[Sca-cooks] Asia to Middle East to Europe

[Terry Decker]

> Ok when to arrive in the ME and when to later catch on later in Europe?
>
> At a guess quat and duran fruit never caught on in Europe :-).
>
> I suggest that yogurt, henna, bananas, coconuts, frequent bathing, gun
> powder, certain medical practices, lenses and eye glasses, faceted gem
> stones, distillation, perfumery, certain board games, true porcelain,
> certain mathematical/accounting concepts, calendar reform and temperance
> caught on significantly later in Europe.  I'm just not sure if all of 
> these
> came out of Asia first.
>
> Daniel

A few thoughts on Middle Eastern technology transfer:

Quat is contemporaneous with coffee.  Coffee proved to be the superior 
beverage and won widespread use in the Middle East and Europe.

Durian fruit is tropical and won't grow naturally in Europe.  A market 
vendor in Coventry was selling it recently and the other vendors complained 
that, "the pong...was making them feel ill."  Even if they had been able to 
grow it in Europe, the local might not like a fruit that smells like a 
sewer.

Europeans were introduced to bananas around 325 BCE (see Pliny).  However, 
bananas do not grow naturally in the European climate.  Because they are 
extremely perishible they are difficult to transport.  There is evidence 
that bananas were brought at least once to Tudor England probably, in my 
speculation, from the Canary Islands.

Coconuts were probably known in Roman Europe from the Roman spice trade, but 
the primary introduction of coconut into Europe is from European ventures 
into the Pacific.

Frequent bathing is an open question since there is evidence to support both 
regular bathing and lack there of in Europe at different times and places. 
However, as Ian Fleming put it, the cleanest people on earth are the 
Japanese with their baths and the Americans with their showers and I don't 
think either group got it via the Middle East.

The first European reference to gunpowder is in a letter by Roger Bacon of 
Oxford (1249).  It is unclear whether this was an independent invention or a 
formula obtained from elsewhere (possibly directly from the Mongols who 
invaded Europe 12 years prior).

Most of Arab medical practice was based upon the work of the Ancient Greeks 
and Romans, expanded on, and then returned to Europe via the various schools 
of medicine.  The spread of medical practice is due more to the ebb and flow 
of people around the Mediterranean than a shift from the Middle East west.

The manufacture and shaping of glass lenses for improving vision is usually 
considered a Venetian invention.

Shaped stones have been found in archelogical sites all over the world.  A 
rude form of facetting appeared in India around 400 BCE (which may have been 
observed by Alexander's troops).  From the 9th to the 12th Centuries the 
Persians developed techniques to facet most gemstones.  Diamond cutting, 
however, is a European practice with the first true diamond cutting 
technique dating to late 14th century France.

Distillation was known to the Ancient World both in Europe and the Middle 
East.  The Arabic contribution to the art was an improved condensing still, 
which the Europeans further improved to produce brandy.

The manufacture of perfumes was known to the civilizations of the Ancient 
World and while technical improvements may have come from the Middle East, 
Europe already produced perfumes.

While I will agree most boardgames got their start in the Middle East, it 
was long before the Islamic expansion and most had reached Europe before the 
fall of Rome.  Chess is the exception, apparently being transferred from 
India via the Islamic expansion to the Crusaders in the Levant.

True procelain appears to be a direct import from China with no Middle 
Eastern middleman.

Mathematical and accounting concepts and calendar reforms need to be 
addressed in specifics.  Both the Indians and the Maya had the concept of 
zero, but it entered European mathematics via the Moslems.  The Italians 
developed double entry bookkeeping while calculus was largely developed by 
Keplar and Newton.  Algebra is an Arabic invention based on Greek and Roman 
mathematical philosophy and later refined in Europe.

Temperance was considered a Roman virtue without Middle Eastern influence. 
As a generalization, most civilizations developed the idea of temperance 
independently.  Europe and the Middle East became dominated by Judaic-based 
religions, so we have developed similar philosophies of temperance.  While 
the Christian view of temperance came out of the Middle East, it predates 
transfer from Asia via al-Islam.

Bear