Agricultural Sayings of the Yemeni Sages and Farmers "Ali Bin Zaid" and "al-Humaid bin Mansour"

Abstract

Yemeni man is well-known for his tight and strong relationship with land since old ages. His identity and environmental structure are attached with land as its deed's maker. Moreover, ploughing and agriculture was the major economical source behind the development and the prosperity of old Yemeni kingdoms. Regarding these facts, this paper studies some famous agricultural sayings of the two most important Yemeni sages, poets, and farmers "Ali Bin Zaid" and "al-Humaid Bin Mansour". It attempts to analyze their sayings and come to light some of their knowledge in order to ingrain the importance of agriculture as the reason of Yemeni economic renaissance, to establish or sustain the original folk Yemeni literature, and relate the material or intangible heritage with Yemeni identity that can enhance the feeling of belonging.
 The paper is divided into four parts. The first one contains an introduction and a background of the two sages and an explanation of the major terms. The second part introduces some previous studies. An analysis and detailed discussion of the selected agricultural sayings is included in the third part. The last part presents a brief conclusion and some suggestions that have been deduced by the researcher.
 Key Words: Agriculture, Heritage, Folk Literature, Folklore, Ploughing, Sage.