The 2006 Politics of Dates

"Bin Laden," "Arafat" and "Chirac" dates were in the Ramadan dates hall of fame last year.

September 22, 2006

"Nasrallah" Hot Date in Cairo Ramadan Market

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies


CAIRO — Cairo fruit-sellers have a tradition of giving nicknames to their selections of dates before the holy fasting month of Ramadan and this year the leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah topped the popularity ratings, with the "Hassan Nasrallah" the most expensive in town.

"There's no doubt, it is 'Nasrallah the victorious' who gets first place," Abdou Kashush, who has 60 kilograms (130 pounds) of different types of dates laid out in little piles on his stall in the popular Cairo market of Rod el-Farag, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Thursday, September 21.

Charismatic Nasrallah, who emerged as a folk hero in the Arab world during the Israeli month-long aggression on Lebanon, surpassed the presidents of Iran and Venezuela -- Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez.

This year, a kilogram of "Nasrallah" dates goes for 24 Egyptian pounds (4.20 dollars, 3.30 euros), while "Ahmadinejad" dates sell for 18 pounds (3.14 dollars) and "Chavez" dates for 14 (2.44).

The two presidents, whose opposition to Israel and the United States have earned them vast popular support in Egypt, will have to wait another year before they can hope to succeed French President Jacques Chirac and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Ramadan dates hall of fame.

Following in the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), Muslims traditionally eat a date and drink milk to break the dawn-to-dusk fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, whose beginning is set according to the sighting of the moon, but is expected to fall on Sunday, September 24, according to astronomical calculations.

"Olmert" the Cheapest

Equally predictable was Ehud Olmert's poor performance on the dates market, with the Israeli premier duly succeeding Ariel Sharon in lending his name to the cheapest date on the market at 1.5 pounds.

There was no date bearing the name of Pope Benedict XVI, whose use last week of a medieval quotation describing some of Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman" caused a public uproar across the Muslim world.

Kashush, who even pinned a poster of Nasrallah on his stall, explained that political nicknames appeared after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, when one of the best varieties of dates was dubbed "Bin Laden".

"In the past, we'd use names from movie stars," he said.

Karim Ghazi, another fruit-seller at the Rod el-Farag market, said "the supply and quality of dates this year is generally on the rise while prices have gone down slightly.

The Nasrallah date is not cheap however and even if it only represents around one percent of my sales, I'm expecting to make a hefty profit," he added, displaying his own poster of Lebanese resistance leader.

Egypt is the world's top date producer with 1.1 million tons a year, accounting for 16 percent of world production, ahead of Iran and Saudi Arabia.