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9780748668502 the Queen Of The Queen of Sheba’s Gift Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture Series Editor: Carole Hillenbrand A particular feature of medieval Islamic civilisation was its wide horizons. The Muslims fell heir not only to the Graeco-Roman world of the Mediterranean, but also to that of the ancient Near East, to the empires of Assyria, Babylon and the Persians; and beyond that, they were in frequent contact with India and China to the east and with black Africa to the south. This intellectual openness can be sensed in many interrelated fields of Muslim thought, and it impacted powerfully on trade and on the networks that made it possible. Books in this series reflect this openness and cover a wide range of topics, periods and geographical areas. Titles in the series include: Arabian Drugs in Early Medieval Defining Anthropomorphism Mediterranean Medicine Livnat Holtzman Zohar Amar and Efraim Lev Making Mongol History Towards a History of Libraries in Yemen Stefan Kamola Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke Lyrics of Life The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, 1261–1517 Fatemeh Keshavarz Mustafa Banister Art, Allegory and The Rise of Shiism In Iran, The Medieval Western Maghrib 1487–1565 Amira K. Bennison Chad Kia Christian Monastic Life in Early Islam The Administration of Justice in Bradley Bowman Medieval Egypt Keeping the Peace in Premodern Islam Yaacov Lev Malika Dekkiche The Queen of Sheba’s Gift Queens, Concubines and Eunuchs in Marcus Milwright Medieval Islam Ruling from a Red Canopy Taef El-Azhari Colin P. Mitchell Islamic Political Thought in the Islam, Christianity and the Realms of Mamluk Period the Miraculous Mohamad El-Merheb Ian Richard Netton The Kharijites in Early Islamic The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction Historical Tradition Austin O’Malley Hannah-Lena Hagemann Sacred Place and Sacred Time in the Medieval Medieval Damascus Islamic Middle East Konrad Hirschler Daniella Talmon-Heller A Monument to Medieval Syrian Conquered Populations in Early Islam Book Culture Elizabeth Urban Konrad Hirschler The Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt Nathan Hofer edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/escihc The Queen of Sheba’s Gift A History of the True Balsam of Matarea Marcus Milwright Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Marcus Milwright, 2021 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/15 Adobe Garamond by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 6849 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 6850 2 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 0 7486 6852 6 (epub) The right of Marcus Milwright to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents List of Figures vi Permissions x Acknowledgements xi Notes for the Reader xiii Timeline xiv Introduction 1 1 Travellers’ Tales: Experiencing Matarea 22 2 Resins in the Ancient World 53 3 Balsam in Egypt 87 4 The Balsam Tree and Balsam ‘Oil’ 118 5 Diplomacy and International Trade 153 6 Balsam in Medicine: From Greek to Arabic 182 7 Balsam in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine 210 8 Religious and Royal Dimensions to Balsam 241 9 Conclusion 273 Glossary 285 Bibliography 288 Index 326 Figures I.1 Bottle of Turlington’s Balsam of Life, c. 1880 4 I.2 Albarello drug jar used for ‘balsam of the philosophers’ 5 1.1 Fruit and flowers of Calotropis procera, known as ‘Apples of Sodom’ 24 1.2 Front cover of Michel-Marie Jullien, L’Arbre de la Vierge à Matarieh, fourth edition 27 1.3 Church at Matarea, Egypt, constructed from 1902 28 1.4 Chapel in the gardens of Matarea constructed by the College of Jesuits, Cairo 28 1.5 Sycamore fig in the gardens of Matarea 28 1.6 Woodcut map of Cairo from Sebastian Münster, Cosmographia; and detail 30–1 1.7 Illustration of the balsam tree and the walled compound of Matarea from Tractatus de herbis manuscript, Salerno, c. 1280–1310 32 1.8 Sketch of a manuscript illustration of the balsam tree and the walled compound of Matarea from a pharmacological manuscript including the Tractatus de herbis 32 1.9 Illustration of the chapel and surrounding features of the plantation of Matarea from the travel journal of Bernardino da Gallipoli 34 1.10 Water-lifting device (sāqiya) with the obelisk of Heliopolis and in the gardens of Matarea 34 2.1 Map of the sites associated with ancient balsam cultivation and production 54 2.2 Painted relief showing trees carried in baskets 54 list of figures | vii 2.3 Map of the ancient incense routes in Arabia and the Horn of Africa 56 2.4 View of ancient Petra, Jordan 57 2.5 Installation used in the production of perfumes, ʿEin Boqeq, Israel. After Fischer, Gichon and Tal, ʿEn Boqeq 65 2.6 Installation used in the production of perfumes, ʿEin Feshka, Israel. After Dov Porotsky in Hirschfeld, ‘The rose and the balsam’ 66 2.7 Ceramic juglet wrapped in palm leaves found in the Qumran region 67 2.8 Obverse and reverse faces of a ‘Judaea capta’ sesterce minted by Vespasian in 71 ce 69 2.9 Relief showing the Triumph through Rome of Titus, Arch of Titus, Rome. 71 ce 70 2.10 Inscription panel on the floor mosaic of the synagogue in En-Gedi, Israel 73 2.11 Detail of the floor mosaic in the church of St George, Madaba, Jordan 74 3.1 Stereoscopic photograph of obelisk located at ʿAyn Shams (Heliopolis) 90 3.2 Sheet of papyrus 92 3.3 Map of Cairo and the surrounding areas in the medieval period 94 3.4 Qubba of Yashbak min Mahdi at al-Malaqa bi’l-Matariyya, Cairo 102 3.5 Illustration of Yashbak’s palace 103 3.6 View of the Palace of Qawsun, renovated by Amir Yashbak min Mahdi, at al-Malaqa bi’l-Matariyya, Cairo 104 4.1 Balsam tree from the Arabic Dioscorides, dated 1083 127 4.2 Balsam tree being harvested 129 4.3 Balsam tree being harvested. From Kitāb al-diryāq 130 4.4 Balsam tree within a walled garden with guards 131 4.5 Balsam tree in the Book of Simples of Matthaeus Platearius 132 4.6 Woodcut illustration of a branch from a balsam tree from the 1591 edition of Prosper Alpin, De balsamo dialogus 133 viii | the queen of sheba’s gift 4.7 Illustrations of the fruit and wood of the balsam tree from John Gerard, Herball 134 4.8 Illustration of the fruit of the balsam tree from John Gerard, Herball 134 4.9 Woodcut illustration of a balsam tree from Prosper Alpin, De plantis Aegypti 135 4.10 Illustration of a balsam tree from Pierre Pomet, Histoire générale des drogues 136 4.11 Illustration of a balsam tree. From Benoît de Maillet, Description de l’Égypte 137 4.12 Mecca balsam (Commiphora opobalsamum): entire plant 139 5.1 Giorgio Vasari, Lorenzo de’ Medici receiving gifts from the ambassador of the Mamluk sultan 159 5.2 Reception of the Venetian ambassadors in Damascus, after 1511 160 5.3 Pilgrim ampulla, Palestine, sixth century. Museo del Duomo, Monza 166 5.4 Metal flask containing Zamzam water 166 6.1 Fragmentary head of Mithradates VI Eupator 193 6.2 Portrait of Emperor Nero from the obverse face of an aureus 194 6.3 Dioscorides and student holding a mandrake plant. Arabic Dioscorides 199 7.1 Diagram showing the recipe for pastilles of Hedychroum from Kitāb al-diryāq 222 7.2 Diagram showing the theriac of Andromachus. Kitāb al-diryāq 223 7.3 Pewter container for theriac, Venice 224 7.4 Theriac stamp, Venice, 1601–80 225 7.5 Drug jars for holding Mithridatium 226 7.6 Glazed albarello for storing theriac, Italy, 1641 227 8.1 Ceramic ampulla with relief images of St Menas and camels. Egypt 242 8.2 Bird-shaped gold ampulla, made in 1661 by Sir Robert Viner and the coronation spoon 254 8.3 Cornice block showing the anointing of a pharaoh, temple of Harendotes, Philae Island, Egypt 255 list of figures | ix 8.4 Samuel anointing David. Silver plate, 629–30 258 8.5 Samuel anointing David, Theodore Psalter, Constantinople, 1066 259 8.6 Drawing of a detail from an ivory plaque with baptism of Clovis, c. 850 260 9.1 Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century glazed dish set into a vault in the mosque of Nushabad, Iran 280 Permissions I.3, 7.4 Science Museum, London. 1.1a, b, 3.6 Wikimedia Commons. 1.3 Museums Victoria, Australia. 1.5, 1.10a, 3.1 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. 1.7, 8.5 British Library. 2.1, 2.3 Seyedhamed Yeganehfarzand. 2.5, 2.6, 3.3 Naomi Shields. 2.8, 4.1, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 6.3, 8.1, 8.4 Art Resource, NY. 2.10 Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 3.4 Victoria & Albert Museum. 4.3, 7.1, 7.2 Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 4.7, 4.8 McPherson Library, University of Victoria. 4.10, 4.11 Syndics of Cambridge University Library. 4.12, 7.3, 7.5, 7.6 Wellcome Collection, London.
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