Article: Making the date all it has long been, sweet to savory in Boston Globe (August 17, 2011) by Omar Sacirbey

In this small volume, Nasrallah explores the historical, cultural, religious, industrial, nutritional, and culinary aspects of the date and date palm, and offers quirky facts and food lore. One is the legend about North Africa’s popular Deglet Noor dates (“dates of light’’), named after a pious woman, Lalla Noora, who was too poor to buy a rosary to say the 99 names of Allah, so she made one out of date seeds. When she died, she was buried with the rosary, whose seeds sprung the now coveted date.

 http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-17/lifestyle/29897357_1_deglet-noor-cookbooks-dates