FRAGRANCES FROM HEAVEN

This paper explores the social life of smell in the early period of Islam. It is part of the  efforts to awaken  the historical  awareness of  the senses  in the  discipline  ofIslamic history and to contribute to the emerging field of sensory studies in which the senses are incorporated into our understanding of the past. The study applies the sensory history technique in investigating the context in which Muslim noses smelled in the past; in particular, their use of aromatic materials. The main question of the study is: how did  fragrance function in religious practices, and the daily  lives of early  Muslim society? After analysing  the  Quran  and the Hadith  as  the primary sources, the study  finds that religious  rituals and practices have encouraged  the massive use of fragrance products such as musk, ambergris, camphor, and saffron.Fragrance became  one of the  most needed commodities  in early Muslim markets.The  status of  fragrance  also  shifted  from luxury  goods afforded  only  by the aristocrat  classes  as simply necessity  goods due  to  the increase  in demand  by ordinary Muslims. However, the use of fragrance is also gendered. The study finds discrimination  and  restriction for  men  and  women  in  applying  perfumes.  The prohibition against women  from  wearing  strong  fragrance  in  public  was for protection, because the  Arabian  tribal  society in  the  seventh  century associated women  with  lower  status, and they were  more  frequently  subjected  to  sexual harassment. This initial research of the smell of  fragrance is expected to broaden our horizon of how early Muslim societies lived and what their world smelled like in the past.

Introduction:

How did the Arabian world smell like in the seventh century?

The Arabian Western Coast before the seventh century was known as a caravan traveling route that passed the ancient cities Mecca and Medina. Both cities provided caravans that came from far away with goods and water. The caravans brought trade commodities including spices and fragrances. This made trading of fragrance very important to the economy of the Arabs before Islam. Mecca was also the center of the spice trade where commodities traded included perfumes were then exported to the East and the West.

Aromatic products were Arabia’s most famous export, in particular, frankincense and myrrh since they were extremely effective in expelling bad Odors and pestilential insects. From the physical purification purpose, these two aromatics were adopted into ceremonial purification as they became an integral part of religious rituals in many pre-Islamic societies.

The Muslim historian, Asma’i, describes the use of fragrance by Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, the ruler of the Arabs, when ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the grandfather of Prophet Muhammad, entered to deliver a speech to him. The whole body of Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan was scented with ambergris and musk. In her work about imported aromatics in Arabic culture, Anya King describes five principal aromatic substances found in the Arabic culture namely musk (misk), ambergris (‘anbar), aloeswood (‘ud), camphor (kafur), and saffron (za’faran).

According to King, Aloeswood, musk, and camphor were not of Arabic origin. Ambergris was produced around the Indian Ocean and imported through the ports of South Arabia. Only saffron was an original product of the Near East, although the best saffron was imported to Arabia from Persia. King admits that these fragrances of foreign origin were repeatedly mentioned in the most important Islamic sources, the Qur’an and the Hadith, as well as in various Arabic poems. However, King concentrates only on the poetry aspect in her research by emphasising the erotic aspects of fragrances. She concludes that Arabic poetry is abundant with the symbolism of aroma and perfume. Among the most valued and important aromatics are musk and ambergris because they are rare and expensive goods imported from outside the Arabian Peninsula and at that time could be afforded only by the aristocrat class. Hence, fragrance in this period was among the luxury goods, applied in special occasions by high-class people.

The use of fragrance before Islam was widespread among aristocracy within the Arabian community. For example, the fragrance was used in local culture during the wedding ceremony or when someone proposed the marriage. It is mentioned in a narrative that in 595 CE, the richest widowed woman in Mecca, Khadija, wanted to marry Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him, PBUH). She made her father drink a lot of wine until he became drunk. Then she prepared a party by slaughtering a cow, perfuming her father with fragrances and wearing him in a Yemeni dress. When he was awake, he said surprisingly, “What is this meat? What is this perfume? What is this Yemeni dress?” Khadija said, “You married me to Muhammad ibn Abdullah.” Khadija’s father had always refused her previous suitors. Therefore, she made a plot to obtain his approval for the marriage, perfuming him as a way of persuasion. Although Al-Waqidi explains that this version of the marriage story of Muhammad and Khadija is not fully true, the scenting with aromatic perfumes was a common practice within the Arabian aristocrat families. 

When Muhammad (PBUH) reached the prophethood and he began the teachings of Islam; fragrance and Islam became something that could not be separated. Besides, during this period it was regarded as both hygienic and therapeutic because it could strengthen the senses. Most importantly, the use of fragrance could distinguish Muslims from Jews and Christians, as well as reinforce gender distinctions and restrictions during the early period of Islam. One of the dilemmas of the historiography around the use of fragrances during the early period of Islam is the availability of published materials from this period. There is a possibility that some authors have not read everything that is theoretically available especially on the religious use of fragrance during the classic period of Islam. I assume that the topic is not well represented in the Islamic sensory history and more research in the field is still necessary to be undertaken contribute to knowledge. Therefore, this article is an attempt to investigate about the use, production, and circulation of fragrance during the emergence of Islam in the seventh century based on Islamic sources, the Qur’an and the Hadith (the tradition of the prophet).

The main question I ask in this article is how did fragrance function in religious practices and daily lives of early Muslim society in the seventh century? By figuring out the answer to this question from the primary Islamic sources the Qur’an and the Hadith, I want to develop an understanding of how as a religion Islam has influenced the use of fragrance among its followers from the very beginning in the seventh century. In addition, I want to analyse the position of aromatic products in the society during the early period of Islam. My purpose in this article is to provide a description of the religious beliefs and practices concerning to the use of fragrance in the early period of Islam and to contribute in the development of Islamic history of the senses by studying the early period of Islam comprehensively from a sense: the smell of heavenly fragrances.

February 2020
DOI:10.22373/jiif.v20i1.5831
LicenseCC BY

Author:
Muhammad Thalal
at The University of Newcastle, Australia