Page 80 - Arabian Studies (I)

66 Arabian Studies I
90. From Qii* al-Bawn, the famous wheat-growing district north of §an‘a\
91. ‘Aqar was here explained as ground watered with the ma* al-KharTf i.c.
rain of the last part of the month Ab which remains in the soil. Cf. note 75.
92. Hadur of the Ban! Shihab is west of §an‘a\
93. Probably thin bread of the type known as ruqaq (QadT Isma‘71). This sort
of bread is mentioned by HamdanT, supra, p. 33.
94. MaisanT is a Dhamar type of wheat. Cf. HamdanT, Sifah, 199. The
Muntakhab min al-fiqh of the first ZaidT Imam of the Yemen, (London Ph.D.
thesis edit. A. K. Kazi), fol. 118, mentions burr MaisanT, b. abyad, b. 'ArabT, and
b. Tisharl (?). It is further mentioned by Jahiz,/C al-Bukhala\ Cairo, 1948, 53. 1
found it growing in Dali* (Dhala) in 1958. Maisan is said to be a star, and this is
confirmed by the Calendricr de Cordoue, 176, but it is said to be really 6 days of
the star al-Haq‘ah.
95. Cf. al-Shafi‘7, al-Umm, loc. cit., and iii, 91; Yahya b. Adam, trans. Ben
Shemesh. op. cit., i, 82. Ibn Bat Utah, trans H. A. R. Gibb, The Travels if Jbn
Battuta Hakluyt Soc., Cambridge, 1958-, ii, 383, mentions it at Zafar/Zufar, and
says it is a sort of suit (barley). The Yemen Republic paper al-Thawrah, March
1966, calls it farTdal-naw* wa-l-nakhah, unique of its sort and in its smell.
96. The mijashshah is said to be like the /tf/w-quern, but simpler and it
crushes more coarsely. It is the subject of a well-known Iraqi colloquial poem by
‘Abbud al-KarkhT, DTwan, 1st edn., n.d., 2 al-Majrashah, 2nd cdn., Baghdad,
1956.
97. HamdanT, Sifah, 199 has Nusul, as also Husain al-‘Arsh7, Bulugh
al-maram fTshark miskal-khitam, Cairo, 1939,439.
98. This corresponds closely to the Ta‘izz almanac of Haidarah which records
for the 30th of Kanun 1(12 January) theqiyad 4alas baida\
99. A mijrash was described as a type of mathan, a flat stone with a roller for
crushing grain etc.
100. Cf. Yahya b. Adam, trans. Ben Shemesh, op. cit., 1,82. Muh. al-Khatlb
al-IskafT, MabadV al-lughah, Cairo, 1325 H., 184, says suit is a sort of husked
(muqashshar) barley, i.e. barley with no husk.
101. It is called HabTb in Dhamar. A. Grohmann,Siidarabien als Wirtschafts-
gebiet, Brunn-Prague, 1930, 33, i, 215 gives types of barley as HabTb, Shilb,
Saqlah, Samra, Bakur. Grohmann’s section on cereals, 207—17 is most
informative on distribution of types of cereal by districts, times of sowing, etc.
Ripe barley ears moistened and parched are called qarl al-shaTr. In the north
qalT, parched grains of ‘atar, peas, are eaten as in Europe one eats fill Sudani,
groundnuts.
102. Abu Muh. al-Husain ... al-BaghawT — cf. Brock., Gal, i, 363, Sup., i.
620. al-Qadf Husain b. Muh. al-Marw al-RudhT was his teacher in jurisprudence.
103. Or‘temperament, humour1.
104. Al-Umm, iii, 90.
105. Al-BuwaitT, Brock, Gal, i, 179, Sup., i, 304; al-FuranT, Brock., Gal, i.
387, Supl, i, 669. Al-§aidalan7 may be the person mentioned by al-DhahabT,
al-7to\ edit. Fu’ad Saiyid, al-Kuwait, 1961, iii, 69.
106. Doubtless the celebrated Shafi‘7 jurisprudent Abu ZakarTya’ Yahya .. .
al-NawawT, Brock., Gal, i, 394, Sup. i, 680.