Dates in Arab Culture

Dates in Arab Culture Last year my mother and I took a trip to Palestine and I was immediately struck by the prevalence of dates in Arabic society. Everything was decorated with drawings of date palms and dates seemed to be the ingredient of choice for every Arab dish. My personal favorite was maamoul cookies and a cinnamon and date cake with Arabic coffee. Initially, I thought the dominance of Arab food and society was because it is a common source of vegetation in the Arab world. This is absolutely a part of it. For example, dates are one of the highest grossing and economically prosperous ventures since the 1970s. In addition, over 40 million date trees have been planted. This is not a new crop in the Arab world either. There is proof that date trees have been growing in some parts of Arabia since 4,000 BCE. Since then, the Arabs exported the seed all over the world. Today, Saudi Arabia is the globe’s largest date distributer. Dates have also come to have a deeper meaning in Arab society. Many muslims choose to break their fast by eating dates. This is because the Prophet Muhammad once said “If anyone of you is fasting, let him break his fast with dates. In case he does not have them, then with water. Verily water is a purifier”. In this quote, the Prophet Muhammad suggests that dates are just as purifying and cleansing as water. The Prophet’s wife also used, Sayyidah Ayisha, would give dates to those suffering from giddiness. It was very interesting to me that the importance of dates has a spiritual as well as a practical significance in the Arab world.