Dates: A Global History

Edible

by Nawal Nasrallah

In Dates, Nawal Nasrallah draws on her experience of growing up in the lands of ancient Mesopotamia, where the date palm was first cultivated, to explore the history behind the fruit. Dates have an important role in their arid homeland of the Middle East, where they are a dietary staple and can be consumed fresh or dried, as a snack or a dessert, and are even thought to have aphrodisiac qualities.     In this history, Nasrallah describes the central role the date palm has played in the economy of the Middle East. This informative account of the date palm’s story follows its journey from its land of origin to the far-flung regions where it is cultivated today. Along the way, Nasrallah weaves many fascinating and humorous anecdotes that explore the etymology, history, culture, religion, myths, and legends surrounding dates. For example, she explains how the tree came to be a symbol of the Tree of Life and associated with the fiery phoenix bird, the famous ancient goddess Ishtar, and the moon, and how the medjool date acquired its name. This delightful and unusual book is generously illustrated with many beautiful images, and supplemented with more than a dozen delicious date recipes for savory dishes, sweets, and wine.

Genres: History, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Microhistory, Food Writing, Islam

136 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Elephas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author compares the date palm to human..how it have gender..the tale of a female date palm fell in love with a nearby male date palm..I can definitely relate to it..I love this book. I skip the recipe part but really want to try out the omelet and spicy date cake if I have time. Overall, really informative on Dates. I love medjool too by the way, really sweet.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

An informative but bland and disorganized book, Date is one of the more disappointing installments in the otherwise fascinating Edible series.

[Mohamed Tahar Hamada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come

[Pris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a very good history.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, another Edible book! This one felt slightly different from the others that I've read. This is probably because it's primarily about a raw foodstuff, instead of a prepared food. Much of the book was dedicated to the cultivation of dates. Still, it was all new to me, and fairly interesting. I really don't know if there is anything more in depth out there, so this may be it if you're interested in the history of dates.

[Bernadette]

Looking forward to this read - and seeing one my photographs in someone's else project! :-)