The Date Palm: The Origins

Seven thousand years ago, on an island in the Gulf, someone ate the fruit of a date palm and left the stone behind. It is among the oldest dates yet found in Arabia, and it settles something older than any kingdom or inscription: the date palm is native to the peninsula, and its fruit was being eaten here before the first cities.

The received story of ancient Arabia holds that its wealth came from the incense trade. The record says otherwise. The base of it was the farmed oasis, held together by the one tree that could grow where there was water. This is the history of that tree, and of the green islands it made possible, built and lost and built again across seven thousand years.