History of saffron
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Saffron_gatherersSantorini-3.jpg/220px-Saffron_gatherersSantorini-3.jpg)
Human
The wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus was likely
C. thomasii and C. pallasii have previously been suggested as possible ancestors.[6][7] There has been much theorising about its origin,[8] with suggestions that saffron originated in Iran (Persia),[9] Greece,[10] Mesopotamia[11] and even Kashmir.[12]
Several wild species of Crocus are known to have been harvested for use as saffron. Crocus ancyrensis was used to make saffron in Sivas in Central Turkey, the corms were also eaten. Crocus cartwrightianus was harvested on Andros in the islands of the Cyclades, for medicinal purposes and the stigmas for making a pigment called Zafran. Crocus longiflorus stigmas were used for saffron in Sicily. Crocus thomasii stigmas were used to flavour dishes around Taranto, South Italy. In Syria the stigmas of an unknown wild species were collected by women and children, sun-dried and pressed into small tablets which were sold in the Bazaars.[13]
The saffron crocus is now a
Humans may have
Etymology
The word "saffron" immediately stems from the Latin word safranum via the 12th-century Old French term safran. The French was borrowed from Arabic زَعْفَرَان (za'farān), and ultimately from Persian زَرپَران (zarparān) which literally means "golden leaves".
The Latin form safranum is also the source of the Catalan safrà, Italian zafferano,[18] but Portuguese açafrão, and Spanish azafrán come from the Arabic az-zaferán.
The Latin term crocus is certainly a Semitic loanword. It is adapted from the Aramaic form kurkema via the Arabic term kurkum and the Greek intermediate κρόκος krokos, which once again signifies "yellowish".[19][20] The Sanskrit kunkumam might be ultimately the origin, or in some way related to the Semitic term.[18]
Minoan and Greco-Roman
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Man_gathering_saffron_Knossos_Crete_crocus_sativus_fresco.jpg/220px-Man_gathering_saffron_Knossos_Crete_crocus_sativus_fresco.jpg)
Crocus cartwrightianus is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae, native to Greece and Crete. C. cartwrightianus is the presumed wild progenitor of the domesticated triploid Crocus sativus – the saffron crocus.[23] Saffron is the triploid form of a species found in Eastern Greece, Crocus cartwrightianus; it probably appeared first in Crete. An origin in Western or Central Asia, although often suspected, has been disproved by botanical research.[24] Minoan depictions of saffron are now considered to be Crocus cartwrightianus.[25]
Saffron played a significant role in the Greco-Roman pre-classical period bracketed by the 8th century BC and the 3rd century AD.[26] The first known image of saffron in pre-Greek culture is much older and stems from the Bronze Age. A saffron harvest is shown in the Knossos palace frescoes of Minoan Crete,[27] which depict the flowers being picked by young girls and monkeys. One of these fresco sites is located in the "Xeste 3" building at Akrotiri, on the Aegean island of Santorini—the ancient Greeks knew it as "Thera". These frescoes likely date from the 16th[17] or 17th century BC[28] but may have been produced anywhere between 3000 and 1100 BC.[29] They portray a Minoan goddess supervising the plucking of flowers and the gleaning of stigmas for use in the manufacture of what is possibly a therapeutic drug.[29] A fresco from the same site also depicts a woman using saffron to treat her bleeding foot.[17] These "Theran" frescoes are the first botanically accurate visual representations of saffron's use as an herbal remedy.[29] This saffron-growing Minoan settlement was ultimately destroyed by a powerful earthquake and subsequent volcanic eruption sometime between 1645 and 1500 BC. The volcanic ash from the destruction entombed and helped preserve these key herbal frescoes.[30]
Ancient Greek legends tell of brazen sailors embarking on long and perilous voyages to the remote land of Cilicia, where they traveled to procure what they believed was the world's most valuable saffron.[31] The best-known Hellenic saffron legend is that of Crocus and Smilax: The handsome youth Crocus sets out in pursuit of the nymph Smilax in the woods near Athens; in a brief dallying interlude of idyllic love, Smilax is flattered by his amorous advances, but all too soon tires of his attentions. He continues his pursuit; she resists. She bewitches Crocus: he is transformed—into a saffron crocus. Its radiant orange stigmas were held as a relict glow of an undying and unrequited passion.[32] The tragedy and the spice would be recalled later:
Crocus and Smilax may be turn'd to flow'rs,
And the Curetes spring from bounteous show'rs
I pass a hundred legends stale, as these,
And with sweet novelty your taste to please.Metamorphoses.
In another variation, Crocus was the lover of the messenger god Hermes. Hermes accidentally killed his lover during a game with the discus, and thus turned the dying Crocus into a saffron flower, in an aetiological myth explaining the origin of the plant.[34]
For the ancient Mediterraneans, saffron gathered around the Cilician coastal town of
In Greco-Roman times saffron was widely traded across the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians. Their customers ranged from the perfumers of
The ancient Greeks and Romans prized saffron as a perfume or deodoriser and scattered it about their public spaces: royal halls, courts, and amphitheatres alike. When Nero entered Rome they spread saffron along the streets; wealthy Romans partook of daily saffron baths. They used it as mascara, stirred saffron threads into their wines, cast it aloft in their halls and streets as a potpourri, and offered it to their deities. Roman colonists took saffron with them when they settled in southern Roman Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until the AD 271 barbarian invasion of Italy. Competing theories state that saffron only returned to France with 8th-century Moors or with the Avignon Papacy in the 14th century.[42]
Middle Eastern and Persian
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Safranbolu_arasta.jpg/220px-Safranbolu_arasta.jpg)
Saffron-based pigments have been found in the prehistoric paints used to illustrate beasts in 50,000-year-old cave art found in modern-day Iraq, which was even then northwest of the Persian Empire.
Your lips drop sweetness like honeycomb, my bride, syrup and milk are under your tongue, and your dress had the scent of Lebanon. Your cheeks are an orchard of pomegranates, an orchard full of rare fruits,
Song of Solomon
According to the
In ancient Persia, saffron (Crocus sativus var. haussknechtii now called
East and South Asian
Various conflicting accounts exist that describe saffron's first arrival in South and East Asia. The first of these rely on historical accounts gleaned from Persian records. These suggest to many experts that saffron, among other spices, was first spread to India via Persian rulers' efforts to stock their newly built gardens and parks. They accomplished this by transplanting the desired cultivars across the Persian empire.[49] Phoenicians then began in the 6th century BC to market the new Kashmiri saffron by utilising their extensive trade routes. Once sold, Kashmiri saffron was used in the treatment of melancholy and as a fabric dye.[26]
On the other hand, traditional Kashmiri legend states that saffron first arrived in the 11th or 12th century AD, when two foreign and itinerant Sufi ascetics, Khwaja Masood Wali and Hazrat Sheikh Shariffudin, wandered into Kashmir. The foreigners, having fallen sick, beseeched a cure for illness from a local tribal chieftain. When the chieftain obliged, the two holy men reputedly gave them a saffron crocus bulb as payment and thanks. To this day, grateful prayers are offered to the two saints during the saffron harvesting season in late autumn. The saints, indeed, have a golden-domed shrine and tomb dedicated to them in the saffron-trading village of Pampore, India. However, the Kashmiri poet and scholar Mohammed Yusuf Teng disputes this. He states that Kashmiris had cultivated saffron for more than two millennia. [citation needed][50]
Ancient Chinese Buddhist accounts from the mula-
Some historians believe that saffron first came to China with Mongol invaders by way of Persia. Saffron is mentioned in the ancient Chinese medical text
In modern times saffron cultivation has spread to Afghanistan due to the efforts of the European Union and the United Kingdom. Together they promote saffron cultivation among impoverished and cash-strapped Afghan farmers as an ideal alternative to lucrative—and illicit—opium production.[53]
Post-Classical European
Saffron cultivation in Europe declined steeply following the fall of the Roman Empire. For several centuries thereafter, saffron cultivation was rare or non-existent throughout Europe. This was reversed when Moorish civilisation spread from North Africa to settle
In France, saffron cultivation probably started during the 13th century.[55] Crocus sativus was likely introduced from Spain and from the Middle-East by pilgrims, merchants, and Knights. Its first uses are documented in the south-west of the Kingdom around 1250.[55] It is indeed unlikely that the kings and religious orders didn't try growing Crocus sativus by that time: Saffron was rare, expensive, and demanded, and Crocus sativus could be farmed under France's latitudes.[55] By the 14th century, the wide use of saffron for spicing and coloring food is documented in recipe books such as the "Viandier de Taillevent", written by the King's cook. Saffron was not only used as a coloring, but also to show off wealth in front of nobles. Because saffron was so rare and expensive, these nobles would give a great honor to the cooks who prepared the meals with these spices like saffron in them.[56] And by the 15th century, local saffron farming is attested with taxes levied by the religious power, which reveal how important saffron crops must have been. For instance, in 1478, the saffron tax levied by the Bishop of Albi reached 1/12th of saffron production.[55]
Saffron demand skyrocketed when the Black Death of 1347–1350 struck Europe. It was coveted by plague victims for medicinal purposes, and yet many of the farmers capable of growing it had died off. Large quantities of non-European saffron were therefore imported.[57] The finest saffron threads from Muslim lands were unavailable to Europeans because of hostilities stoked by the Crusades, so Rhodes and other places were key suppliers to central and northern Europe. Saffron was one of the contested points of hostility that flared between the declining landed gentry and upstart and increasingly wealthy merchants. The fourteen-week-long "Saffron War" was ignited when one 800 lb (363 kg) shipment of saffron was hijacked and stolen by nobles.[57] The load, which was en route to the town of Basel, would at today's market prices be valued at more than US$500,000.[58] That shipment was eventually returned, but the wider 13th–century trade was subject to mass piracy. Thieves plying Mediterranean waters would often ignore gold stores and instead steal Venetian- and Genoan-marketed saffron bound for Europe. Wary of such unpleasantness, Basel planted its own corms. Several years of large and lucrative saffron harvests made Basel extremely prosperous compared to other European towns. Citizens sought to protect their status by outlawing the transport of corms out of the town; guards were posted to prevent thieves from picking flowers or digging up corms. Yet ten years later the saffron harvest had waned. Basel abandoned the crop.[59]
The pivot of central European saffron trade moved to Nuremberg. The merchants of Venice continued their rule of the Mediterranean sea trade, trafficking varieties from Sicily, France and Spain, Austria, Crete and Greece, and the Ottoman Empire. Adulterated goods also made the rounds: those soaked in honey, mixed with marigold petals, or kept in damp cellars—all to add quick and cheap bulk. Irritated Nuremberg authorities passed the Safranschou code to de-louse the saffron trade.[60] Adulterators were thus fined, imprisoned, and executed—by immolation.[61] England was next to have its turn as a major producer. One theory[62] has it that the crop spread to the coastal regions of eastern England in the 14th century AD during the reign of Edward III. In subsequent years saffron was fleetingly cultivated throughout England. Norfolk, Suffolk, and south Cambridgeshire were especially affected with corms. Rowland Parker provides an account of its cultivation in the village of Foxton during the 16th and 17th centuries, "usually by people holding a small amount of land"; an acre planted in saffron could yield a crop worth a kingly £6, making it "a very profitable crop, provided that plenty of unpaid labor was available; unpaid labor was one of the basic features of farming then and for another two centuries."[63]
In France, saffron production became very important in the 17th and 18th centuries, reaching a few tons.
In England, cultivation persisted only in the light, well-drained, and chalk-based soils of the north Essex countryside. The Essex town of Saffron Walden got its name as a saffron growing and trading centre; its name was originally Cheppinge Walden, and the culinary name change was effected to punctuate the importance of the crop to the townsfolk; the town's arms still feature blooms from the eponymous crocus.[N 2] Yet as England emerged from the Middle Ages, rising puritanical sentiments and new conquests abroad endangered English saffron's use and cultivation. Puritanical partisans favoured increasingly austere, unadorned, and unspiced foods. Saffron was also a labor-intensive crop, which became an increasing disadvantage as wages and time opportunity costs rose. And finally, an influx of more exotic spices from the far East due to the resurgent spice trade meant that the English, as well as other Europeans, had many more—and cheaper—seasonings to dally over.[65]
This trend was documented by the Dean of Manchester, Reverend William Herbert. He collected samples and compiled information on many aspects of the saffron crocus.[66] He was concerned about the steady decline in saffron cultivation over the course of the 17th century and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution; the introduction in Europe of easily grown maize and potatoes, which steadily took over lands formerly flush with corms, did not help.[67] In addition, the elite who traditionally comprised the bulk of the saffron market were now growing increasingly interested in such intriguing new arrivals as chocolate, coffee, tea, and vanilla. Only in the south of France or in Italy and Spain, where the saffron harvest was culturally primal, did significant cultivation prevail.[67]
North American
Saffron made its way to the New World when thousands of Alsatian, German, and Swiss
However the War of 1812 destroyed many of the merchantmen that ferried American saffron abroad. Pennsylvanian saffron growers were afterwards left with surplus inventory, and trade with the Caribbean markets never recovered.[72] Nevertheless, Pennsylvania Dutch growers developed many uses for the now abundant saffron in their own home cooking—cakes, noodles, and chicken or trout dishes.[73] Saffron cultivation survived into modern times principally in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.[70]
Notes
- ^ Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius at Project Gutenberg.
- ^ Image at the town council website of Saffron Walden.
Citations
- ^ Deo 2003, p. 1.
- ^ Hogan 2007.
- . Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- PMID 30690735. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- PMID 30946897. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Negbi 1999, p. 28.
- ^ a b Grilli Caiola 2003, p. 1.
- ^ "Saffron, an alternative crop for sustainable agricultural systems.Areview". HAL: 95. 2008. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- ISBN 9783319586793. Archivedfrom the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
- ^ "Saffron, an alternative crop for sustainable agricultural systems.Areview". HAL: 95. 2008. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- ISBN 9783319586793. Archivedfrom the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
- OCLC 1140113593. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2022.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link - ^ Maw, George (1886). A Monograph of the Genus Crocus. Soho Square, London: Dulau and Co. pp. 87, 164, 207, 250. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- ^ Negbi 1999, p. 30–31.
- ^ Negbi 1999, p. 1.
- ^ Russo, Dreher & Mathre 2003, p. 6.
- ^ a b c Honan 2004.
- ^ a b Harper 2001.
- ^ Klein 1987, p. 287.
- ^ Kafi et al. 2006, p. 23.
- ^ Hood 1992, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Platon 1947, pp. 505–506.
- ^ Grilli Caiola 2003.
- ^ Mathew 1977.
- PMID 35283878.
- ^ a b c d Willard 2002, p. 41.
- ^ Hogan 2007, p. 3.
- ^ Dalby 2002, p. 124.
- ^ a b c Ferrence & Bendersky 2004.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 2–3.
- ^ a b c Willard 2002, p. 2.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 1.
- ISBN 978-0-19-877734-2. Archivedfrom the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
- ^ Cairns 2006, p. 133.
- ^ Francese 2007, p. 162.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 55.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 35.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 58.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 59.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 63.
- ^ Humphries 1998, p. 20.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 12.
- ^ Humphries 1998, p. 19.
- ^ "Babylonian Talmud Keritot 6a". Archived from the original on 3 February 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 54–55.
- ^ Dalby 2003, p. 256.
- ^ "Is Kashmiri Mongra Really The Best Saffron in the World? Discovering the Truth". Rasayanam Ayurveda. 4 March 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
- ^ Fotedar 1999, p. 128.
- ^ a b Dalby 2002, p. 95.
- ^ Pearce 2005.
- ^ a b Willard 2002, p. 70.
- ^ a b c d Lachaud 2012, p. 63.
- ^ name="Gale AZ">Hackett, Jeremiah. "Lords and Ladies: Kitchens for Castles". Go-gale.org. Gale. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
- ^ a b Willard 2002, p. 99.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 100.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 101.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 102–103.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 103–104.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 110.
- ^ Parker 1976, p. 138.
- ^ a b c Lachaud 2012, p. 64.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 117.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 132.
- ^ a b Willard 2002, p. 133.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 134–136.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 136.
- ^ a b Willard 2002, p. 143.
- ^ Willard 2002, p. 138.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 138–139.
- ^ Willard 2002, pp. 142–146.
References
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- Grilli Caiola, M. (2003), "Saffron Reproductive Biology", Acta Horticulturae, vol. 650, no. 650, ISHS, pp. 25–37,
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- Rubio-Moraga, A.; Castillo-López, R.; Gómez-Gómez, L.; Ahrazem, O. (2009), "Saffron is a Monomorphic Species as Revealed by RAPD, ISSR and Microsatellite Analyses", BMC Research Notes, vol. 2, p. 189, PMID 19772674
Miscellaneous
- Fotedar, S. (1999), "Cultural Heritage of India: The Kashmiri Pandit Contribution", Vitasta, vol. 32, no. 1, Kashmir Sabha of Kolkata, archived from the original on 29 September 2011, retrieved 15 September 2011
- Harper, D. (2001), Online Etymology Dictionary, archived from the original on 12 October 2007, retrieved 12 September 2011
- Hogan, C. M. (2007), Knossos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian, archived from the original on 8 November 2017, retrieved 10 April 2008
- Honan, W. H. (2004), "Researchers Rewrite First Chapter for the History of Medicine", The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 May 2013, retrieved 13 September 2011
- Lak, D. (1998), Gathering Kashmir's Saffron, BBC News, archived from the original on 7 January 2009, retrieved 12 September 2011
- Pearce, F. (2005), "Returning War-Torn Farmland to Productivity", New Scientist, archived from the original on 17 July 2011, retrieved 13 September 2011
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-271-03369-3, archivedfrom the original on 19 January 2023, retrieved 2 October 2020
- Schier, V. (March 2010), "Probing the Mystery of the Use of Saffron in Medieval Nunneries", The Senses and Society, vol. 5, no. 1 (published 2010), pp. 57–72, S2CID 194087374