation still plays an important role. The highlight of the year is the date festival, held early in the autumn. They celebrate it with marriages, circumcisions, dancing around date palms and carousing on date wine.

It is more common in the Middle East to use the palm in social celebrations. During wedding ceremonies in Bahrain, for instance, people decorate the entrance of the house with palm leaves, as they indicate this happy occasion and bring blessings to the newlywed couples. In Oman people still plant a date palm offshoot for every newborn son, following the old tradition. Date festivals in the Gulf countries have started to take place in recent years, mostly to encourage farmers by arranging competitions and distributing prizes for the best date.

Ironically, for the largest date celebration today we have to go to the New World. Every February the National Date Festival is held in Indio in the Coachella Valley in southern California. A 2004 announcement for the festival reads:

"A scene out of the Arabian nights, the National Date Festival and Riverside County Fair is held each year in date-crazed Indio. There are camel and ostrich races, an Arabian Nights Pageant outdoor musical, the Blessing of the Dates Ceremony, and more Middle Eastern appreciation than you’ll find in the whole rest of the USA."

By Nawal Nasrallah in "Dates - A Global History", Reaktion Books (The Edible Series), London, 2011, excerpts chapter 4. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

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