The Muslim Contribution to The Art Of Perfumes

“It's compulsory for every male Muslim to the using of perfume if it is available. -Prophet Muhammad

For a long time, I have wondered about the special relationship the Arab and Muslim people have with perfumes. Now, I learn there is history that worth of studying. History is an impressive thing and it has detail on how the early Muslims have perfected the perfume industry early on. Not only did they invent new techniques  but they also helped bring those techniques and scents to new territories since they were big on trade. Not to forget those men standing in the streets selling oil based fragrance, you find them almost anywhere you look. The credit to bringing back some of those perfumes goes to the returning crusades who carried with them whatever they could in the 11th and 12th century.

Considering that most popular ingredients for the manufacture of perfume were found primarily around the Arabian Peninsula, it is not surprising that Islamic cultures contributed significantly to this industry. In Islamic culture, perfume usage was documented as far back as the 6th century CE.

In turn, the Islamic cultural production of fragrances and distillation technology inspired the scientific communities of western culture during the fourteenth century, especially in France, which brought further cultivation of these raw materials and introduced chemical-based perfume. Modern innovation in the history of perfume can be credited to the West, but the cultural conceptualization still belonged to Islam.

Islamic cultures contributed significantly in the development of Western perfumery in both perfecting the extraction of fragrances through steam distillation and introducing new, raw ingredients. Both of the raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced Western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry. Also since Muslims have traveled the world as traders, they forged connections in different markets where spices, essential oils and wood originate. They had a much wider network  to different spices, herbals, and other fragrance material. In addition to trading them, many of these exotic materials were cultivated by the Muslims such that they can be successfully grown outside of their native climates. Two examples of this are jasmine, which is native to South and Southeast Asia, and various citrus, which is thought to have originated in Southeast Asia. Both of these ingredients remain important in modern perfumery. Indonesia for example, was a big provider of such material, and it is the world's largest Muslim country.

Such rituals gave incentives to scholars to search and develop a cheaper way to produce incenses and in mass production. Thanks to the hard work of two talented Arabian chemists: Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber, born 722, Iraq), and Al-Kindi (Alkindus, born 801, Iraq) who established the perfume industry. Jabir developed many techniques, including distillation, evaporation and filtration, which enabled the collection of the odor of plants into a vapor that could be collected in the form of water or oil. Al-Kindi, however, was the real founder of perfume industry as he carried out extensive research and experiments in combining various plants and other sources to produce a variety of scent products. He elaborated a vast number of ‘recipes’ for a wide range of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The writer goes on in the same section to speak of the preparation of a perfume called ghaliya, which contained musk, amber and other ingredients; too long to quote here, but which reveals a long list of technical names of drugs and apparatus. Al-Kindi also wrote in the 9th century a book on perfumes which he named ‘Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations’. It contained more than a hundred recipes for fragrant oils, salves, aromatic waters and substitutes or imitations of costly drugs.

The Persian Muslim doctor and chemist Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina) introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, the procedure most commonly used today. He first experimented with the rose. But later discovered liquid perfumes were mixtures of oil and crushed herbs, or petals which made a strong blend. The raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry. So next time you run into a good smelling Persian, you know his ancestor have created that.