Page 81 - Arabian Studies (I)

The Cultivation of Cereals in Mediaeval Yemen 67
107. Al-Ahkam . . ., Cairo, 1960, 118. Abu Muhammad may be al-Baghawf;
I am uncertain about Abu ‘AIT.
108. Cf. al-Umm, iii, 90; A. Grohmann, op. cit., i, 212-4. Ba Makhramah,
Fatawa, 95a-b, alludes to Baida’ and Hamra’ millet in Hadramawt. Ibn Batutah,
op. cit., ii, 383 has an account of the well irrigation (sinawah) of millet at Zafar.
109. RaisT is called ‘UmarT in Dhamar. Cf. E. V. Stace, English-Arabic
vocabulary, London, 1893, 91. Muhsin ... Bu Numaiy, Tasini, op. cit., 23,
alludes to RaisT dhurah al-shawl as irrigated from the well-known qanat near
Ghail Ba WazTr called Mi‘yan at Harth in the coastal region of Hadramawt. Shawl
millet is of the Saif season.
110. Lit., ‘chosen nights’.
111. Haidarah’s Ta‘izz almanac gives the following dates-1st NTsan
(14 April) millet sown in some parts of Hujarlyah; 4th NTsan (17 April) sowing
in Dh! Sufal and al-‘Udain before the ghurub of the Pleiades (i.c. up to 11th
NTsan (24 April)); 15th NTsan (28 April) the ten chosen nights/days for sowing in
Dhubhan and al-Salu; 18th Nfsan (1 May) sowing (zar‘) of millet in Qadas,
Suhban, and districts of the Ibb liwa'\ 25th Nfsan (8 May) the ten chosen
days/nights for the sowing in Tihamah; 27th Nfsan (10 April) the close of the
ten chosen days/nights for sowing in Dhubhan.
112. Cf. discussion supra, p. 2.
113. Unidentified.
114. In 1958 I found Ja‘aidf grows in Dali‘ - it is Saif millet. In 1972 it was
suggested to me that the name might be derived from the Uj‘ud tribe of Dali‘.
115. Aiyar is also called Mabkar. Cf. my ‘Notes on Subaihf territory’, Le
Museon, Louvain, 1953, lxvi, 129. The Ta‘izz almanac says there is sowing on
the 1st Aiyar in Shar'ab and J. Habashf, and on the second sowing of grain in the
running streams (ghuyuT).
116. The Ta‘izz almanac for the 8th Aiyar (21 May) notes the matlam of
Gharibah in the Shar‘ab mountains. I noted Gharbah in Dali*.
117. The Ta‘izz almanac has identical information entered at this date.
118. A Kibsf informant said it is called Dahainf in Dhamar.
119. This variety, which takes so long to ripen, would be found in such
places as Ba‘dan and the Ibb mountains.
120. It grows in Dali‘. Cf. my ‘Star calendars’..., 23.
121. The Ta‘izz almanac enters SabiT sowing from the 1st Tishrfn I
(14 October) to the 11th Tishrfn I (24 October). The almanac enters the rising
of the various stars of Ursa (Major) about twelve days after the dates given by
the Bughyah.
122. The word intar ah, so rendered, is not in the lexicons.
123. The verb is kahaf yikhaf On 27 June 1972, a little north of TaMzz, I
saw the kaliif going on in the fields. There it is called sha§ar, yash§ur, shafir, i.e.
ploughing between the rows of millet. In the northern Zaidf districts in the
mountains I was told that kaliif means to plough first along the left side of the
space between two rows of millet, then along the right side, and finally, when
the millet is breast-high, down the middle, so as to eliminate weeds. The first
two ploughings, called al-shahik al-awwal wa-'l-tham, are to break up and soften
the ground which has turned hard after watering. Qadf Isma‘Tl quoted me a