Black Pepper from Malabar

through different processing methods. Muziris was located near the modern city To produce the most common, black of Kodungallor on India’s Malabar Coast. Geography pepper, the peppercorns are picked unripe In addition to being the source of black In The and allowed to sun-dry, creating a black- pepper, Malabar’s location on the Indian ened and shriveled fruit rich in fl avor and subcontinent near the center of the Indian News™ spiciness. Chili peppers, on the other hand, Ocean made it a natural hub for trade and are prized for their extreme “heat,” and are transshipping. People of many differing from an entirely different genus, Capsicum, ethnicities and religions, including the a member of the nightshade family. Persians, Jews, Christians, Chinese and Neal Lineback Black pepper has been used for culinary, traders from other parts of India, descend- and Mandy Lineback Gritzner medicinal and ritual purposes since at least ed upon Malabar to participate in the valu- the fi rst millennium B.C. Its uses stretch able pepper trade. However, it was the back to ancient Egypt, where peppercorns arrival of Arab traders with their new re- BLACK PEPPER were placed in the nostrils of the mummi- ligion, Islam, around the seventh century fi ed corpse of the great pharaoh Ramses A.D. that truly affected the future culture FROM MALABAR II, who died in 1213 B.C. Peppercorns and of the Malabar Coast. A recent article in Saudi Aramco World ground black pepper were used medici- Though the Arabs had a reputation as magazine details the Malabar Coast, an nally in ancient Greece and the Chinese a desert people, they had long been in- area on India’s spice coast where black have cooked with it since the fourth cen- volved in maritime trade. Through the pepper is native. This pepper has been a tury. In ancient Rome, peppercorns were unifying and expansionist power of early highly prized spice since ancient and me- traded ounce for ounce with precious met- Islam, the Arabs began to dominate Red dieval times. als and were used as an accepted form of Sea commerce and this included its most The Malabar Coast is located on a nar- “currency” throughout the Middle Ages. profi table commodity black pepper from row slice of land on the southwestern tip The period from about the fi rst century the Malabar Coast. of peninsular India. The Arabian Sea lies to B.C. to the fi rst century A.D. saw the com- The Arabs established trade settlements its west and the West- on the Malabar ern Ghats mountain India’s Black Pepper Coast distinguished range is to the east. by a blend of Is- TUR KME 0 500 mi The region, which is TURKEY NI TAJIK. lamic traditions and ST now part of the In- AN South Indian cus- N dian state of Kerala, Mediterranean SYRIA Caspian TA CHINA toms. Today, Mus- IS Sea LEB. Sea N lies within the humid IRAQ A lims constitute one- ISRAEL H equatorial topics. IRAN G N quarter of Kerala’s A F T Summer monsoon A S population, mostly Cairo Persian I N JORDAN Gulf K New E rains nourish the fer- PA PA concentrated in the KUWAIT Delhi L tile soil, supply the EGYPT north of the state on SAUDI extensive network of INDIA the historic Malabar R ARABIA backwater canals and e N Coast. Eventually, d U.A.E. A support the region’s S M of course, the Por- e Western a O Arabian rich biodiversity. Pip- Sea Ghats tuguese, Dutch and er nigrum, the plant ERITREA YEMEN Bay of British came to dom- 15 N Bengal that produces black SUDAN MALABAR inate much of Indian pepper, grows par- DJIBOUTI COAST trade with colonial ticularly well in the SOMALIA Kondungallur SRI control of India by rich soil and humid ©2008 ETHIOPIA LANKA the British by about climate of Malabar. Geography in the News 3/14/08INDIAN OCEAN R. Huerta/C. Franko 1856. Around the fi rst Peppercorns are, century B.C., the love by monetary value, of pepper spurred a Sources: Prange, Sebastian R. “Where the Pepper Grows,” Saudi Aramco World, Jan./ the most widely complex trade that Feb. 2008, pgs. 10-17; and http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/pepper.html traded spice in the saw peppercorns world. Pepper is travel distances so routinely offered in vast that their origins often were vague mercial pepper trade begin to truly fl our- fi ne restaurants and fast food places alike even to the pepper traders. The black pep- ish as navigators began to understand and is universally available in supermar- per trade particularly affected the Malabar the wind patterns of the Indian Ocean’s kets around the world. We have the beauti- Coast as Arab traders also brought a new monsoons. In A.D. 70, an anonymous mer- ful Malabar Coast of India to thank for this religion-- Islam-- to South Asia. chant’s guide to the Red Sea, the Periplus cherished addition to most meals. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a wild of the Erythraean Sea, recorded information And that is Geography in the News™. fl owering vine cultivated for its fruit, on the spice trade and described the now March 14, 2008. #928. which is usually dried and used as a spice lost Indian port of Muziris. The author re- Co-authors are Neal Lineback, Appalachian or seasoning. The pepper vine can grow up counted that large ships were sent to the State University Professor Emeritus of to 13 feet (4 m) when supported by trees, port “on account of the great quantity and Geography, and Geographer Mandy Lineback poles or trellises. Black, white and green bulk of pepper” that was only grown in Gritzner. University News Director Jane peppers are all derived from Piper nigrum that region. Archaeologists now know that Nicholson serves as technical editor. ©2008 Maps.com.

Load more