"The Date Palm, the Symbol of the Willayat"

Al Fardh

The date palms and Omani people are strongly related to each other throughout years. Omanis greatly depend on the date palms as they use them as food and medicines as well as Omanis consider the palms as their land and sky according to the firm relationships between each other. Also, the Almighty Allah blesses people to have such plants like the date palms and the Prophet Mohammed Peace Be upon Him describes them as mothers and aunts; that is because of their main roles in people's lives. The date palms have been given different names in the past. For example, Egyptians called them "Banart" which is a Greek name found in their drawings and monuments. The Babylonians, Assyrians and Sumerians gave the date palms the symbol of the power of creation in nature so that they called them The Plant of Life.  What is so interesting in the date palms is that the number of chromosomes in them is equaled to those in the human beings.

The dates have got a lot of nutritional and medical benefits. The Babylonian mentioned about 365 benefits while the Palmyrenes mentioned approximately 800 benefits of dates. In addition, dates are considered one of the most nourishing fruits as they contain a great deal of vitamins A and B, carbohydrate and salts.  

Al Fardh is one of the commonest kinds of the date palms in Samal. It has been chosen to be the symbol of the Willayat as well as it has a good economic benefit for farmers in Samail as a lot of people tend to buy this kind to eat and to extract honey from the dates. Al Fardh is spread all over the willayat and there is a saying that describes the importance of it among people which is, 'Samail has a diagonal Fardh'. People say it because they claim that the Fardh admires Samail only, nowhere else.

Besides the Fardh, there are other kinds of date palms in Samail such as Al Khalass, Al Khenaizi, Al Na'eem, Zabad, Al Barni, Al Khalali, Handhal, Khesab, Al Battash, Qash Al Manhi and Qash Hassass.