Page 49 - Arabian Studies (I)

The Cultivation of Cereals in Mediaeval Yemen 35

(jirbah) and, in Tihamah dialect, the dhahab] fills from the
6Y///-flood, and, when full, tahaf and bulrush-millet [ditk/in] are sown
in it. The water is absorbed [by the soil], its shoot [nabt] springs up,
and for the duration of a month and days the field does not
drink - until it [the crop] is cut and [the field] is [re-] ploughed for
the sowing [zar‘] I have mentioned. Often there is sown [turih] in
the field along with millet seed, sesame42, cow-pea [Lubiya1]4 3,
green peas ['atar], cucumber [qiththa'], melon [bittlkh], and
pumpkin [qar‘]He states that this is the practice in such districts as
Najd (the area east of the Sarat of the Yemen), Najran, the Jawf,
Baihan, and the whole of Tihamah. In certain places in Najran, he
says, there is a variety of millet cane (qasaba/i) which has two, three,
or more mitw, heads (sunbul al-dhurah).

Rasulid Gardens
In a number of places the author of Bughyah alludes to horticultural
experiments made in the royal holdings (al-amlak al-salda/i) such as
his father’s successful trials of rice at al-Jahmairyah and another
place (infra). One wonders if he followed Ibn Bassal’s instructions
which he quotes.
The Rasulid sultans, says Qalqashandl,44 resorted to Ta‘izz as a
summer place (masif) and to ZabTd for wintering (mashta). In the
little village at the foot slopes of Jabal Sabir, overlooking Ta‘izz,
called Tha‘abat from the spring (ghail), there was a garden with a
royal dome and sultanic residence looking on to trees brought from
everywhere so that in it the fruits of both Syria (al-Sham)4 s and
India grew together. He also speaks of a park (muntazah) called
al-Sahlah46 above Ta‘izz into which the Lord of the Yemen had led
water, having built large buildings there in the midst of a garden.
Khazrajl’s chronicle of the Rasulid dynasty certainly gives the
impression that the Rasulid court regularly commuted between
Ta‘izz, ZabTd and al-Mahjam - these with the Rasulid village of
Tha‘abat were, incidentally mint cities. In 708 H./1308-9 A.D.
the Rasulid sultan al-Mu’aiyad built the palace known as al-Ma‘qilT47
which had a pool (birkah) 100 by 50 cubits in size with brass birds
spouting water on the sides, and a fountain as described by G. R.
Smith (p. 121). In the same year the Sultan also built a second palace
in the garden of Salah of Ta‘izz where the late Zaidi Imam Ahmad
also had a castle in which he was besieged in 1955. This, I think,
must be the same as al-Jahmallyah4 8 garden of al-Bughyah. A certain
Bustan al-Shajarah at Ta‘izz is noted in 726 H./1326 A.D.4 9
I first visited both Tha‘abat and Salah in December 1969 and