[Sca-cooks] The Julab puzzle possibly solved

[Terry Decker]

Interesting problem.  Avicenna crosses the 10th-11th Century boundary and 
lived and died in Persia.  His work is heavily influenced by Galen 
(primarily 2nd Century), so we can make some assumptions about the 
measurements used.

You  have found a reference that the Arabic physicians used the Attic mina 
with a value of approximately 436 g.  There are two Attic minas.  The 
Attic(Euboic) mina of roughly 433.7 g equal in weight to 100 drachma or 100 
denarii is the first.  At this juncture, the denarius is 1/72 of a Roman 
pound (or 6 denarii to the ounce) .  In 64 CE, Nero reduced the weight of 
the denarius to 3.37 g, setting the weight of the Attic mina to 337 g and 
making the denarius 1/96 of a pound (or 8 denarii to the ounce).   Since 
Galen antedates Nero, it is likely the Attic mina established by Nero is the 
one that is used.  Of course, I'm ignoring the fact that Avicenna  studied 
Aristotle and was known to have spent considerable time the philosopher's 
work.

Calculating this with Nero's measures, the ratio of sugar to liquid is right 
at 2.08:1.  Using the earlier measures the ratio is approx. 2.8:1.

The mann (mana is the Arabic form) in the 10th Century Persia ranged from 
260 dirhams (dirham = drachma=approx. 3.2 g) to 2080 dirhams depending on 
location.   Given the locations and period Avicenna, I think he would have 
commonly used the mann of 260 dirhams.    According to Marcinkowski, 
Measures and Weights in the Islamic World (as filtered through a couple 
other sources), the mann always replaced the ratl in Persia.  If the 
"ounces" in this translation mean 1/12 of a mann, then the sugar to liquid 
ratio is 2:1.

At the minute, I can't do much further research needing some access to some 
offline sources I don't have or the time to chase them.

Bear

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Friedman

Julab is a period Islamic syrup drink of sugar, rose water, and water.
Like the more familiar sekanjabin, it is made as a syrup and then
diluted to taste when served. Its invention (and that of rose water) is
credited to abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna). My source for the recipe:

???in a prescription of ibn Sina, the proportions given are: 1 mana of
sugar and 4 ounces of water are heated on a light fire and then 2 ounces
of rose-water are added. In metric weights, this amounts to 794 g of
sugar, 132 g of water, and 66 g or rosewater.???
(Martin Levey, in Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on
Ancient and Medieval Sources)

Levey's weights give a ratio of sugar to liquid of about 4:1, twice the
ratio for a saturated solution. The result of following them is that
much of the sugar crystalizes out when the syrup cools, which doesn't
make much sense.

The explanation, I think, lies in the ambiguity of the units. The
mana/mina/mineh is a unit of weight originating in ancient Mesopotamia
and passed down to later cultures with a range of values. According to
one source I found, the Arabic physicians used the Attic mina with a
value of about 436 g. The "ounce" is presumably the Arabic uqiya, which
also varies a bit. If I combine a figure of 37g for the uqiya from one
source with 436 g from the mana, the ratio of sugar to liquid is just
about 2:1, consistent with the obvious guess that the recipe is supposed
to produce a saturated but not supersaturated solution.

Hence my current recipe for Julab is:

3c sugar, 1 c water, 1/2 c rose water

Bring the water to a boil, add the sugar, when it is dissolved add the
rose water and remove from heat.

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/