This long-necked glass bottle with a ring-shaped body would have been used for disseminating rosewater or another aromatic substance mixed with water. Rosewater was used for cooking and as a perfume to be sprinkled on guests at the end of a meal. The production of such sprinklers in Syria from the late eleventh to the mid-thirteenth century reflects another aspect of courtly manners in which attractiveness in all its forms was prized.
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Dimensions:H. 10 1/4 in. (26 cm) W. 5 1/4 in. (13.4 cm) D. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm) Wt. 5.5 oz. (155.9 g)
Classification:Glass
Credit Line:Purchase, Richard S. Perkins Gift, 1977
Accession Number:1977.164
Perfume Sprinkler
The ring-shaped body of this sprinkler was achieved by flattening and piercing the single glass bulb from which it and its long tapering neck were made.[1] The applied decoration consists of the trails on the lower part of the neck and the cushion-topped foot with flaring base, worked on the pontil. The shape is thought to have been newly introduced to Syria in the twelfth century.[2] Nonetheless, as metal incense burners and a range of small glass flasks attest, containers for perfume and those intended to scent the air represent a continuum in the Middle East from the Roman and Late Antique periods into the Islamic era.
In the medieval Islamic world substances such as musk, ambergris, sandalwood, and aloe wood were used not only as perfumes for the body but also as culinary ingredients, elements in drugs and potions, breath improvers, and aphrodisiacs. Given their concentrated form and expense, these essences functioned as the base constituent in a blend of aromatic substances. They would have been diluted for use in a sprinkler such as this one.
While this sprinkler could have contained the aromatic water of a whole range of substances, the most likely contents would have been rosewater. Apparently first prepared in the Islamic era, rosewater is produced "by heating fresh rose petals over a water bath, after which the aromatic vapors are condensed."[3] In addition to its many gastronomic uses, rosewater presented in a sprinkler such as this one was linked to specific stages of a meal. Thus, when the host and his guests had finished eating, they would wash their hands and mouth with saltwort scented with one of several substances, including rosewater.[4] After moving from the dining area to couches, the guests and their host would be passed ewers containing rosewater, which they would spray over their clothes and face.[5] Alternatively, servants passed among the assembled guests, sprinkling them with refreshing rosewater.
Sheila R. Canby in [Canby, Beyazit, and Rugiadi 2016]
Footnotes:
1. Canby, Sheila R. “The Scented World: Incense Burners and Perfume Containers from Spain to Central Asia.” Arts of Asia 42, no. 5 (September–October 2012), p. 126, fig. 15.
2. Tait, Hugh, et al. Five Thousand Years of Glass. London, 1991, pp. 128–29, fig. 161, is a related example. The shape has continued in use in various media until the present day.
3. Sensual Delights: Incense Burners and Rosewater Sprinklers from the World of Islam. Exh. cat., The David Collection, Copenhagen, 2015. Catalogue by Joachim Meyer. Copenhagen, 2015, p. 7.
4. Ahsan, Muhammad Manazir. Social Life under the Abbasids, 170–289 AH, 786–902 AD. London and New York, 1979, p. 161.
5. Ibid., p. 162.
Perfume Sprinkler (Qumqum)
This sprinkler consists of a flattened, ring-shaped body with a long tapering neck decorated with applied trails on its lower third and set on a cushion-topped foot with a splayed base. The ring form had a useful function; one could hook a thumb or finger into the central hole and shake the bottle vigorously without losing one’s grip. Although aromatics were used in the Middle East from Roman times on, sprinklers of this and related shapes first appear in Syria and Egypt in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.[1] They would have been traded throughout the Levant, including in Jerusalem, where an example has reportedly been excavated.[2]
While such sprinklers most often contained rosewater, dilutions of other fragrant substances such as musk and ambergris could be used alone or in combination with a range of ingredients. Following a meal, people not only rinsed their mouths with rosewater but also sprinkled their clothes and faces with it. Other practices included sprinkling rosewater on the shrouds of the dead. For such purposes long-necked sprinklers would have been employed, whereas differently shaped containers held the precious attar of rose. In the medieval period an important source of rosewater was Fars province in Iran. References to the alembic, used to distill rosewater, appear as early as the tenth century in an Arabic translation of the first-century Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica, suggesting that rosewater was also produced in the Arab regions of the Middle East.[3] Substantial quantities of rosewater must have been required for the perfuming of the Dome of the Rock carried out by Saladin’s nephew after the reconquest of Jerusalem.[4]
Sheila R. Canby in [Boehm and Holcomb, 2016]
Footnotes:
1. Tait, Hugh, et al. Five Thousand Years of Glass. London, 1991, pp. 128–29.
2. See the example in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, no. 380; museum website catalogue record.
3. Wiedeman, E., and M. Plessner. "al-Anbik." in EI2 1960–2009, vol. 1 (1960), p. 486.
4. Imad al-Din, as cited in Gabrieli, Francesco, ed. and trans. Arab Historians of the Crusades. Translated by E.J. Costello [and ed.], 1956. London, 1969, pp. 171–72.
[ Mohammad Yeganeh, London, until 1977; sold to MMA]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs," April 25–July 24, 2016, no. 35.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven," September 26, 2016–January 8, 2017, no. 12.
"
Islamic, Abbasid period (750–1258), 8th–9th century
Bronze; cast, pierced, and incised
H. 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm)
Gr. L. 9 1/2 in. (24.2 cm)
Attributed to: Iran
Fletcher Fund, 1976
." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 36 (1975–1979). pp. 19–20, ill. (color).
Ettinghausen, Richard. Archives of Asian Art. vol. XXXI (1977–1978). p. 139.
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Islamic Glass: A Brief History." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 44, no. 2 (Fall 1986). p. 35, ill. fig. 42 (color).
Welch, Stuart Cary. The Islamic World. vol. 11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 44–45, ill. fig. 31 (color).
Drake Boehm, Barbara, and Melanie Holcomb, ed. Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. no. 12, pp. 38–39, ill. fig. 12.
Canby, Sheila R. "The Scented World : Incense Burners and Perfume Containers from Spain to Central Asia." Arts of Asia vol. 42 (2012). pp. 126–27, ill. fig. 15 (color).
Canby, Sheila R., Deniz Beyazit, and Martina Rugiadi. "The Great Age of the Seljuqs." In Court and Cosmos. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. no. 35, p. 106, ill. (color).
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