Arabic Calendar
CircumcisionEducationFuneralsNo
Ruz
Persian CalendarPerfumes
Public Baths
Weddings
Perfumes in Medieval
Perfumes were used
by both men and women in medieval
“Persian Women are, for the most
part, very Prodigal in Perfumes.”[2]
Perfumes were used
both on the person and wherever a pleasant smell was desired. Common perfumes were musk, ambergrease, rose
water, Labdamum, and Frankincense.[3]
Musk is an excretion
from an animal which is found in a small gland near the navel of a goat. This excretion is released when the animal is
in heat. According to Sir Chardin, musk
from
Musk was believed to
be an aphrodisiac. Women in
“[The women would hang] a bladder of it
around their Navel and when the Vapors are violent and continual, they take Musk
out of the Bladder and inclose it in a little piece of single Holland, made in
the fashion of a small Bag or Purse, and apply it to the Part, which Modesty
will not permit me to Name.”[5]
Ambergrease was also
used as a perfume in
“Some sorts of Ambergrease are
like course Bitumen, or Asphaltus, or the black Naphta dried, consequently more
or less black and heavy, and of a different consistence in proportion. Other sorts are whiter, from a mixture of
nobler particles: These are also lighter and dearer, and this again in
differing proportions. Some sorts are
exceedingly light, and not unlike a mushroom.”[6]
In Medieval Persia,
it was commonly made into a paste and placed in a box hung on chains which
women wore around their neck. [7]
Ambergrease along
with rose water, labdamum, and jessamin were used as
part of ceremony to great guests. Upon a
guest entering a home, the host would pour a bottle of rose water over the
guest. The very wealthy would also pour another bottle of water colored with
saffron. If the guest was wearing a
white outfit, the bottles would be given to the guest to apply themselves. The host would then rub labdamum
and ambergrease upon the guest. The
ceremony ended when the host placed a large string of jessamin around the neck
of the guest.[8] Jessamine is another name for jasmine. Jasmine was considered to have healing
properties.[9]