COUNTLESS NUMBERS OF PEOPLE consume a product of acacia trees every day without knowing it. Just review the ingredients in ice cream and many candies and you will likely find gum arabic. In addition to gum arabic, trees in the genus Acacia are sources of other foods and of medicine and timber.
Acacia includes more than 100 species of trees and shrubs found mainly in the arid and semiarid regions of Africa. There they are often keystone species, that is, species that have an impact on the local ecology disproportionate to their biomass. Perhaps five species of acacias grow in the Middle East and Sinai. These trees are conspicuous in the desert because of their often slanted, flat tops. Leaves are small, an adaptation that helps the plant conserve water. In times of water stress, the tree can drop its leaves. Flowers are white or yellow and borne in dense head-like clusters. Middle East acacias are armed with thorns and prickles. This feature is reflected in the Hebrew word for acacia, shittim (implying something sharp), apparently alluding to the thorns that are necessary armament to keep grazers away.
Because of the slow growth of the tree, the wood is hard and dense, therefore heavy. The heartwood of acacia is dark red-brown and attractive when polished. The heartwood’s deep color is due to deposits of metabolic wastes that act as preservatives, rendering the wood unpalatable to insects and resistant to water and fungi. Because acacia wood is especially durable, it is used in Sudan and other places in Sahelian Africa as a writing board.
Acacia albida, also known as Faidherbia albida, along the Khan River in Namibia. This acacia is widespread in Africa.
Natural exudation of gum from Acacia raddiana, at Wadi Feinan, southern Jordan. Gum can also be collected after the trunk is incised. While other species of the genus, such as Acacia senegal (the source of gum arabic), are better known for their gum, the gum from A. raddiana has also been harvested.
Sharp, strong thorns of Acacia raddiana, at Wadi Feinan, southern Jordan.
Acacia trees are a source of gum, including gum arabic, which is derived from Acacia senegal of Sahelian Africa. Gum was used in the compounding of the sacred incense (Exodus 30:34), but we do not know the source of this gum or whether it was derived from an acacia.
Homan (2002) has studied the structure of the tabernacle, the system of tents used by the Children of Israel in the wilderness that provided a portable worship center with poles and stakes that could be set up almost anywhere. The only wood used in the tabernacle was acacia wood, likely made from Acacia nilotica or A. albida because other species of acacia would not have large enough trunks. Based on present distribution of acacias in the Sinai, A. albida (Faidherbia alba) was the likely source of wood.
All structural features of the tabernacle—the ark of the covenant, the Table of Shewbread and its poles, the brazen altar and its poles, the incense altar and its poles, and all the poles for the hanging of the curtains as well as the supports—were made of acacia. This wood is mentioned only in connection with the tabernacle (Exodus 37 and 38) and perhaps Noah’s ark. Because of the weight of acacia wood, Homan (2002) suggests that the structural components of the tabernacle were not solid, but smaller pieces joined together. If solid wood were used, the structure could collapse under its own weight, and transport of the heavy pieces in the wilderness would have also been a problem.
A tree referred to as talh is mentioned once in the Quran as a reward for the “people of the right hand,” meaning the people of Heaven: “Those on the right hand—happy shall be those on the right hand! They shall recline on couches raised on high in the shade of thornless sidrs and clusters of talh, amidst gushing waters and abundant fruits unforbidden never-ending” (Sura 56:27–33, Dawood). My sources identified talh as either banana or acacia. Talh has been identified as banana in several reliable classical and modern interpretations of the Quran as well as in some classical Arabic dictionaries (Khafagi et al. 2006). Although banana is not native to Arabia, it is likely that Arabs were familiar with bananas, since banana was first cultivated in the Mediterranean region ca. AD 650, about the time of the rise of Islam. Further evidence is from etymology. Banana is from banan, Arabic for finger. Bananas, being sweet compared to acacia fruits, also fit well in the context of Heaven. The adjective used to describe talh in the Quran literally means “neatly stacked or piled one above another,” descriptive of individual bananas in a hand.
The adjectival use of the word talh in the Quran, however, describes talh trees rather than fruits. A critical reading of verses 27 through 33 of Sura 56 suggests that the two trees sidr and talh are mentioned as sources of shade rather than fruit. Acacia has flowers crowded in inflorescences and grows in habitats similar to sidr.
Talh has also been identified as acacia. Acacia is thought to be the tree of Bai’at Rizwan: “God was pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree, for He knew well what was in their hearts, and sent down tranquility on them, and rewarded them with an expeditious victory” (Sura 48:18, Ali). It grows in the deserts of Sudan, Libya, Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula. Its common name in Yemeni Arabic is talh, and it has lent its name to many places in the Arab world (Karkur Talh in Libya, for example). Farooqi (2003) states unequivocally that talh is Acacia seyal. In present day Sudan, the colloquial name for A. seyal is talh.
Acacia wood was commonly used in ancient Egypt for a variety of applications (Gale et al., 2000) including boat building. I have seen Acacia seyal used to build boats in Khartoum, Sudan.