Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 183

Rose Water

saffron, musk, camphor or even cloves.
This essence could be obtained from the
petals ( wara ) of the fresh flower ( ward arī )
or of the dried flower ( ward yābis ), when
they had been ground and set to macerate
in the cucurbit ( ara , i.e. lower part of the
alembic; then, by means of the alembic
( al-anbī , here the coil ) and its heating,
the rose water was collected by distilla-
tion ( taīr ). The procedure of sublimation
(rudimentary distillation, taīd ) was also in
use, according to al-Nuwayrī.
As regards the medicinal properties,
the sources attest that distilled rose water
was used, internally or externally, in the
treatment of migraine, nausea and anxi-
ety, but, especially, in eye-washes, to com-
bat ophthalmia. Mediaeval treatises on
pharmacology and of ophthalmic medi-
cine lay particular stress on the salutary
properties of rose water as a wash for
the treatment of numerous conditions of
the eye, as well as for their prevention. The
emollient and stabilising properties of rose
water, often combined, in this case, with
egg white, were appreciated after opera-
tions for cataract. Use of this essence as
an eye-wash is still common today and
traditionally-inclined doctors readily pre-
scribe it. Besides the purely medical use of
this commodity, a number of texts refer to
its benefits in the sphere of cosmetics and
aesthetics, especially as a deodorant and
as a cooling agent.

In Arabic mā al-ward , sometimes also
found in the single word form al-māward ,
which suggests that among doctors and
apothecaries, this commodity was per-
ceived as something very specific), an essen-
tial preparation in Arab pharmacology.
Use of rose water is to be seen in the
context of the knowledge professed by
the Arabs of the medicinal and cosmetic
properties of the rose and, clearly, their
mastery of the technique of distillation.
While the treatises evoke numerous vari-
eties of rose, the generic term for which
is ward (a word originally denoting, in
classical Arabic, any flower of shrub or of
tree) or indeed the Persian gul , they are
not immune from ambiguity. Thus the
red rose is sometimes called ward amar ,
sometimes awam , a term reserved by
some for the damask rose. The variet-
ies most frequently attested are three
in number, if the wild rose is excluded
( nasrīn: Rosa canina ); white rose ( Rosa alba:
ward abya, waīr ); five-leaf rose ( Rosa cen-
tifolia: awam ); damask rose ( Rosa dama-
scena: ward ūrī, ward gūrī, ward baladī, ward
āmī ). Rose water was extracted from
the petals of the last-named, pale red
in colour and flowering from the spring
to the end of summer. It may be noted
that the rose was among the ingredients
of various other concoctions such as rose
honey ( ulanubīn ) or julep ( ulāb ).
Rose water was thus obtained by the
distillation of the damask rose ( ward ūrī ,
the nisba referring to the town of ūr
in the south-west of Persia, a technique
described in detail by al-Nuwayrī, with
reference to several recipes, on the basis
of his usual source, namely the Kitāb
al-Arūs of al-Tamīmī. But, contrary to
what might be supposed, the majority of
recipes for rose water blended this flower
with other medicinal herbs such as aloes,

(F. Sanagustin)

Musk

Arabic misk is the gland secretion of
the male musk deer ( Moschus moschiferus
L., Cervidae ), discharged from the musk
pouch, the prepucial bag-like formation
near the navel of small deer resembling
roes or gazelles. According to a tradition,