Annon: Kanz al fawa’id (Treasure Trove of benefits)(14th) Egypt
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Taken from: Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century…… by Nawal Nasrallah
(654) Recipe for duhn mubakhkhar (oil infused with fragrant smoke)
[Take] spikenard (1), betel leaves (tunbul), cloves, green cardamom (2), nutmeg (3), khat leaves (4)(waraq al-Qumari), sandalwood, aloeswood, and rosebuds. Add also usnea (5)(shayba), which has been washed seven times. These ingredients will give the oil its aroma (ṭib). As for its incense (bakhur), use sweet costus (6), bitter costus, the bestladanum (7) resin (ladhan ‘anbari), aloeswood, and ambergris. Infuse it [i.e., the cotton, see previous recipe] with the smoke of these ingredients, seven times. After that, infuse it with the smoke of aloeswood and ambergris, two times with each. [Next, add the aromatic mix, prepared in the first paragraph, to the cotton, and mix all of it with the sesame oil in a vessel]. Enhance the sesame oil with some ambergris and civet (zabada).
Note: the author of the book adds that about qat (khat)(Catha edulis); the leaves are chewed, like betel (tunbul). It was brought from Qumr in East Africa.
(1) Spikenard: also called nard, nardin, and muskroot, is a class of aromatic amber-colored essential oil derived from Nardostachys jatamansi, a flowering plant from India.
(2) Cardamom: sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae from India and Indonesia.
(3) Nutmeg: is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus Myristica (Trees) mostly Indonesia.
(4) khat leaves (waraq al-Qumari): Waraq is arab for leaves. ). According to Ibn al Baytar it is Betel: Tambol means Betel in Hindi. However in: Leaf of paradise?: the intricate effects of khat in Madagascar; L. Gezon, Lisa puts the qat arrival in Madagascar in the early 20th century. So as the Austronesian expansion to Madagascar brought the Betel to Madagascar I think Ibn Al Baytar must be right. Qumari leaves are mentioned by: Ibn al Baytar (1249); Kanz al fawa’id (14th); Al Firuzabadi (d1414); Al Qalqashandi (d1418)
(5) usnea (shayba): a type of lichen (= combination of fungus and algae that grow together) that grows on trees.
(6) costus: the fragrant root of the Kashmiri plant Saussurea costus used in perfumery and (formerly) as a medicinal agent.
(7) bestladanum resin: (Ladanum Cyprium) from Crete and Cyprus.