Special and divine 'Date'

Aylin Öney TAN - aylin.tan@hdn.com.tr

The date tree must be one of the most holy of all trees. It is considered sacred by three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During the Ramadan, the date fruit becomes the most exclusive fruit for the Islamic world, a must at every iftar table, to break the fast.

Semitic monotheistic religions that stem from the very same geography of the Middle East, all attribute sacred values to the date fruit and tree, probably because their origin is where the date has its roots. Inarguably, the tree of the Middle East is the date. In the arid geography of deserts, the palm tree is not only the most favored tree, but the sole tree that can survive in the scorching heat. The palm is both the umbrella and fan of the desert, its wide leaves protecting from the sun-rays and waving themselves to blow a breath of breeze to their own oasis beneath. The umbrella like shade of the palm provides shelter for small orchards and vegetable gardens creating batches of land where agriculture is made possible. The ideal palm grove is three-layered. Above is the natural shade provided by the palm leaves, under their screen an orchard of fruit or citrus trees, and beneath all salad greens, cucumbers, vegetables. The palm trees create a natural orangerie of some sort, forming a micro-climate and turning a piece of desert into an island of paradise. There is a common saying in the Middle East that the roots of the date tree belongs to the heaven, and the leaves to the hell, referring both to the serene cool oasis created by the tree, and to the deadly heat of the sun above. The date is crucial in the diet of the desert, rich in fiber and minerals, used in great number of versatile ways. No wonder Herodotus mentioned the date tree as a source of sustenance when describing Babylon: “Palm-trees grow in great numbers over the whole of the flat country, mostly of the kind which bears fruit, and this fruit supplies them with bread, wine and honey.”

Strangely, I realized the connection with Ramadan and dates at a rather late age, when I was living in Algiers. Algiers had been also the country where I began to admire the fruit, especially the fresh ones. That was the years of the late PM of Turkey, Turgut Özal, and before than imported food in Turkey was practically almost nonexistent. When I was growing up in Turkey, we never had dates on the iftar table, but it was another holy crop, the olive, that was reached out at every table to break the fast. Turkey was one of the few countries that was self-sustained in food supplies and importing food was forbidden, with only few food products like coffee allowed as foreign commodities. Developing my acquired taste for the date fruit and discovering the varieties and their taste nuances had been a revelation for me, thanks to the divine taste of Deglet Beida, and Deglet Noor of Magrebian date groves. Nowadays, I also attribute a unifying role to the unique fruit. According to Torah, date is the symbol of justice, while the tree stands for the life-tree in the Bible, and finally according to Islamic belief it is the fruit of the prophet with its roots in the heaven.

Three faiths, one fruit. This must be the time for a date!