Page 78 - Arabian Studies (I)

64 Arabian Studies l
55. Qurrat al-'uyun, Vienna, 83b. Mawshah in DathTnah is a large town
according to HamdanT,Sifah, 91, but this may be another place.
56. Perhaps HamdanT’s/animat (note 41) should be read with a ha also.
57. Cf. note 199 infra.
58. Cairo writes birr which is the dialect of the north, San‘a’ and Dhamar. In
allusion to the difficulties in growing wheat, the Yemeni says: 'La taqul birr ilia
wahu Ji 'l-surr — Don’t say “wheat" till it is in the lap.’ i.c. until it is in the
grain-store, (Isma'Tl al-Akwa‘). Al-ShafiT, al-Umm, Cairo, 1321-5 H., II, 30 has
some interesting remarks on types of wheat and other cereals when discussing
the sadaqah payable on them.
59. The Bughyah, 19b, states that on the 4th TishrTn 11(17 Nov.) wheat is
sown in the cool parts of the Yemen. It is called al-Qiyad there and in it falls the
\vasmT-rain. Lane, Lexicon, describes qiyaz as seed-produce sown in autumn and
the beginning of winter so as to be reaped in summer. For the Bughyah qaiz and
saif are apparently the same - in JTzan it would end in late September. The
Ta‘izz almanac places the harvest of qiyad from the 31st Kanun II until the end
of Shubat (13 Feb.—13 March), which is Shita’. Rossi, L'Arabo parlato, 151,
calls Qiyad raccolto del tardo inverno and Ditha’ raecolto de primavcra-cstate.
60. F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schriftturns, Leiden, 1971, iv, 310
seq. discusses what is attributed to Democritus. Pauly-Wissowa says of him: ‘Als
Schrifsteller iiber Ackcrbau erwahnen den D. Varro und Columella, auch in den
Gcoponika wird manches auf ihn zuruck-gefiihrt.’ The reference of the Bughyah
is probably to the Georgica attributed to Democritus transmitted by Ibn
WahshTyah.
61. This word is uncertain in the text and might perhaps mean ‘fertile’.
62. Koran, xii, 47.
63. BaidawT, Commentarius in Coranum, ed. H. 0. Fleischer, Leipzig,
1847-8, i, 462, LCalla ya’kula-hu ’l-susu, lest the worm cat it.
64. Also/5wzrs/z.
65. Two'texts read Wasnl, but Qadf Isma‘11 pronounces it WisnT.
66. Mudhannab refers to the little tail at the end of each grain - the awm or
hairs.
67. Surab is Itasil al-saif, cropping in late August to September. Cf. Bertram !
Thomas, Arabia Felix, London. 1938, 18, Surub, October to December.
68. The Ta‘izz 1971 almanac, under 22nd TishrTn I (4 Nov.) has the
entry - most of the Ta‘izzTyah - the qiyad al-hintah; and under the 23rd of
TishrTn I, the last of the sowing (dhary) of al-Qusaibah.
69. Or al-Qiyaz, cf. note 59.
70. ‘ArabT is a small-eared variety.
71. Mayerhof reads Vienna MS., 3a.
72. i.e. in the mountains.
73. MM., 3a adds ‘and in the Mashriq’.
74. Mikhlaf Ja‘far (as above) is probably meant. It is so called after Ja‘far
al-ManakhT, and includes ‘Udain, Hais, etc. A mikhlaf \s a province or district; it
is composed of a number of groups (‘uzlah pi. ‘uzal) of villages.
75. E. Rossi, ‘Note sulP irrigazione’, op. cit.; 359, ‘aqar, terre asciutte, non
irrigate, bagnate solo dalF acqua piovana. Cf. HamdanT, op. cit., 199.