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For Sufis in general, and Rumi in particular, food was filled with spiritual significance: "I was raw, I was cooked, I was burned." For others it was merely filling. The enjoyment of food was a ceaseless quest, and even in Europe of the Dark Ages, chefs were preparing dishes for pleasure rather than for prolonging lives. The influence of Islamic Spain, and the booty of returning Crusaders, revived the gastronomic interest of Roman times. Arab merchants controlled most of this trade, and Arab travelers had some of the most interesting observations. During the 14th century, Ibn Battuta spent an unhappy three years in southern India, Ceylon and the Maldives. The cause of his misery was the absence of bread: "...eating nothing but rice. I had to help it down with water." The only consolation was the presence of spices in the pickles that accompanied his joyless repasts.
Spices changed every life they touched, and with greater availability after the 17th century, they touched a huge number of lives. As the mystery disappears, scientific discovery proves some of the qualities that were often attributed to spices in the past. Some of the world's rarest produces have become among the most commonplace. There are a few exceptions, however: Saffron is still worth considerably more than its weight in gold. The most exotic manifestation of spices is now reserved for perfumes. Nina Ricci's classic L'Air du Temps somehow seems more magical when it is revealed that there is bergamot, sandalwood and clove within, as well as the musk that was such a delight to the Prophet Muhammad. How they came to be there is very much a result of the Islamic world's contribution to trade.
Before the birth of Islam, spices had been vital to southern Arabian commerce. The Romans had called this land Arabia Felix ("Fortunate Arabia") because of its prodigious quantities of aromatics. Almost 4,000 years ago, caravans labored from the south of the peninsula to the north. Their cargo was deposited in entrepôts such as Petra or taken to the Mediterranean coast. The Incense Road was among the earliest known trade routes. India was also an essential destination for spice traders. The Romans took a keen interest in the Malabar coast, source of black pepper. They also learned to use the winds of the monsoon cycle. This enabled them to sail without the assistance of Arab middlemen, who had been the cause of much Roman dissatisfaction.
Since then, one stopping place has grown in significance to become the world's most looked-to city - Mecca. The Prophet Muhammad was part of the Arabian trade route, having married the widow Khadija, a leading Meccan merchant. There are some doubts about exactly what types of goods were traded in Mecca, and the traditional assumption that it was spices has been challenged. One of the most sought aromatic was known as the "balsam of Mecca," suggesting more than a passing acquaintance with that part of the peninsula. Unquestionably, the Prophet Muhammad would have encountered southern Arabian goods on his travels.
Many historians, such as the pivotal Montgomery Watt, see the development of Islam as a direct response to the social conditions caused by the spice trade. The inequalities that the Prophet Muhammad witnessed in Mecca would not have been possible in a nomadic tribal society. It was the breakdown of the earlier society caused by a mercantile economy that set the spread of Islam on its course. As the new empire grew in the 7th century, it remained inextricably linked to spices. With a spiritual element, commercial success was at last matched by social justice.
Trade opportunities developed as the Arab armies moved out of the peninsula. Their greatest coup came in 641, with the capture of Alexandria, the spice capital of the eastern Mediterranean. New mercantile centers rose and fell. Among the most important of these was Basra, in what is now southern Iraq. This city expanded from a garrison town to being one of the world's largest metropolises in the 7th and 8th centuries. It was also the birthplace of one of Islam's greatest writers, Al Jahiz. Despite spending decades in Baghdad, he clearly lost none of his loyalty to Basra nor a sense of its trading purpose: "Our sea is worth all the others put together, for there is no other into which God has poured so many blessings."
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