General Information
A fruit from a tree belonging to the Moraceae family, coming in many varieties, of which there are white, black and red. The white type is made up of multiple varieties and types, amongst which there is ‘wadnaksi’ which is featured in the sunna of the Prophet twice, and it is the finest and best of the fig species.
The black fig also comes in multiple varieties, mentioned just once in the sunna under the variety of ‘teen’, it is delicate and is the very best of the black figs, amongst which is ‘ghudani’ as it is known in the north of Morocco, Tlimcen being renowned for them, featured twice in the sunna.
Red figs come in the following varieties: naqal, ghazli and hamra’.
The fig is the best of all fruit and the most beautiful, it does very little harm and a great deal of good.
Its Nature
Hot in the third degree, dry in the first.
Uses and Characteristics
Useful against colic and its demonstration of heavy fever, and if mixed with strands of barley and fenugreek and made into a poultice clears swelling. Cook the gum from the leaves with hyssop and it purifies the chest and lungs, treating pain in this area and from long-term coughing, if boiled it is helpful in treating swelling in the windpipe and muscles of the tongue. Treats the decay and rotting of skin and gets rid of moles, warts, vitiligo when used as a poultice. Corrects discolouring due to swelling and other illnesses. Treats dimples and whitlow, especially when used alongside german iris.
Alternative
Dates
From Hadiqat al-Azhar (The Garden of Blossoms) by al-Wazeer al-Ghassani, a 16th Century pharmacopoeia. Translated by Miriam Hicklin.