Dates

Dates makes the most nutritious food.


According to the Arabs, half a pound of dates with a glass of milk provide 80 per cent of the nourishment required daily by an adult and makes a very satisfying meal.


When the date-palm is young, the leaves are twisted together and matted up with loose fibers, which open and disperse as the leaf expands. Then the leaves split down to the main stalk, along the folds, and a fully grown large leaf, which offers very little resistance to the desert wind, so that the date-tree is able to stand firm in the fiercest of desert storms.


The average date-palm grows to about 70 to 80 feet in height. This plant is not propagated by seed in the ordinary way as the other plants do, but by suckers that spring out from the base of the tree.


The date-palm begins to bear fruit in its seventh year, and will continue to do so for the next 200 years, a single tree giving eight to ten branches a season. These trees are so valuable in the Arab world that they pass down as inheritance from father to a son, and often as a dowry to the daughter. An Arab’s social position is often determined by the number of date-palms, he owns in any particular area.


The date-seeds are ground up and form a nourishing feed for camels, while the fibrous part of the tree is used to make ropes, mats, baskets. The dried palm leaves and the bark of the date-palm are used for making thatched huts. Much of the ropes used by the ships on the Red Sea are used by fishing ships and trawlers that sail in the Red Sea.


In order to fully appreciate the delicious date-fruit, they should be gathered when they are ripe and eaten immedi-ately. But, some of the fruit is dried in the sun and is kept aside for export, and the large amount of sugar in the fruit prevents them from fermenting during this process.


Dates are also made into jam and syrups with sugar by the natives of the Land of Arabia, but for this they are gathered before they are fully ripe.


From times immemorial, it has been the practice of the Arabs to collect the flowers of the male tree and then climb up on the top of the female tree, to arrange the pollen from the male flowers to fall into the stigma of the female flowers.


A gum that exudes from the wounded trunk is employed in India for treating diarrhea and genito-urinary ailments.

Once upon a time, during the reign of Shah Abbas, a seaman with his crew sailed the seas, attacking the cargo vessels of the king, plundering from it all the valuables, taking the merchants prisoners and finally sinking their ships. He would then proceed to leave the merchants in a lonely island, where they would be rescued by some other ship passing that way. Finally, the pirate lost on his luck when he unwittingly attacked a military ship, which had been disguised as a merchant ship to capture the pirate. The ruse worked and the pirate along with his crew were brought in chains before the Shah, who asked him angrily, how he dared to trouble his ships, as he had done for so long.


“Your Majesty,” replied the pirate, “I will tell you the truth, if you promise me to spare my life and my companions. In return, I will abandon the dishonest trade forever and become a law-abiding citizen in your kingdom.” The Shah agreed to this condition. The pirate continued: “You should rather ask yourself the answer about why you trouble the people in different parts of your kingdom. I am the master of a single ship, and do but little harm, while you are the master of a huge fleet of ships that carry desolation and war, wherever they sail on the sea. I am dubbed a robber, whereas, you are called a king and a conqueror. If our fortunes had only changed, then I would have become more successful, while you would have become less successful and our fortunes would have reversed. But Almighty Allah has decreed it otherwise, and I now stand before you as your prisoner craving your mercy, and leave your Majesty to question your conscience, the difference between the two of us.”


The Shah was so struck by the remarkable argument of the pirate before him, that he not only forgave the pirate but made him a wealthy prince within his empire for giving up his wayward life, and he ordered his military men to call off all military operations into the neighboring countries and concentrate only on securing the borders of his kingdom. From then onwards, the Shah devoted everyday of his life working towards the welfare of his people, and soon won their affection.


Moral of the story: He is indeed strong who conquers different countries of the world. But one who wins the hearts of his people is a mighty king for he will have no enemy to fear for all will be his friends!