Daniel Martin Varisco Livres

Focusing on indigenous knowledge, the book explores seasonal, astronomical, and agricultural insights found in Arab Gulf almanacs. It analyzes traditional information from local almanacs, Arabic texts, poetry, ethnographic interviews, and online discussions. A key aspect is the historical tracing of terms related to local seasonal knowledge, including weather stars dating back to the ninth century CE. Additionally, it addresses themes like pearl diving, fishing, seafaring, and pastoral practices, making it relevant to scholars of the Arab region and the Indian Ocean trade network.

There is a rich corpus of texts about agriculture during the Rasulid era (13th–15th centuries CE) in Yemen. One of the most important crops at the time was the date palm (nakhl), which was grown in the Tihāma coastal region, Najrān and Ḥaḍramawt. This essay provides a translation and analysis of the section on date palms in the 13th century agricultural treatise Milḥ al-malāḥa fī ma‘rifat al-filāḥa, written by the Rasulid sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf ‘Umar. Details are provided on the varieties of dates, their cultivation, pollination and protection from insects and diseases.