The Islamic Empire, which sprang out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century and encompassed swathes of lands from the Iberian Peninsula on the West to the Indus River on the East, reached the peak of its cultural, political, economic, and technological potential from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, during a period described as the “Golden Age of Islam”.

An empire of such extensive scope would have encompassed numerous territories inhabited by diverse religious communities and ethnic groups, each characterized by distinct aesthetic preferences and beauty practices shaped by societal constructs grounded in their unique values and ideals. The Islamic world inherited established norms and cultural legacies from preceding conquerors in the Eastern Mediterranean, specifically the Byzantines, as well as from the Persians in Western and Central Asia.

During the Middle Ages, the Islamic heartlands, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, were wealthy and prosperous, as they directly lay on the most important trade routes and maritime ports, prompting the influx of luxurious goods and textiles from Europe and the East into the hands of court elites and common citizens. The levied taxes upon the conquered populations generated insurmountable revenue for the Islamic empire’s treasury. The ruling Arab elites indulged in their newfound wealth and luxuries, forsaking their former onerous and rugged nomadic lives.

Earlier humble tents and meager mud dwellings no longer satisfied the Arabs’ newly acquired urban sensibilities, and the need to erect grand fortified palace cities and urban centers became the norm. The Muslims would eventually develop their own material culture, a synthesis of diverse local traditions combined with Islamic philosophies and principles. The Arab aristocracy in the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid Caliphates resided in lavish palaces and residences furnished with sumptuous textiles and brocades imported from China, Iran, Spain, Sicily, and other Islamic provinces.

Throughout the medieval world, the Arabs established an unprecedented civilization. Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus, Fez, Kairouan, Córdoba, and San’aa were magnificent cosmopolitan cities founded on solid foundations that took into consideration proper water supply, sanitation, and good urban planning.

For Muslims living in the Middle Ages, hygiene was an integral part of everyday grooming and a prerequisite for fulfilling religious obligations. Islam mandates Muslim men and women to pray five times a day; therefore, they must be clean before they perform their prayers. Before each prayer, they participate in a purification ritual called Wuḍūʾ (ablution) by washing various body parts several times in a specific order, so that they may be considered “pure” in the eyes of God and have their prayers accepted.

Cleanliness and sanitation played a crucial role in the social, economic, and religious life of Muslims. They developed complex and sophisticated public water projects, including public baths (hammām), wells (biʾr), and water dispensaries (sabīl) for communal use. The Islamic world was among the most technologically advanced in hydraulic engineering, implementing mechanisms to ensure water supply for daily activities such as drinking, cleaning, bathing, cooking, and washing. They also established sanitation systems for waste and sewage drainage and developed agricultural irrigation methods.

With the establishment of Islamic urban cities in the Middle East, Islamic society became increasingly stratified, with more defined religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic demarcations.

Early Medieval Islamic historians divided the Muslim society into two broad categories: al-khassa (the distinguished or elite) and al-‘amma (the common subjects or general populace). The Khassa comprised the Caliph, his extended family, personal retinue, bodyguards, court ministers, majordomos, chamberlains, chief justices, and sometimes wealthy merchants. The ‘amma comprised the rest of urban society, like the religious clergy, scholars, health professionals, small merchants and shopkeepers, artisans, and the non-muslim communities (ahl al-dhimma).

Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani, the 10th-century author of the book Muhtasar Kitab al-Buldan (Concise Book of Lands), gives us an insight into the prevailing worldview on social classes, dividing people into 4 classes:

“Kings, who are distinguished with merit, ministers, who are blessed with insight and sound opinion, the upper class, who are elevated with affluence, the middle class, who are followed with good manners, and the hoi polloi after them, who are uncouth and like froth scum, foolish and an obsequious lot, for all they care about is sleeping and eating.”¹

Nonetheless, the emerging elite class (khassa) was taking shape in tandem with the development of the (Ẓurafā’), a social class that materialized in the early Abbasid era, characterized by polite behavior, high morals, neat dress, and refined taste. The Ẓurafā’ (sg. zarif) included members of the Abbasid royal family, secretaries (kuttab), scholars (including religious scholars), and musicians, men and women, free and enslaved. They conducted themselves according to a strict etiquette, known as zurf (elegance or refinement), which governed their dress, posture, speech, and even smell.²

Al-Waššāʾ, the 10th-century Baghdadi litterateur and author of Al-Mawsha fi al-Zarf wa al-Zurafa’ (The Book of Brocade on Refinement and Refined people), devoted a chapter in his book on “Sunan az-Zurf” or “tenets of elegance”, which lists the virtues and qualities, an elegant (zarif) person ought to possess. They were described as:

“Those whose appearance is complete, whose clothes smell good, whose skin is clear, whose bodies are clean, whose clothes are not dirty, whose pockets are not torn, whose trousers have no holes, whose nails are not long, and whose hair is not excessive.”³

Beginning from the High Middle Ages, a cultured “quasi-bourgeoisie class”, a sort of middle class, emerged, mainly a literate civilian class termed notables (ʾaʿyān). It consisted of judges (qūḍāh) and chief justices (qāḍi al- qūḍāt), affluent merchants (kibār at-tūjjār), learned scholars (ʿūlamāʾ, fūqahāʾ, mūftiyīn, mūḥaddithīn), preachers (ẖūțabāʾ), market inspectors (muḥtasibīn), heads of craftsmen guilds (rūʾasāʾ), educators (mūdarrisīn), and bureaucratic officials (kūttāb ad-diwān).

However, the contours of this intermediary class were not fixed, as their constituents straddled the lines between elite (khassa) and commoner (‘amma) strata to varying degrees, depending on different factors. Social mobility characterized the civilian populations in Medieval Islamic societies.

The newly established Arab bourgeoisie, primarily a mercantile class residing in the major Islamic urban centers, followed a highly cultured life. Elite culture and etiquette tended to trickle down from the high court to the middle classes and, if at all, to the very lowest levels of society. The bourgeoisie and learned classes imitated the caliphal court and cultured elité.

The dissemination of high culture in the courts of Muslim rulers and the adoption of imperial symbols became widespread in Islamic societies. Muslim sovereigns and wealthy patrons in the Abbasid court, and all emerging provincial Muslim courts, became more and more interested in the fine arts practiced by preceding imperial courts in Byzantium and Persia, such as literature, poetry, music, art, archery, hunting, horse-riding, chess, gastronomy, and the patronage of grand buildings and complexes.

The requirement for elaborate attire, meticulously styled hair, and carefully sourced perfumes was predominantly the prerogative of the elite (khassa). Possessing the leisure and means to engage in such indulgent practices often denoted elite social standing, in contrast to the common populace (‘amma), who were primarily occupied with intensive and time-consuming labour necessary for basic subsistence.

Medieval Muslim urbanites were concerned with their appearances. They took great measures to look and smell their best, especially the elite and the bourgeoisie, who became increasingly conscious of their outer appearances and placed significant emphasis on self-care. The elegant men of this era took great care of their face and body; they passed brilliantine besmoke on their beards and painted their eyes with kohl from Isfahan, just like the ladies.⁴ Men were not immune to the ebbs and flows of fashion, and they were as avidly devoted to sporting the newest vogue dress as the next à la mode lady. Women of the elegant middle class spent much time putting on make-up, using beauty products and depilatory pastes, rubbing themselves with perfumes, combing themselves, trying out new toiletries and using henna.⁵

The maintenance of personal hygiene, good grooming, and the use of perfumes (taṭyyīb) were highly regarded in Medieval Arab culture. Sanitary rituals were performed on a routine basis, such as the removal of underarm hair and pubic hair, nail trimming, oral cleansing, circumcision for men, and cleaning oneself with water after using the lavatory.

Medieval Arabic culinary texts and literature on etiquette (adab) contain detailed guidelines for cultured and refined individuals on appropriate handwashing practices before and after meals, often incorporating the use of various scented powders and perfumes. Muslims enjoyed a sophisticated culture of hygiene and etiquette that was central to their social and communal activities.

The interest in adornment and beauty became the norm among elite circles of women. Abbasid women of the zurafā’ class (pl. mutaẓarrifāt or sing. ẓarīfa) abided by the principles of elegant conduct (zurf). Al-Washshāʾ describes their lavish clothing, perfume, and jewelry and calls them mutaẓarrifāt al-quṣūr, “elegant ladies of the castles,” mutaẓarrifāt alqiyān, “elegant slave-singers,” or just mutaẓarrifāt al-nisā’, “elegant women.”⁶

Just like their male counterparts, the mutaẓarrifāt were expected to dress in elegantly matched garments, wear ornamented headdresses and precious jewelry, style their hair into elaborate updos, perfume themselves with a select number of refined perfumes, and behave in a manner befitting the canons of elegance. They seem to have been privileged urban women and socialites, known for their stylishness and glamour.⁷

From the trained courtesans of elite households to the princesses of the caliphal court, Abbasid women exhibited sophisticated engagement with sartorial culture. They acted as authoritative producers and disseminators of taste throughout the empire.

Two figures emblematic of Abbasid women’s role as arbiters of taste were the celebrated songstress ʿArīb al-Maʾmūniyya and the princess ʿUlayya bint al-Mahdī. Though situated at opposite ends of the social hierarchy, both operated as influential trendsetters in their respective spheres. ʿArīb, whose artistic presence animated the world of courtly performance, shaped elite aesthetic sensibilities through her refined dress, perfumes, and cultivated persona within the intimate milieu of palace culture. By contrast, ʿUlayya exerted her influence primarily among freeborn women, where her poetic voice, comportment, and sartorial choices circulated as models of propriety and elegance.

Undoubtedly, cosmetics would’ve played a central role in these daily practices of pristine sophistication and participation in cultured environments. This was particularly pertinent in the context of female slaves. Literary works frequently portray the concubines (jawāri) and courtesans (qiyān) who filled the Salons (majālis) and the opulent estates (manazil) of the aristocracy, with specific emphasis on their alluring beauty and sexual appeal.

A slave’s beauty was more or less considered to be one of, if not her only, cultural capital besides her talent in a certain craft. In One Thousand and One Nights, the story of Tawaddud, a beautiful courtesan purchased by Harun al-Rashid for the exorbitant sum of 10,000 dinars, exemplifies this notion succulently. Following the questioning of al-Rashid about her said talents, tawaddud promptly enumerates the number of disciplines she has mastered, and concludes with the declaration, “if I sing and dance, I am a seductress, and if I put on makeup and perfume myself, I am a killer.“⁸

Patrons bore the responsibility of furnishing their courtesans with the most luxurious attire, jewelry, and adornments, as well as providing sustenance. Additionally, they supplied a range of musical instruments and hired instructors to cultivate the courtesans’ artistic skills.

In addition to being trained in the proper arts of music and songwriting, these women were also instructed on the arts of coquetry and seduction to secure a continuing stream of male visitors. Because of her dual role of artist and companion, the courtesan treats her body as integral to her performance as much as her instrument or voice. The extrasensory performance of seduction incorporates those signifiers of desire that her culture holds, such as scanty or seductive dress, use of certain fabrics, jewelry, dance, gesture, scents, and trappings of comfort in her home.⁹

Hence, the reliance on false modifications to enhance the outward appearance or correct defects was a widely circulated, even institutionalized practice within the slave markets and schools for educating courtesans, and was probably relegated to an “open secret”, while naturally condemned by the codes of lawful trade.

The manipulation of physical appearance by slave-women occupied a great portion of slave buying manuals. These manuals function as cautionary guidance on the fraudulent physical alterations that slavers employ.

“… and what the slavers (nakhasun) recommend to the slaves is that they focus on grooming, perfuming, and using cosmetics to [draw] the potential buyer a little and disappear a little, for it invigorates their desires. And of the adornment they are required to adhere to is the use of starch (nishāstig) to redden their cheeks, coloring their eyebrows with rāmak (a dark perfume, see below), and dyeing their fingertips with red if she’s white, golden if she’s black, and black if she’s yellow.”¹⁰ The manual goes into detail on other modifications, like using false braids to extend the hair, hair dyes, hair-curling applications, facial hair removal, skin moisturizers, perfumes, deodorants, dentrifrices, breath fresheners, and nasal sprays.

It seems that the use of cosmetic modifications had become intrinsically intertwined with elite culture in medieval Islamic urban societies, especially among court entertainers and musicians of the elite. Indeed, in the second and third centuries AH (eighth to ninth centuries AD), a famous singer and musician of Muslim Spain known as Ziryab (‘blackbird’) opened a genuine beauty institute where the arts of applying cosmetics, removing superfluous hair, using dentifrice, and dressing the hair were taught.¹¹

Medieval Arab Women’s Cosmetic Preparations

Historical accounts indicate that the average urban Arab woman in the Islamic world was extremely conscious of her visual appearance. Medieval Arabic poetry and literature are rife with depictions of women with wondrous eyes lined with kohl (kuḥl), thinnly-drawn and blackened eyebrows (muzajjaja) with a brow pencil (khitāt), bodies fragrant with the smell of musk (misk) and ambergris (ʿambar), radiant skin–frequently compared to the sun–dyed with wars (Flemingia Grahamiana), cheeks and lips stained with safflower (ʿūṣfūr or qūrṭūm), along with delicate hands elegantly adorned with red henna (ḥinna).

To enhance their appearance, Muslim ladies residing in major Arab metropolises such as Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Kairouan, Fez, Cordoba, and Granada were blessed with an assortment of cosmetics and perfumed unguents at their fingertips. Large metropolis cities in the Islamic world were usually the centers of administrative and bureaucratic power, serving as hubs for the concentration of capital.

Women living in these great cities benefited from the extraordinary diversity of goods that flowed through their markets. In Baghdad, merchants imported Indian sandalwood, Chinese musk pods, Persian saffron, and Yemeni myrrh—luxury aromatics that served as the base for countless perfumes and cosmetic mixtures. Cairo’s famed Suqal-ʿAttārīn, meanwhile, was renowned throughout the medieval Islamic world for its perfumers, spice-sellers, and aromatic dealers, whose shops offered everything from rosewater to finely milled powders. In al-Andalus, cities such as Córdoba and Granada became noted centers of distillation, producing high-quality floral waters and scented extracts that were prized across the region.

While there are no direct references in Medieval Arabic literature to specific spaces or institutions designated for the sale of makeup and cosmetic preparations, the onus of satisfying the demands of female beauty was likely left in the hands of apothecaries or perfumers.

Apothecary shops or perfumeries were located within the marketplace and were found in most Islamic cities. They sold perfumes, scented oils, rose waters, spices, herbal mixtures, drugs, and, of course, cosmetics. This broader commercial role of the apothecary is corroborated by Ibn Buṭlān, a 12th-century Nestorian physician, who cynically remarked on the disruption of the proper hierarchy of medical practice:

“Every druggist applies himself to inspecting urine samples… and finds a market for goods he cannot sell, especially when he has spiked his medicine with a dash of sal ammoniac, dyes, soaps, cosmetics, and cubeb.” ¹²

The specific word for “cosmetics” in the original Arabic text was “kalkoun, كلكون”, which was a type of face rouge popular at the time. Although framed as satire, this passage serves as valuable textual evidence that apothecaries did, in fact, traffic in cosmetic preparations and that such products were woven into the ordinary commercial activities of the marketplace.

The medicinal drugs produced from plants were manufactured by people in occupations such as the ʿaṭṭār (perfumer), ṣaydalānī (pharmacist/druggist), and ʾaʿšābī (herbalist), who processed and sold them. The perfumes, scents, medicinal herbs, and drugs which they manufactured, prescribed, and sold were central to the well-being of their fellow citizens and a sign of a sophisticated consumer society.

Cosmetic preparations were handed out through a proper medical ricetta authorized by a physician or were sold as commercial merchandise for female seekers of beauty treatments. Disheartened by the slow stream of raw medicinal plants sold by merchants and the destitute state in which the profession [pharmacy] has fallen, Ibn Butlan cynically lists the items his apothecary is now reduced to sell. ” Now all we care about is the quality of henna, rosewater, dark dyes, zinc sulfate lotions, lyes, sal ammoniac, laxatives, and Mother Mary’s incense.”¹³

Arabic pharmacology manuals list several cosmetic remedies, primarily aimed at treating various dermatological ailments (scabies, freckles, and mange), which were often prepared by the pharmacist and dispensed to the patient. Indeed, surviving medical prescriptions from the Genizah documents prove that Medieval Egyptian Jewish communities sought out pharmacists with medical complaints about various skin diseases, which were treated with several types of compounded drugs based on each diagnosis.¹⁴ However, for other cosmetic concerns, other medications were prescribed, such as hair dyes, dentrifices, deodorants, and breath-enhancing pills.

Ultimately, the Marketplace was considered to be an important venue for acquiring these cosmetic enhancements. Muslim travelers and authors often remarked on the sections of the markets heavily frequented by the majority of women, which typically sold or dealt with feminine demands.

The Andalusian jurist, Ibn Hazm, in his treatise on love, Ṭawq al-Ḥamāmah, writes in the section on (love at first sight), that a certain poet, Yusuf ibn Harun, passing by the perfumer’s gate, was love-stricken at the sight of a slave-girl:

“That, perfumers’ gate (bāb al-‘attārīn), was a meeting place for women from all over Cordoba.”¹⁵ This gate was one of the seven gates of Cordoba, located on its western side, specializing in perfumes, ointments, and women’s cosmetics.¹⁶

Ibn al-Hajj was dismayed at the perceived moral laxity of 14th-century Cairene ladies, who, in his perspective, had occupied an undeserved share of the public space, especially in the markets (aswāq) where they were free to purchase their needs without adhering to the strict rules of veiling and walking the streets, seen with their finer ornaments. The favorite spots of women were the jeweler’s shop, that of the cloth merchant, and that of the shoemaker.¹⁷ In his description of Cairo’s markets, al-Makrīzi mentions the presence of women in places such as the square between the Two Palaces and the markets. It was mainly the shops of jewelers, perfumers, cloth merchants, and shoemakers that women frequented.¹⁸

It seems that cosmetics or medicines prepared by duggists/perfumers were deemed inferior in quality to those prescribed or sold by well-versed physicians. Hisba manual literature often cautions against the fraudulent alterations and deceits of professions dealing with public health and medicine, such as syrup makers (šarābiyīn), perfumers (ʿaṭṭārīn), and pharmacists (ṣayādilah), and admonishes their ignorance in properly handling drugs and mixing them. In addition to collecting and dispensing herbs, these poorly qualified druggists sold all kinds of spices for use in cooking, or in cosmetics and medicines.¹⁹

As we will elaborate below, the quality of cosmetics was heavily contingent on the socioeconomic status of their buyers. Royal women were able to acquire the finest cosmetics made by expert physicians working in the Caliphal palaces’ private apothecaries. These apothecaries were attached to the caliphal palace complex to serve the medical needs of caliphs and their families.

For example, we are told that Ahmad ibn Yūnis established, by order of Caliph al-Hakam II (reigned 961-76), a pharmacy shop (called then al Khizanah or Khizanat al-Adwiyah) in a room at the palace. Up to the end of the tenth century, this shop was never surpassed in contents and elegance in al-Andalus.²⁰ In the Fatimid period, the register in the palace responsible for various kinds of expensive beverages and pastes, exquisite jams, numerous types of medicines, and excellent perfumes was called the “sharāb khānāh” (The House of Beverages).²¹

The female relatives of caliphs and emirs were privileged with access to various luxuries, spices, and aromatics brought from far-flung regions across the Empire. Physicians employed at the courts of the caliphs were responsible for caring for the health of the royal women in the Harem, particularly the Caliph’s mother, sisters, wives, and concubines. These women often sought cosmetic treatments to maintain their youth and enhance their beauty, with their demands often being satisfied by those physicians.

There is an established consensus among scholars that Islamic Medicine, which flourished during the scientific and cultural Golden Age of Islam, was considered to be the successor of the Medical tradition of the Ancient Greeks. In ancient Greece and subsequent Roman periods, the use of cosmetics was practiced by a wide section of society.

While delving and experimenting in the field of cosmetology, early Muslim physicians were clearly influenced by the medical literature on cosmetics in Ancient Greco-Roman medicine. There are observable parallels between the Islamic cosmetological tradition and the Greek one, particularly witnessed in the usage of similar drugs, their prescribed indications, and the types of formulae. However, Islamic cosmetology refined and improved the field by utilizing the scientific breakthroughs in chemistry and pharmacology, and incorporating new botanical and mineral substances, which were locally sourced or brought from across the wide geographical spheres of the Islamic Empire.

Ancient Greco-Roman authors made a distinction between two types of cosmetics. Galen (12.434–435, 445–446, 449–450 Kühn 1826), writing in the second century AD, notes the difference between kosmētikon (‘cosmeceutical’) and kommōtikon (‘cosmetic’). A cosmeceutical designed to enhance the skin by means of, for example, moisturizing it, was acceptable. But the application of a cosmetic such as rouge or skin whitener was deemed inappropriate, unsightly, and even immoral.²²

Medieval Islamic cosmetology generally fell into the former classification. Cosmeceuticals or “cosmetic medicines” (adwiyat az-zinah), as they were called, were typically found in most cosmetic treatises or allocated into separate chapters within medical encyclopedias and pharmacopeias.

Muslim physicians prescribed them to treat skin disorders, exfoliate and moisturize the skin, address hair loss, reduce armpit sweat, combat tooth decay, and improve breath. These were different from cosmetics or makeup, which were artificial, temporary colorants used to apply red and white to the face. In this article series, the latter category will be the primary focus, while the former will be addressed in a different article series.

Although Islamic medical and pharmacological literature preserves extensive detail on medicated cosmetic treatments—such as facial lotions, hair dyes, depilatories, scented oils, skin-lightening pastes, and therapeutic face masks—there is a striking relative silence surrounding purely decorative cosmetics. Products that produced temporary visual effects, including rouge, blush, white face powder, and other forms of color-based makeup widely used by ancient women in antiquity, receive little to no systematic attention in these learned manuals.

The marginalization of decorative makeup in Islamic medical literature stems from a convergence of gendered assumptions, professional boundaries, and the intellectual biases of the elite physicians who authored these texts. Learned medicine operated within a framework that linked legitimacy to therapeutic purpose; remedies were worth recording only insofar as they restored bodily balance, corrected humoral excesses, or improved health. Purely decorative substances—rouges, white powders, and colored pigments—offered no such medical rationale and thus fell outside the physician’s self-defined domain of expertise.

At the same time, these products were deeply embedded in women’s everyday practices and circulated largely through informal, female-centered networks: households, bathhouses, midwives, and hairdressers. Because male physicians rarely had direct access to these spaces, they tended to dismiss or overlook their knowledge as extraneous, frivolous, or socially inferior. As a result, decorative cosmetics—though widely used—remained largely invisible in the medical canon, not due to their absence from society but because they did not fit into the male, therapeutic, and scholarly worldview that shaped what was written down.

This is evidently substantiated, as we will elaborate further, by literary references to various kinds of artificial enhancing products being sold or manufactured by female peddlers and itinerant beauticians.

The formulation of cosmetics was a closely guarded industry secret; the knowledge of it would’ve necessitated a high degree of proficiency, which required years of expertise and professional training. Ultimately, the trade secrets were relegated to the inner circles of court physicians. Thus, the knowledge of fool-proof cosmetics was not widely known to pharmacists or druggists working in the common drugstores found in the general markets.

Indeed, most medical encyclopedias, which dedicate separate chapters for cosmetics/cosmecuticals (abwab Az-zinah), typically rendered in medicated formulas such as lutukhat (pastes), tila’aat (paints), ghumrat (masks), perfumes (‘utur), oils (‘adhan), depilatory pastes (nura), and hair dyes (khidab), perfumes (tiib), etc, to augment women’s beauty and rectify their defects, were written by prestigious physicians working in the courts of various Muslim rulers.

Al-tamīm’s (d. 1009), Ṭīb al-ʿarūs wa-rayḥān al-nufūs fī ṣināʿat al-ʿuṭūr (“The Perfume of the Brides and the Scent of the Souls in the Art of Perfumes”), was a comprehensive handbook of perfumery, in which perfumes are applied to cosmetics and other materials, including textiles. The author was a renowned tenth-century physician who was born in Jerusalem and later moved to Egypt.²³

Al-tamimi worked as a court physician for the Ikhshidid Governor of Ramla, al-Hassan bin Abdullah bin Tughj al-Mastouli, and later worked under the patronage of the Fatimid vizir, Ya’qub ibn Killis (930–991), in Fustat, Egypt.

Similarly, the most renowned physicians of the Medieval Islamicate world, who designated chapters on the art of cosmetics within their large medical encyclopedias, were more often than not sponsored by royal courts of various caliphs, provincial governors, or emirs.

Ibn Sina (al-qanun fi at-tib, “Canon of Medicine’) was in the service of various Persian sovereigns of the Buyid and Samanid courts. Al-Razi (al-mansouri fi at-tib, “Book on Medicine Dedicated to al-Mansour”) worked under the governor of Rayy and was hired at a hospital (bimaristān) in Baghdad.

Abu al-Qassim al-Zahrawi (at-tasrif li-man ‘ajiza ‘an at-ta’lif, “The arrangement of manifold medical knowledge for one who is not able to compile a book for himself”), who was the most prolific and renowned Surgeon during the Middle Ages, from Andalusia, served as the court physician to the Umayyad Caliph Al-Hakam II. The Persian physician from the province of Ahwaz, Ibn al-‘Abbás al-Majusi (Kamil al-sina’ah al-tibbiyah, “The Complete Book of the Medical Art”), worked as a physician to Prince ‘Adud al-Daula Fana Khusraw of the Buyid dynasty, and later moved to the Abbasid caliphate and worked at the Al-Adudi Hospital in Baghdad.

The widespread presence of unsupervised quacks and charlatans prescribing and synthesizing drugs incentivized doctors to become more cautious of their formulations. As a result, many eminent physicians preferred to compound their own medicines, or had assistants to do the job under their supervision, rather than write them on prescriptions to be prepared in privately owned pharmacy shops in which they were not always sure of the man in charge.²⁴

Court physicians probably didn’t want to take the risk of entrusting the preparation of cosmetic treatments intended for the royal women to the hands of untrained and untrustworthy drugstore pharmacists. To remedy that, physicians included detailed cosmetic recipes in their medical manuals and their preparation method, alongside the required drugs, their precise amounts, and the needed implements to use. These prescriptions were then dispensed by the court’s private apothecary or prepared by trained professionals working under the physician’s direct supervision.

The art of making cosmetics was such a tightly guarded secret that a 10th-century Kairouanian grammarian, Ismāil ibn Yusuf al-munajjim al-tilā’, was credited with the precedence of introducing the art of Iraqi cosmetic-making (tilā’) to Kairouan.²⁵ He secretly gained insight into the hidden know-how of this trade, albeit by stealing the undisclosed trade secrets, earning him a worthy entry in the tabaqāt (classes) biographies.²⁶

According to biographical dictionaries, Ismail was a polymath and a proficient Arabic linguist from the Islamic West, hailing from the Aghlabid dynasty in Tunisia. He was a well-versed scholar and traveled across the intellectual centers in the eastern capitals of the Islamic Empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. To earn a living after being in dire need of cash to support his scholarship, he ended up becoming an apprentice in a prominent drugstore in Baghdad, the capital of the Islamic world, specializing in the manufacture of women’s cosmetics (mawād at-tatriyah).

The people of Baghdad had a solid understanding of cosmetic formulation, likely due to Iraq’s extensive history of cosmetics production dating back to ancient times. They hid the knowledge of their craft diligently and were often suspicious of outsiders wishing to uncover their secrets.

Naturally, as with all trades, cosmetic makers kept their techniques under tight wraps to deter others from replicating their work or stealing their methods, maintaining a competitive edge and protecting their unique skills and processes from competitors.

While working there, Ismail was privy to the inner workings of how these cosmetics were composed and understood the chemical composition of the active ingredients of each drug, the complex drug interactions, their indications, and the precise dosage of each amount so as not to cause skin irritation and prevent adverse reactions, not to mention yielding a usable final product. These cosmetics had to be administered correctly by rendering them in the appropriate formula (cream, unguent, powder, tablet), and also had to be scented, and sometimes colored, to make their application more pleasant on the senses.²⁷

To create many of these cosmetic recipes, an innumerable number of plants, herbs, spices, and minerals were sourced from around the world, especially the Indian Subcontinent and the Far East, in addition to the native flora grown within the Islamic world in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Attention to self-maintenance and beauty was often influenced by a woman’s social status and wealth. Affluent and high-born ladies had more time and resources at their disposal for these extensive preparations than toiling peasants and working-class women.

The elevated socioeconomic status of elite women enabled them to access high-quality cosmetics, toiletries, and expensive storage containers. Sometimes, the emphasis on a woman’s material standing wasn’t based on the number of cosmetics she possessed, but rather on the exquisite craftsmanship and high-quality materials from which the containers were made.

The Geniza trousseau lists of brides from lower, middle, and upper strata clearly demonstrate the stark disparity between the quality and quantity of trousseaux based on their socioeconomic standing. The dowries of the brides of the affluent included house furnishings of the most sumptuous fabrics, metal-inlaid kitchenware, and various lighting implements, notwithstanding the items used exclusively by the bride, like her clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, toiletries, dressing tools, and the storage vessels used to hold each one of these items, all made from gold, silver, ivory or ebony wood.

Middle-class women could probably suffice with the cosmetics being sold by the perfume shops in the markets or whatever the itinerant female brokers (dallālāt) brought. These female brokers frequented the domiciles of women who didn’t want to break societal norms of female seclusion and provided essential services and goods that women needed from outside. They sold much-needed clothing, perfumes, cosmetics, and jewelry, or whatever a woman desired to beautify herself.²⁸

Ironically, Ibn al-Hajj, who repeatedly criticizes Egyptian women for being out too often in the streets, commends the services that female peddlers contributed in protecting the chastity of the harim: “and there must be female peddlers to pass by houses in order to carry the dough to the baker, so as to protect the harim of the Muslims.”²⁹

Women of modest circumstances or those living in desert or rural areas could afford only a select few of inferior quality. Cosmetic preparations could be concocted at home from a variety of easily obtained ingredients and natural recipes handed down in families from mother to daughter and between friends.³⁰

The repertoire of facial-enhancing cosmetics or makeup in the Islamic Middle Ages encompassed a variety of items, including kohl, blushes and rouges, and whitening powders, alongside hair washes, shampoos, masks, scented oils, depilatories, moisturizers, perfumes, not to mention the elaborate containers and flasks for their storage. The cosmetics would be formulated for single use if they were in a wet form, but for prolonged use, they would be in a dry form.

Various sources in literature allude to the types of cosmetics used by Medieval Arab women and the different implements for adornment. Al-Jahiz, the 9th-century litterateur, wrote on the adornment methods of the women of his time, which included: “Perfumes, dyes, henna, kohl, plucking, hair-cutting, hairdressing, shaving, cleaning garments, and adorning garments.”³¹

The 13th-century playwright and author, Ibn Danial, in his most prominent work, Taif al-Khayal (Shadow Spirit), recounts the types of cosmetics “umm rashid”, a savvy and discreet matchmaker (Khātiba), usually carries in her possession:

“Her purse is never void of frankincense and perfume bottles, of red [lipstick] and white lead powder, of Moroccan hookah and mascara pencil, lime-scented deodorant and scented wools, fragrant creams and makeup oil of the Ḥasan Yūsuf brand, liniment and massage oil of the Barmakīya brand, and hair dyes of the colors of saffron or violet.“³²

One of the most illuminating literary sources for women’s cosmetics in the Islamic Middle Ages was the various Islamic jurisprudence books. Medieval Islamic scholars often remarked on the types of facial adornments (zīnah) a widowed or divorced woman is prohibited from partaking during the period of iddah (waiting period) per the Shariah.

These are good indicators of the contemporary facial colorants and cosmetics used at the time. These included enhancements such as Khidab (dye/henna), naqsh (inscribing patterns on the hand and face), tatrif (dyeing the fingertips), houmra (rouge), and isfidhaj (ceruse/white powder), facial hair plucking (haff), not to mention Khol (eyeliner) and tiib (perfumes).³³ Islamic jurists permitted the usage of such enhancement for married women, pre-conditioned on the approval of her husband if she was a free woman or her master if she was a slave.³⁴

Another aspect of women’s beauty products that was equally addressed in various jurisprudence books, particularly in concern with the issue of a woman’s obligatory maintenance (nafaqah), which was helpful in inferring matters related to women’s hygiene and purity. In accordance with Islamic law, a husband must supply his wife with the bare minimum of toiletries (alāt at-tanzīf) for personal hygiene and occasionally cosmetics, as part of the nafaqah, in addition to food, clothing, and shelter. According to various schools of interpretation, the kind and amount of these items varied, and they were often based on local customs (‘ala ma huwa ‘adat al-balad) and depended on the husband’s financial means and social status.

The toiletries constituted what was usually used for cleaning one’s head, such as Christ Thorn Jujube Powder (sidr), clay (tīn), and marshmallow plant (khatmi), or what is used to wash clothes and hands, such as soap (sābun) and soda ash (ushnān), or what is used to remove armpit odor and foul smell, such as litharge (martak), tutty (tuttiya), alum (shabb), or what is used for dental hygiene, such as tooth brushes (miswāk) and toothpicks (khīlal).

Jurists stipulated this injunction upon the principle that a husband must provide his wife with the tools indispensable for her hygienic upkeep, otherwise the wife might be harmed by leaving it (zina tustadhirru al-mar’a bi tarkiha), therefore, he is obligated to provide the essential toiletries for cleaning the head and body from dirt to keep with general cleanliness practices, and increase the wife’s desirability for marital intercourse.

The provision of cosmetics (zīna) was often left up to the discretion of the husbands. Unlike essential amenities like food, shelter, clothing, and personal hygiene products, which are unanimously agreed upon by all schools of thought to consititute the core of maintenance, some schools have opined that husbands are not obliged by law to include cosmetics, perfumes, and hair oils in the maintenance for the wife, unless the husband allows it for his personal pleasure, then he is required to prepare them for her.

The rationale behind excluding such supplementary embellishments is that they will not cause direct harm to the wife, or they are outside the norms of local customs, hence, seen as an unnecessary expenditure.

What was seen as instruments of adornment were hair combs (misht) for brushing the hair; hair oils (duhn) like sesame oil, olive oil, or ghee, or scented oil with violet or rose; cosmetics (zina) like kohl, henna, hair dyes, saffron; or perfumes (tiib) for removing the stench form the body after sweating, menstruation, and overall bodily odors.

The booming literary discipline of Arabic cookery books that erupted during the 10th-14th century in several Arab urban centers was another documentary source for women’s enhancements. Culinary manuals were generally a byproduct of elite patronage and were written as guides for the cooks working in palace kitchens.

In the Islamicate world, cooking and medicine were linked together. Food was not merely consumed out of human necessity for daily sustenance; it was also eaten to provide nourishment and as a healing agent. For instance, Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq’s 10th-century cookbook Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh (The Book of Dishes) is full of dietary advice, specifying which foods strengthen digestion, calm fevers, or balance humors. It was common for physicians to prescribe specific foods and medicinal plants for healing various ailments during sickness. Consuming herbal potions and medicinal recipes was crucial for accelerating the recovery process.

At the end of each book, the last chapters are usually reserved for hygienic products as part of the post-meal etiquette. These included handwashing compounds, deodorants, dentifrices, breath-enhancing tablets, and perfumes such as perfumed oils, distilled waters, incense, and scented body powders. The usage of these aromatic preparations combined the roles of hygiene maintenance, personal adornment, and health preservation.

In the same manner, perfumery treatises were another source for exploring the types of perfumes used by women. Most perfumery treatises that formulated perfumes intended for cosmetic uses were designed for an audience of elite women (and often men), particularly those belonging to the Caliphal household or those with disposable income. Perfumes were valued not merely for their pleasant scents but also for their therapeutic and cleansing properties; they purged the air, cleared the head, and improved one’s mood.³⁵

Many recipes for various perfumes in Tamimi’s perfumery treatise were called “Barmakiyya”, “Mahdiyya”, and “Umm Hasan”, named after Abbasid princesses, caliphs, and ministers. They were sometimes described as Muluuki (royal) or Khass (elite), signifying they were tailored for the upper echelons.

For example, recipes for women’s hair washes (ghislat) were named after Abbasid women in the harem, like the caliph’s wives or his mother. The author often remarked that these recipes were reserved for the wives and concubines of the “house of Abbas” and were not used to treat anyone else. ³⁶ They used the most expensive and first-rate ingredients imported from afar to make these recipes. Many recipes require precise measurements and specific processing steps for each ingredient.

Aside from women’s innate desires to enhance and beautify their appearance, a woman, especially if she’s married, was expected to doll herself up to look desirable to her husband in an attempt to steer away any competition vying for a favorable place in the man’s heart, since polygamy and concubinage were common practices in the Islamic middle ages, especially for the wealthy and upper classes. A barrage of slaves, eunuchs, and concubines filled the harems of the ruling elites and the affluent middle classes.

Since slavery was a lucrative trade in the Islamic world, slave merchants took great measures to select and preen slave women to a high beauty standard. Slave purchasing manuals often included warnings of the fraudulent enhancements done by slave merchants to improve the appearance of their slaves to make them more appealing to potential buyers. A slave broker could manipulate the physical appearance of a slave in a number of ways, for example, by dyeing her hair or covering tattoos and scars with cosmetics.³⁷

Despite Islamic principles of conduct necessitating grooming and personal adornment for both genders, women, by default of societal expectations, were required to heed special attention to their external appearance to appeal and satisfy the sexual desires of their husbands or masters.

The Islamic position towards female adornment was not as rigid and intolerant as that of Christianity. Adornment in itself was not equated to immorality, nor was beautification condemned. Oiling, perfuming, dyeing, and plaiting of hair were not considered reprehensible for either men or women and even seem to have been encouraged.³⁸ Nevertheless, Islamic mores stipulated gender separation and limited the expression of women’s sexuality to the private domain.

Suppose a husband is away on business or at work. In that case, a married woman visits the public bathhouse (hammam), where she can receive an entire session of beautification treatments from experienced professionals working in the establishment. Hammas were considered to be the modern equivalent of beauty salons and spas.

Bathhouse workers included barbers and masseurs for male bathers, as well as a variety of female staff to attend to the needs of female clients, including washing, shaving, and plucking hair, soaping, oiling, massaging, and sponging skin, and applying cosmetics. Women took care of the beauty of their skin by rubbing themselves with various concoctions and massage oils. Balsam oil was used as a body lotion by Mamluk women in the hammam sessions.³⁹ The application of henna to the hair, face, hands, feet, and fingernails was an especially popular bathhouse ritual for women. ⁴⁰

In addition to religious purification and hygienic practices, these visits to the public baths served social and recreational functions. Weekly trips to the public bathrooms were considered a woman’s only pastime; it was a great chance for much chatting and socializing with friends and female relatives, catching up on the latest gossip, and even matchmaking.

Hammams were the most suitable setting for elderly women and matchmakers looking for eligible brides, as women were mostly semi-clad, providing the perfect opportunity to check for any bodily imperfection or unwanted feature a suitor might not desire.

Aristocratic ladies and those of the moneyed classes didn’t visit the public baths but often had their treatments in the private baths of their residences and palaces. Female masseuses, hairdressers (māshiṭa), tattoo artists, and cosmeticians (ballāna) were frequently called upon to the homes of the wealthy. Some hair specialists were known to have worked with a select few of elite clientele and were paid more handsomely than the regular staff working in the public baths. In his diary, Ibn Tawq records the gifts his wife regularly sent to her midwife, and the hefty sums she paid to her hairdresser before going to a wedding. The women attending her during visits to the bathhouse received smaller fees.⁴¹

Occasionally, affluent women would rent out public baths, particularly those designated for the wealthy, for private use during special occasions such as weddings (zifāf) or when a mother finishes her 40-day postpartum period (nifās), during which the woman would undergo an extended series of treatments.

Arab beauty standards

The aesthetic preferences of pre-Islamic Arabs regarding feminine beauty, as reflected within their poetry, were primarily shaped by their habitat in the desert.

Arabic poetry is replete with images of a woman’s luscious and thick hair locks resembling the prolific date palm trees, a woman’s eyes to the charming wide-eyed Arabian Oryx, her long and slender neck to the neck of the antelope, and a woman’s swaying slim figure to a Moringa tree, and others. These are reflections of the inspirations drawn from the surrounding nature, which embodied qualities the Arabs found most exemplary.

Arabic poetry highlights the beauty standards for Arab women. Classical Arabic poetry is rich with poems praising the beloved’s beauty. Vibrant metaphors are dispersed in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, resembling a woman’s beauty to the moon, her large almond-shaped eyes to the eyes of the Arabian gazelle, her silky hair black as coal, her white teeth to a luminous pearl, her rosy cheeks as red as a pomegranate, and sweet-talking her lean figure. In the medieval period, the Arab ideal of female beauty favored fair complexions, a lean and slim body, a round face, and rouged cheeks. ⁴²

With the rise of urban centers in the Islamic Empire and as the Arabs came into contact with the sedentary populations in the regions they conquered, with different pre-established outward expressions of beauty, this undoubtedly expanded their repertoire of what is deemed attractive, and their ways of adornment became more sophisticated and extensive.

Treatises by medieval Arab travelers and littérateurs dedicate a significant amount of information to the ideal feminine beauty, often writing in great detail on the sexual qualities of Arab, Persian, Turk, Syrian, Armenian, Berber, Egyptian, Nubian, and Abyssinian women. Not to mention the influx of foreign slave women captured from the frontiers in Byzantine territories in Sicily, Anatolia, and the Far East in Khurasan, the Caucasus, China, and India, would make Arab authors marvel at their exotic beauty.

Ultimately, these slaves, in an attempt to assimilate into their new environment, generally tried to conform to the ideal Arab standards of beauty. They would’ve used black kohl, dyed their hair and body with black or red henna, and donned Arab attire. In his Shari al-Raqeeq (The Purchase of Slaves), Ibn Butlan warns of the tricks of slave brokers used to fraudulently alter the appearance of slaves, which in turn sheds light on the contemporary canons of taste in female beauty:

“They darkened (put kohl on) the blue-eyed, they reddened the yellow-cheeked, they fattened the gaunt-faced, they enlarged the frail palms, they plucked the hairy cheeks, they blackened the blond-haired, they curled the straight-haired, they whitened the tanned-faced, they oiled the thin-haired, they plumped up the lean-legged, and they cleared the itches, freckles, tattoos, and smallpox from the face”⁴³

A) Makeup and cosmetics:

1) Kohl

Kohl, in Arabic, Kajal in Hindi, and Surmeh in Persian, is a black cosmetic that was the most common type of eye makeup used by men and women in the Ancient world. Kohl was the pinnacle eye cosmetic used in many Ancient Near Eastern civilizations, like the Egyptians, Sumerians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, and Arabs.

Cosmetic container, probably kohl-Umayyad period, 7th -8th century CE

Arabic lexicons define Kohl as: a substance for lining the eye or a medication for the eye (collyria). In pre-Islamic Arabia, applying kohl to the eyes was a common practice for both men and women, regardless of social status.

After Islam, collyria (Kohl) gained prominence in the Islamic tradition, especially after the Prophet was known to have put Kohl in his eyes. Good Muslims of faith emulating prophetic traditions (sunnah) used kohl in their eyes. It was a unisex cosmetic used by both genders.

Since having large and well-defined eyes was considered the epitome of Arab beauty, women employed kohl to accentuate and draw attention to their eyes.

Kohl was used to outline and emphasize the eyes, elongate and fill the eyebrows (tazjij), darken the lashes, and even apply it on the lids as eyeshadow. The Arabs considered dark, thin, crescent-shaped eyebrows without ingrown hairs between the brows (balaj) to be beautiful, unlike the Persians, who preferred the look of a unibrow.

The application of Kohl was a widely favored beauty tradition among brides, usually performed by a professional makeup artist/bath specialist (ballāna).

Putting on Kohl differed for men and women. It was primarily a form of adornment for women, but it had a more functional or therapeutic aspect for men. Aside from its beautification value, Kohl was also believed to have medicinal and protective properties.

The Arabs believed Kohl provided spiritual protection from the Evil Eye and acted as a barrier from the harsh sand, dust, and sun glare, had anti-microbial properties, was a remedy for conjunctivitis, and promoted strong vision. The Prophet Muhammad is said to have praised the hair-growing properties of kohl on the eyes: “The best of your kohl (collyrium) is ithmid, for it makes the vision clear and makes the hair (eyelash) grow.”

Arab mothers dwelling in the Peninsula traditionally applied Kohl for their young children to protect them from the unforgiving Arabian sun.

Kohl played such an important role within the field of Arabo-islamic ophthalmology; an oculist or an eye physician in the Medieval Islamic world was called a Kahhal (one who puts/employs collyrium (Kohl) to treat the eyes).

The most prized variety of Kohl was derived from ithmid, especially the variety brought from Isfahan. There seems to be a debate between researchers on the exact composition of the ithmid.

Popular research believes Ithmid is made of antimony (Sb), a lustrous grey metalloid, and its ore is a sulfide of antimony called Stibnite, Sb₂S₃. However, a strong corpus of updated scientific literature believes antimony is a misnomer, but Ithmid is made from Galena (lead sulfide, PbS).

A published article in 2009 debunks the notion of Ancient Egyptian Kohl being made from antimony. The reason for the confusion is due to a mistranslation of the Egyptian term for galena, “Mestem” or “Stim”, similar to the Greek word “Stimmi” or “Stibi”, and to the Latin word “Stibium”, or Antimony. ⁴⁴ Indeed, recent research has shown that the main constituent of a large number of kohl samples used by the Ancient Egyptians of Fayum between 2000 and 1200 BC was Galena.⁴⁵

One study even showed that Ancient Egyptians used a variety of lead-based minerals as the main component of their Kohls (galena (PbS), cerussite (PbCO₃), anglesite (PbSO₄), litharge (PbO) as well as synthetic products such as laurionite (PbOHCl) and phosgenite (Pb₂Cl₂CO₃). ⁴⁶

Ibn Al-Nafis’ description of Ithmid corroborates the theory of Ithmid being galena rather than antimony. In his book (The Comprehensive Book on the Industry of Medicine), he clarifies the components of ithmid as “a substance made from a lead (metallic) essence and a stone (non-metallic) essence.”

A 13th-century Arabic Lexicon, “The Reliable in Medicine”, defines the entry of “Ithmid” as: “a black collyrium stone, it’s hard, lustrous, and has a blue shine, the best of its kind is brittle, and its crumbs are shiny, lustrous and sheet-like, and its insides are smooth and are debris-free.”

Galena, an ore of lead, is still used to this day for making traditional eyeliner in the Middle East. A study on the composition of modern-day Kohl in Saudi Arabia, taken from 107 samples, found that Lead levels up to 53% were detected in some kohl preparations, and some samples were found to contain camphor and menthol. In addition, aluminum and antimony levels were also determined. ⁴⁷ However, their percentages were insignificant compared to lead.

The main ingredient in khol (stibnite/galena) was pulverized using a mortar and pestle, then turned into a very fine powder through multiple pulverizations and sifting, so the kohl doesn’t cause irritation or damage to the eyes when applied. The powder was combined with oil, fat, or water to achieve an applicable texture. Metal-based Kohls (galena and antimony) were expensive and reserved for elite and wealthy ladies or were often employed in medicinal kohl recipes; however, Kohls were made from more affordable substances like resins, charcoal, or soot.

Kohl bottle, castle in Albarracin (Teruel, Spain), eleventh to twelfth centuries CE

Kohl, discovered in archeological sites dating back to the Middle Ages, was among the most prolific in terms of archaeological findings. Several Kohl bottles from the Islamic periods (from Umayyad until Ottoman) are preserved in various museums dedicated to Islamic arts, some even containing residual substances beneficial for their analysis. The usage of galena was also verified in products from Islamic Middle-Age Iberia. A small glass vessel was found in an archaeological context dated to the eleventh to twelfth centuries CE in Albarracin (Teruel, Spain); it contained black powders, which were analysed by voltammetry of immobilised microparticles and SEM–EDS, and identified as lead sulphide (Pérez-Arantegui and Cepriá 2014).⁴⁸

Recipes for making kohl vary across different regions in the Islamic Near East. Women prepared homemade versions of kohl, relying on generational recipes inherited from elderly women in the family.

Islamic Medical encyclopedias produced during the Golden Age of Islam have dedicated numerous treatises to ophthalmology and the treatment of ocular pathologies. Treatments came in various formulas, including Kohl’s. These medicinal Kohls could contain up to 12 ingredients of various minerals, saps, salts, herbs, spices, plants, gemstones, woods, animal parts, and resins.

One preparation method is to char the ithmid, wash it to remove impurities, then let it dry and pulverize it into a fine powder. Other substances are added to the ithmid to give it a richer and more intense color, and also for medicinal benefits. These substances could include hematite, Zinc oxide (tutty from Ar. Tuttia توتياء), copper oxide نحاس محرق, litharge, and sal ammoniac, natron, white and black peppercorn, cassia bark, Lycium, marjoram, cuttlebone, burnt hoofs and antlers, cinnabar, spikenard, cloves, saffron, musk, rock salt, starch, pearl, and Lapis Lazuli.

Resin substances such as Frankincense, typically used in fragrances and incense-making, can be converted into Kohl by charring them over an open flame. The balsam of the Astragalus sarcocolla or Persian gum (Anzurt in Arabic) was used to make Kohl.

Another preparation is to convert pulverized soot from burnt olive or date pits. Almond and walnut shells were also burnt and turned into Kohl. Cotton wicks soaked in oil (sesame or olive) were left to burn overnight in a metallic container covered with a metal or copper lid, and the black carbon residue was then scraped off the surface, making the kohl powder.

Sometimes, plant parts were used to make kohl. The black color of charcoal made from the roots of the “eyelash plant” (Blepharis ciliaris) was used in a paste with antimony to outline the eyes as well as treat inflammations of the eye.⁴⁹

Lane noted that 19th-century Egyptian women used two types of kohl: one for ornamentation and another for medicinal purposes.

“This is a collyrium commonly composed of the smoke-black which is produced by burning a kind of “liban”—an aromatic resin—a species of frankincense, used, I am told, in preference to the better kind of frankincense, as being cheaper, and equally good for this purpose. Kohl is also prepared from the smoke-black produced by burning the shells of almonds. These two kinds, though believed to be beneficial to the eyes, are used merely for ornament; but there are several kinds used for their real or supposed medical properties; particularly the powder of several kinds of lead ore, to which are often added sarcocolla, long pepper, sugar-candy, fine dust of a Venetian sequin, and sometimes powdered pearls. Antimony, it is said, was formerly used for painting the edges of the eyelids.”⁵⁰

Khol was usually preserved in elaborately ornamented containers called (mikhala مِكحلة), which came in a variety of shapes (amphora, tube, teardrop) and were made from all kinds of materials such as glass, quartz, ivory, rock crystal, leather, wood, silver, copper, or even textiles. The kohl container came with a thin stick applicator called (Al-mirwad/Al-mail الميل/المِروَد) with a tapering, blunt edge. The applicator doesn’t necessarily have to be made from the same material as the container. The stick applicator has a decorated finial with all sorts of carving and sculpting. The finial acts as a stopper after the applicator is inserted into the container.

Decorations on the bottle can come in the form of granulation, surface decoration, relief sculpting, and carvings. The carvings can come in various shapes like birds, animals, feathers, trees, and floral designs.

To prevent the applicator from falling out or getting lost, a chain usually fastens the applicator to the container, or a small ring is welded to the bottle for the applicator to be inserted. However, in the 10th–11th century geniza, a common place to store the kohl stick was these perforated zoomorphic figureines (tamathil), and they came in a crystal cock, a lion, or an amber gazelle.

When applying the kohl, the stick applicator is dipped in some water or oil and then dipped back into the kohl container and passed along the inside rim of the eye. Historical Arabic accounts and the Cairo Geniza manuscripts list a plethora of kohl containers as part of Jewish (and consequently Muslim) bridal trousseaux. The Geniza manuscripts suggest there was even a whole industry surrounding the manufacture of these applicators to the extent that a man could make a good living by specializing in their production.

Kohl bottle, glass, Fatimid, 10-11th century. Museum of Islamic Art.

Ivory kohl "Eyeliner" container, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Mamluk or ottoman. 9th -10th A.H / 15th-16th C.E century. Egypt, Museum of Islamic Art. — Ivory Kohl “Eyeliner” container, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Mamluk or ottoman. 9th -10th A.H / 15th-16th C.E century. Egypt, Museum of Islamic Art.

Kohl glass container, Fatimid period, 939–1010 CE. From the Museum With No Frontiers.

kohl-stick; spatula, Copper alloy, Islamic period. © The Trustees of the British Museum AC 2007,6001.14379

kohl bottle, Abbasid, 9th century, Samarra. Made of molded and blown (iridized) glass.

Fragment of kohl-stick, cast brass or bronze, Abbasid Dynasty, 9-10th century, Iraq.

2) Face powder/foundation

The usage of whitening face pigments, typically made from Lead Carbonate (ceruse), a toxic white lead compound, can be attested in several ancient archeological contexts across Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, China, Greece, and Rome.⁵¹ Some whitening powder recipes called for chalk, white clay, gypsum⁵², lime,⁵³ starch, and even rice powder, a harmless substance made by finely grinding the grain into rice bran and used cosmetically by both the Chinese and Japanese.⁵⁴

When it comes to the Arabo-Islamic world, however, the precise composition and authenticity of whitening face powders remain difficult to verify. Textual sources clearly indicate that women used various preparations to lighten or refine their complexion. Yet, the lack of archaeologically preserved samples makes it impossible to determine exactly which substances were employed. As a result, our understanding of the cosmetic formulas used by medieval Arabo-Muslim women is necessarily tentative and based primarily on literary evidence rather than physical remains.

Lead-based whitening applications continued to be used in Islamic Persia and were called safīdāb or sefīdāb. The safīdāb was one of the seven items included in a bridal cosmetic application of a Persian woman called “Haft Qalam Ārāyish”.

The type of sefidab or sefid, used for making up the face, had a base of potentially toxic white lead, and although its toxicity and debilitating effect on the nervous system were recognized early on, as confirmed by most of the Persian-language sources, coquetry seems to have had the last say in overriding any concerns for health, everywhere from Rome to China.⁵⁵ Their toxicity was attested by various Roman and Greek authors in antiquity as well.

A variety known as sefidab-e zanan was made from bone ash mixed with animal fat, colocynth, and jasmine oil, but it is not clear whether this was of the variety used for facial makeup or of the kind that was taken to the bath.⁵⁶

However, this variety is speculated to have been a soothing preparation used post-waxing or after scrubbing the skin in the bath, rather than a facial application. Until today, the safīdāb, known as Roshor, is still used in traditional Iranian medicine and sold in traditional beauty shops or local markets. It’s a dried ball or disk used as a facial scrub made from ingredients similar to the sefidab-e zanan version.

Whitening powders (ceruse) were known to the Arabs as isfīdhāj (from Persian isfīdāb; safīdāb) and are still used in Iraq to this day. The isfīdhāj (ceruse) was kneaded with oil or gum, then they were shaped into disks and dried out in the sun, to be used later. Sometimes, some aromatics were added to the mixture. When it’s time to apply it on the face, the ceruse disk is daubed with a wet cotton pad and applied to the face. The isfīdhāj is still used by the Iraqi elderly and womenfolk living in rural towns and villages, and it is sold in local markets as “sbidaj”. ⁵⁷

Recipes for making ceruse were sporadically referenced in Arabic medical literature; however, one recipe for making lead white was written in Suyuti’s ar-rahmah fi talab al-hikmah, and it was called bayād, and in the Islamic West, it was called baūrq, two terms used to denote the color white in Arabic.⁵⁸ In Arabic lexicals, the term ḥawar حَوَر refers to a whitening application made from burnt lead, used by women to whiten their faces.

The toxicity of isfidhaj was known by Muslim physicians and was heavily stressed in most pharmacopeias. Its usage was repeatedly prescribed for medical topical applications solely, and in the event of mistakenly consuming it, detoxification remedies were formulated.

Of the types of cosmetics mentioned as prohibited for a woman observing her iddah period per the Shariah, the scholar Ibn-qudamah wrote: “A woman should preclude herself from adorning herself with cosmetics such as henna (takhtadib), rouge (kulkoan), bridal ceruse (isfidhaj Al-‘ara’is), and plucking or shaving her face (tahfif), inscribing patterns on her hands and face (naqsh), and dyeing the fingertips (tatrif) or whichever enhances her appearance.”

Most pharmacology treatises and medical encyclopedias have formulated medicated facial applications used to treat skin disorders like freckles and hyperpigmentation. Aside from the debilitating and cancerous white lead powder, these applications employed softer and beneficial substances made from legume or grain flours pounded to a fine powder and mixed with viscous substances to make them more adhering to the skin.

3) Ghumra/Yellow face paints

Ancient Egyptian women lightened their faces and bodies with a pigment made from yellow ochre (limonite) mixed with other yellowish pigments to give the skin a more fashionable yellow tint.⁵⁹ This might’ve been the precursor to the modern face foundation.

Arab women painted their faces with a variety of facial paints and medicinal mixtures. Often, yellow pastes made of sandalwood, saffron, and similar substances were used to protect the face from sunlight and to soften the skin.⁶⁰ They might also add turmeric to these yellow pastes for their color and medicinal benefits.

Arab women used a face lotion (ghumra) prepared from wars, a yellow dyestuff bordering on red (similar to Saffron) from a plant uniquely cultivated in Yemen.⁶¹ Perhaps Arab women had more affinity for the warm and flesh-colored foundations, not the pale and ghastly whitening powders used in the Greco-Roman period and ancient Persia.

Ladies in the Arabian Peninsula used to dye themselves with a yellow mixture made from henna and saffron. This gave them a bright and wondrous complexion which attracted the attention of many men, to the extent that a poet exhorted his son, for in the case after his death, if his mother took this dye upon herself, making it red, and came head to head with the men, he should strike her neck with no mercy.⁶²

In some Arabic dialects, wars is often referred to as kurkum or hardh, which is the term used for turmeric (Curcuma longa); however, it was identified in the scientific community as Flemingia Grahamiana. The Wars plant is believed to have numerous medicinal uses. It is beneficial for the skin, especially against vitiligo, melasma, and hyperpigmentation, as it evens out the complexion and enhances the face. It was also used to dye clothes, and wearing garments dyed with it was said to have aphrodisiac effects.⁶³

Dyeing the body with a yellow pigment was a common practice among women in the Abbasid period, and is referenced repeatedly in literary texts. It seems that the average Abbasid woman painted herself with wars. Al-Jahiz mentioned a story about Al-asma’i saying one of Harun Al-Rashid’s companions appeared in a frail condition, and upon asking the reason for his condition, he replied that he wanted the company of a jariya (slave-woman), who painted her body with wars.⁶⁴

4) Rouge and blush

Rosy, blushy cheeks and ivory skin were desirable features for the Arabs. Classical Arabic poetry eulogizes the redness of the cheeks and how it invigorates life and elicits desire in the poet’s heart. The reddened cheeks of the beloved were likened to blood, red apples, wine, red roses, embers, and pomegranates. Women undoubtedly wanted to embody the exemplary attributes men found attractive, especially on wedding days, when a woman was expected to be at the peak of her feminine appearance.

Rouges for coloring the cheeks and lips were made from vegetal substances such as Saffron, Carthamin (safflower), and Wars. Other plant sources for red dyes native to the Middle East and Mediterranean are madder, Cynomorium coccineum (tarthuth), alkanet, and red anemone.

Women would make rouge from Safflower to color their cheeks. To make the rouge paste, the safflower dye was extracted and mixed with a little bit of flour, honey, and plant resins or gums.⁶⁵ This cosmetic was called Zerkoun, from Persian zargun, meaning “gold-hued”, but also refers to red lead (isrinj). Rouge (zerkoun), a fine red powder prepared from safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), was used to paint ladies’ cheeks in traditional Arabia. It was worn by well-to-do brides, even in remote regions, and was also applied to the lips in olden times.⁶⁶

In addition to vegetal sources, reddish resins were frequently employed in coloring cosmetics. A perfumery treatise written in the 11th century mentioned shellac resins (Al-lac) being used to dye aromatic preparations called Mahlep a red color, in addition to being mentioned as a cosmetic colorant in some rouge recipes. The crimson red resin, called dragon’s blood (dam al-‘akhawayin or ‘andam), which comes from the Dracaena cinnabari tree native to the island of Socotra in Yemen. Dragon’s blood was also mentioned in some perfumery treatises and Medieval cookbooks as a red dye used in cooking, dyeing, and cosmetics.

Other sources for red pigments included crushed bugs. Bedouin women in Arabia used a crimson dye from the Kermez/cochineal insect to outline their lower eyelids.⁶⁷ The Kermes insects are native to the Mediterranean region. They are parasites living on the sap of the host plant, the Kermes oak (Quercus Coccifera) and the Palestine oak (Quercus Calliprinos L.).⁶⁸ In contrast, the cochineal mentioned being used by these women would’ve probably been the Armenian cochineal (Ararat), since the Dactylopius coccus (cochineal) appeared only with the discovery of the New World.

Another important source for red dyes was mineral substances like mercury oxide, hematite, and red ochre (Al-mughra)–a substance said to date back as far as the ancient Egyptians. Until the modern era in the Levant, brides used mughra (red ochre), a red substance prepared by apothecaries to redden women’s cheeks and lips.⁶⁹ Whilst being known as a source of red dye, in Shirazi’s hisba manual on various fraudulent activities by sellers and ways to distinguish them, Red Ochre, mixed with lac and baked brick (‘ajir), was used as a dupe for genuine dragon’s blood.

There was also realgar (rahj al ghār), litharge (murdasinj), red lead or minium (isrinj), red vitriol (zāj), and vermilion (Zinjafar); however, those were used in coloring soaps, inks, textiles, and leather, probably because of their known toxicity on the skin. Despite this knowledge, it didn’t prevent the usage of some of these minerals in cosmetics.

Leo Africanus mentioned that according to the customs of Marriages in Fez, the morrow after, a company of women go to dress the bride, to comb her locks, and to paint her cheeks with vermillion; her hands and her feet they dye black, but all this painting presently looseth the fresh hue.”⁷⁰

Many of these red colorants were considered a luxury commodity as they were imported from faraway lands in the Indian Ocean and East Asia. Most of these raw substances are listed in perfumery books and medicinal encyclopedias written by physicians and patrons with elite and wealthy women in mind.

The red dye called baqqam was named after several kinds of coloring materials. It was a dye extracted from sappanwood, also known as Indian redwood (al-‘ayda’), a tree said to grow in India. Confusingly, it uses the same designation for another red dye from the red resin called dragon’s blood (‘andam, damm al-ukhuwayin, damm at-tinin, al-baqqam).

Baqqam was also a dye made from the cooked concentrate of the bark of the arta plant (Calligonum comosum) and damm al-ghazal, a very red dye used by women to draw lines on their hands and faces, which gave them a fine reddish appearance. Botanical dictionaries define damm al-ghazal as an astringent plant, similar to tarragon (tarkhoun) or claimed to be the dandelion plant (tarkhashqun), which has reddish roots, like those of the arta plant.⁷¹ Since Abū Ḥanīfa compared it to tarragon, he may, rather, have meant bugloss or alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria (L.) Tausch, synonym Anchusa officinalis L.; Boraginaceae, cf. infra no. 908).⁷² According to al-ʾasmaʿī, baqqam is a red dye used by the slave-women of the people of Bahrain, as they claim.⁷³ The red baqqam dye was used as a reddish colorant in henna dye recipes in one of the cosmetological treatises.

For application as a rouge, sources mention that if [baqqam] is cooked with a little natron and squeezed and painted on the cheeks, it reddens them and improves their qualities, and may be mixed with ceruse and sesame oil to make it more effective in reddening the faces. The Andalusians call it “Hassan Yom”.⁷⁴

Another red dye source readily available to Medieval Middle Easterners was Alkanet (alkanna tinctoria). One henna recipe employs the use of alkanet to fraudulently dye a horse red. In his anthology on how to unveil the tricks of charlatans and swindlers, Muḫtar fī kašf al-asrār, al-Ǧawbarī (thirteenth century) describes a criminal twist in the application of hair dyes and skin pigments. Henna is used for both red and yellow, mixed with red ingredients (pomegranate blossoms and alkanet) when the goal is a red dye, and reinforced with saffron if one wishes a yellow dye. The presence in both recipes of different kinds of alum may serve as a mordant for the dye.⁷⁵

Common women would have used more affordable colorants, if used at all, to color their cheeks with colors such as sumac, red anemone flowers, red roses, or pomegranate flowers, or whatever was offered by the perfumery shops.

A type of fashionable rouge was popularized to color the cheeks and lips during the Abbasid period, and it was called gulgon or kalkoun. The 10th-century author, Al-Tenoukhy, wrote about Abbasid women of his time painting their faces with a pigment called Kulkoan (of Persian origin golgūna), meaning “rose color.” Other names, such as sorḵāb and ḡāza, were designated in Persian. However, the same rogue called Kulkoan was mentioned in a 10th-century medical treatise by an Abbasid physician, yet under a slightly different name called “Kalkouz”. However, this “kulkouz” is noted as being made from ceruse (isfidhaj Ar-rusas) and Lac.⁷⁶

According to the Iranica Encyclopedia, the golgūna was derived from powdered hematite or red marble, or, more frequently, from plain red earth, to which a natural red dye like rūnās (madder) would have been added, although sources refrain from referring to it specifically, perhaps, because it was so common. ⁷⁷

Persian bridal makeup traditions demanded that, just before she made her appearance, a fresh coat of safīdāb (white face powder) be applied to her face, cheeks, and lips, and sometimes the whole face was reddened with sorḵāb made from powdered red marble, and it was recommended that only a light coating be worn.⁷⁸

Pigments extracted from Madder were a common colorant found in ancient Roman cosmetics.⁷⁹ Several recipes for red cosmetics used the madder dye to color them red, including a face rouge by zahrawi. In Arabic, it was often referred to as fuwat as-sabbaghin/’uruq as-sabbaghin.

Literary references in Arabic texts allude to several designations for blush. It is sometimes called dimām or even Hussn Yousef, with the latter being a commoner’s manner of reference.⁸⁰ The term Hussn Yousuf literally means “Joseph’s beauty”, and it probably alludes to the story of the beauty of Prophet Joseph, blessed with a face so handsome it captured the heart of Zuleikha, wife of Potiphar.

Another method of making the rouge is to take cotton balls and submerge them in the red dye solution (from any source), add potash to intensify the color, and alum as a mordant. Then, take them out and let them dry.⁸¹

The Arabian Peninsula was home to a wide variety of flora that were utilized by the local inhabitants, which gave red dyes to be used for various applications, many of which were used as cosmetics.

Bedouin women used a substance called derm (tree bark) as a teeth-whitening agent and as a lip colorant. The derm is chewed until a reddish-brownish substance known as the juglone is secreted and is used to stain the lips. It also plumps the lips because of its burning sensation.

According to Lisan Al-‘arab, derm is a tree similar to the saxaul tree, which is black. Women use it as a toothbrush, as it reddens their lips and gums, and has a piquant taste. Other sources say it’s a Latin word from which the word dermatology (skin) derives, and is a bark from the walnut tree.

Bedouin women used the flowers and roots of the Arnebia decumbens plants as cosmetics. The roots of Arnebia decumbens (kahal, kahla) give a red dye, which is also used on the face as a cosmetic.⁸²

The Acacia tortilis or the umbrella thorn tree produces a red gum that bleeds from the tree called doudem, which women in the olden days used as a rouge. Sometimes referred to as the tree of menses (shajar al-hayid), for the gum it produces is as red as the blood of menstruation.⁸³ The doudām is a latex from the Acacia tree; it is very red, and women use it on their cheeks, giving a nice reddish appearance.⁸⁴ It is probably similar to the catechu resin, which typically comes from various species of Acacia trees. Bedouin women used henna mixed with catechu extracted from different trees and shrubs, mixed with dried berries, to obtain a red henna powder.⁸⁵

Different parts of the Peninsula used different plant dyes, depending on what was available. More to the West, the parasite Chrozophora tinctoria produced an indigo dye, while the Red Thumb Cynomorion coccineum (tarthuth) provided a red colour.⁸⁶

As for women in the Maghreb region (Northwest Africa), they might’ve employed the reddened ferrous-rich soil of the Atlas mountains to fashion a rouging application and combined it with other red pigments from plants like red anemone, saffron, or safflower. According to Leo Africanus, the women of Barbary fashioned a face ornament made from the smoke of galls and Saffron, which they painted on their cheeks in a little round spot, about the breadth of a French crown (a ducat).⁸⁷ They draw other ornaments between their eyebrows and chin.

Moroccan women use a kind of rouge called Al-‘akr or Al-‘akar. The word ‘akr/’akar عكر means wine dregs or lees in Arabic. It seems that this cosmetic had two varieties, al-‘akr al-fasi & al-‘akar al-filali, with each having a different pigment source.

Al-‘akr al-Fasi is extracted from a scale insect that grows on the oak trees. The insect is crushed, from which a red pigment is extracted. This pigment is dried and made into a rouge. As for al-‘akr al-filali, it was made from a rare and almost extinct special mineral with brownish to reddish hues extracted from volcanoes and gold mines. This mineral was crushed to obtain a red powder; hence, its price was very high per gram, almost on par with gold.

Nowadays, it comes in a less costly variety made into a powder from dried red anemone. Sometimes it is sold in herbal shops and souqs as a funnel-shaped clay pot. To apply it, the pot is wetted with rose water or fat and applied as a blush or a rouge. We are unsure if this modern rouge comprised the same ingredients as those used by Medieval Maghrebi women.

5) Harkous or Khitāt [Eyebrow liner]:

Arab women complying with the beauty standard would line their eyebrows with black cosmetics, such as Kohl, most commonly used to line the eyes. Some black colorants used to darken the eyebrows were called Harkous and Khitat, from Arabic, Khat, meaning line.

The khitāt was a brow liner used to darken or elongate the eyebrows to a desirable shape. These were usually made from the soot of burnt organic materials. Ibn al-Baytār defines khitāt (khatūt) as a black eyebrow powder made from frankincense smoke, used by townswomen, or the burnt woods of the Judas-tree (shajar al-‘ārāgoun).⁸⁸ Sometimes women would take a piece of the outer shell of a coconut, burn the tips, and darken the eyebrows with it.⁸⁹

Harkous is a black cosmetic pigment, primarily known in North Africa, especially from Ifriqiya (Tunisia), and was used as a tattoo ink or as henna for the body. It is made from galls, in addition to other ingredients, to make a black-colored ink to inscribe patterns on the skin (hands, feet, cheeks, forehead, and chin), and it was applied using a thin applicator.

The Medieval Tunisian Scholar, Al-‘ubaidly, was once criticized for his otherwise hypocritical injunctions on the prohibition of such pigments for women on the basis that it prevents the completion of Wudu, since it acts as a barrier preventing the water from reaching the skin, while his wife was using said cosmetic.⁹⁰

Black dyes from indigo or woad were also used to color the eyebrows black. Courtesan girls, in an attempt to attract the attention of customers, would apply various facial enhancements, including coloring their eyebrows with rāmak (a dark colored mix of afs (gall) and umluj (dark myrobalan)).⁹¹

6) Body decorations/markings:

– Beauty spots:

Beauty spots (Khāl) were considered attractive and desirable attributes, and were likened to quince seeds.⁹² If a woman was not naturally blessed with them, they were marked on specific places deemed most attractive, like the face near the corner of the lips, the chin, and the cheeks. The khal was made from dark pigments similar to tattoo inks made from kohl, soot, or sometimes indigo.

Two female musicians. Ceiling of the Palatine Chapel Cappella Palatina Palermo, Sicily, 12 CE.

umayyad-fresco-fragmant — Umayyad fresco fragment, Quseir ‘amra, 8th century. The woman has a small mole on the left corner of her mouth.

kalila wa dimna — Kalila wa dimna, 14th century.

– Tattoos:

Islamic proscriptions on tattoos propelled Muslims to refrain from decorating their bodies with such forms of modifications. The inscription of tattoos was relegated to the lower castes of society, mainly female entertainers and harlots. Tattoo artists and the act of tattooing were held in extreme disdain.

The Abbasid contemporary, Al-wašša, wrote about the manners in which his contemporaries of elegant taste decorated various materials with written inscriptions of poetry. He writes that slave women inscribed poetry lines on their foreheads, palms, cheeks, soles, and feet using henna, ghaliya (aromatic perfume made from musk, ambergris, and ben oil), and ssuk (an aromatic compound made from musk and rāmak).

One stark representation of tattooing as a prerogative of female entertainers is the famous nude and tattooed Fatimid dancer, dating to the 11th century. The tattoos are (starting from the head) a V-shaped sign between the eyebrows, two small marks on the cheeks: a dot surrounded by a circle of dots on the right cheek (called by the Arabs Kafaff), and a flame-shaped design on the left. The rest of the body has various types of tattoo decorations on the breast, hands, and feet.⁹³

A reconstruction of a female entertainer from a Fatimid drawing. Credit to this JSTOR Journal for the sketch.⁹⁴

The general aversion to permanent body modifications cultivated after the emergence of Islam appears not to have affected some Arab women in the Early caliphates, especially those from elite Arab clans who retained their pre-Islamic practices of tattooing. Some Arabic references mention that Atika bint Yazid, a princess of the Umayyad clan, had a crescent-shaped tattoo between her eyebrows.

Despite lucid prohibitions on tattoos, they were still a part of traditional body art in many communities in the Islamic world. Arab Bedouins, Amazigh, Coptic Christians, and parts of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria still retain the practice of tattooing as a form of folk body art.

The prevalence of tattooing in some rural and Bedouin communities in the Islamic world was often a recurring issue addressed in various Islamic jurisprudential treaties. For example, muslim jurists were often asked for religious opinions on tattooed bodies in relation to the validity of performing certain religious duties (ablation and leading prayers). It was also common among rural women to have a tattoo on their chins called “al-Siyâlah” for cosmetic purposes. Abdelkader al-Fassi was asked whether this practice fell under illicit tattooing (Al-Fassi Abdelkader, 1324a: 15), and he responded that it was indeed illicit and that those who practiced it were cursed (Al-Fassi Abdelkader, 1324a: 17).⁹⁵

Literary sources indicate that tattoo inks were made from kohl powder, nīla (indigo), or soot.

– Henna:

Henna (Lawsonia inermis) has been used as a form of body decoration in Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent for millennia.

Since permanent body marking, such as tattooing, was proscribed by Islam, henna was used as a temporary dermal adornment. Henna is used as a dye for the body and hair for aesthetic, ritual, and magical purposes, as well as a medicinal treatment for health reasons.⁹⁶

The dyeing of the hair with henna for women, and beards for men, was permitted, in fact, encouraged by a plethora of prophetic ahadith. However, for women, it seems that dermal coloring with henna went beyond the roles of aesthetic enhancement or therapeutic benefits, but was also a marker of feminine visual identity. It is mentioned that while women swore their oath (bay`a) to the Prophet, they stretched their hands to him, but because their hands looked like men’s hands, namely with no henna, the Prophet refused to accept their oath until they had rubbed their nails with henna as a sign of femininity. According to another tradition, the Prophet held a hand that was stretched to him through a curtain. When he understood that it was a female’s hand, he sent her to rub her hands with henna.⁹⁷

In medieval Arabic sources, there is little reference to how these intricate henna patterns were precisely painted on the skin, the various implements used to apply them, and the techniques required to draw out the minute figures and shapes on the hands and feet. Did they fashion out a stencil-like sticker similar to the modern versions to be filled in the desired design and then peeled off, or did they simply draw it freehand, by virtue of the henna artist’s years of expertise? Did they use a cone-like contraption to be filled with henna paste and squeezed from the tip onto the skin, or were there other mechanisms and tools being used?

Hands that were dyed or inscribed with henna were the subject of allurement and often arousal by litterateurs and poets in Arabic polite discourse (adab), erotic literature (mujūn), and poetry (shi’r). Henna-dyed fingertips, particularly in crimson red, were likened to the acacia strap flower (‘anam), bloodshed (mudarajah bi-dam), jujube (innab), and red agate (al-‘aqiq al-ahmar).

The henna paste was made by mixing henna powder with water until it reached a semi-thick consistency. It is applied onto the skin and left to dry uninterrupted for at least an hour to get a richer and darker color, then washed or peeled off. The color will become more intense the next day.

Ibn Al-jawzi reports that a man saw a woman who had dyed (shantharat) her fingernails with a henna dye.⁹⁸ Shanthara is probably a dark variety of henna made from darkening agents added to the henna, most likely from shana-thir, a variant spelling of nūshadīr (Sal ammoniac). This tidbit is corroborated by 19th-century Bedouin women’s henna routine noted by several Western travelers, such as Dickenson, who similarly remarked that Bedouin women made a black henna from powdered lime (nūra) and powdered crystal ammonia (shanada).⁹⁹

Andalusian Muslim woman stained her hands with Henna

Henna was regarded with high esteem to the extent of being described by prophetic Hadiths as “the dye of Islam”. Arab women used henna long before Islam to dye their hands, toes, nails, feet, and hair. There were recipes for henna dyes for the body in some cosmetic treatises, and they included various colors (red, blue, turquoise, black, grey, and yellow).

The application of henna was a celebratory ritual during important religious holidays, festivals, and most importantly, weddings. A popular celebration in the Muslim world is called “Night of Henna” (bachelorette party), where the bride’s female friends and relatives gather to be adorned in intricate henna patterns and dance and celebrate with the bride. The design and length of the patterns depended on personal taste and cultural motifs.

The practice of dyeing with henna on the hands and feet was equally observed by several European travelers voyaging across Mamluk territories. A 15th-century Jewish traveler, Meshulam Ben Menahem, visited Mamluk Egypt and said of Cairene women: “They ornament their skin with colors, which are not removed by water in six months, although they go every day to the baths. There are no baths as fine.”¹⁰⁰ Schefer was fascinated by the sight of women who are completely covered in white linen except for the hands, which are embellished by red nail polish.¹⁰¹

On a more tragic end, the Mamluk historian, Ibn Taghribardi, wrote in detail of the harrowingly violent execution of Khawand bint Sarq, the divorcee of Sultan Faraj ibn Barquq, upon the discovery of her private liaisons with a certain prince called Ahmad at-tablawy, and how the Sultan chopped off her fingers, which were dyed (muqmaa’a) with henna.¹⁰²

Leo Africanus, in his travels to the Maghreb region, remarked on similar practices by women of the Arabs dwelling between the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.

“Their damsels which are unmarried does usually paint their faces, breasts, arms, hands, and fingers with a kind of counterfeit colour [With henna juice], which is accounted a most decent custom among them. But this fashion was first brought in by those Arabians, which before we called Africans, what time they began first of all to inhabit that region; for before then, they never used any false or glozing colours”.¹⁰³

An affluent woman wearing a brocade, knee-length robe (a durrāʿa) with clearly inscribed ṭirāz armbands. On her head is a polka-dot headscarf which falls down the back to her waist and is held in place with an ʿiṣāba māʾila and a pearl chin chain (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, ms arabe 3929, fol. 151) — An affluent woman/slavegirl from Maqamat Al-Hariri. Her fingertips are stained with a brownish-red tone of henna.

Depiction of Umayyad ruler Mu'āwiyah b. Abī Sufyān & his wife Maysūn in a MS of al-Jahiz's "Kitab al-Hayawān", 10th–13th century, Biblioteca Ambrosiana D 140 inf., f. 20b, Milan, Italy. The women stained her toes with dark henna. — Depiction of Umayyad ruler Mu’āwiyah b. Abī Sufyān & his wife Maysūn of al-Jahiz’s “Kitab al-Hayawān”, 10th–13th century, Biblioteca Ambrosiana D 140 inf., f. 20b, Milan, Italy. The woman stained her toes with dark henna.

These two women stained their fingertips and toenails with black henna. From Da’wat Al-‘attiba, 13th century.

Frontispiece of Kitab Al-Aghani of a Ladies' Party, 13th century. — Frontispiece of Kitab Al-Aghani of a Ladies’ Party, 13th century. These ladies stained their fingertips and toes with black **henna**.

6) Perfumes and incense

The hostile and arid climate of the Arabian Peninsula incentivized its inhabitants to become itinerant merchants and middlemen working for the largest empires sandwiching their territorial contours to secure resources and necessities.

The principal products exported in pre-Islamic Arabia were Myrrh and Frankincense. One can at least say, then, that by the seventh century BC, the use of South Arabian aromatics was becoming widespread in Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean. They were either used on their own – usually burned and, in the case of myrrh, applied as an unguent – or blended with a variety of other ingredients to make ointments, perfumes, oils for embalming, medicines for all manner of ailments, and, of course, incense (a compound usually sprinkled on lighted charcoal to produce scented smoke).¹⁰⁴

This demonstrates that the Arabs from a long time ago valued scents for their role in various social, religious, medical, and spiritual facets and engaged in the art of perfumery and its selling. Various incense burners and braziers made from bronze have been excavated from burial sites and temples in Saruq Al-Hadid (Dubai, UAE) as far back as the Iron Age (1200 – 500 BCE). The form and decoration indicate that it was probably imported from Mesopotamia. Other forms of such burners, more aesthetically indigenous to Arabia, have been excavated in Qaryat Al Faw (Saudi Arabia) and Tylos (Bahrain) from 4 BCE to 4 CE, and in Yemen.

Scientific achievements in chemistry and medicine during the Islamic Golden Age enabled the Arabs to make huge strides in the cosmetic industry, especially in perfumery, distillation, and incense-making. Good grooming and putting on perfumes (taṭyyīb) are regarded with high esteem in the Islamic tradition. A true Muslim is supposed to show fidelity to his lord and respect for his fellow Muslims by smelling his best, particularly on Friday during the congregation prayer.

Arab customary etiquette demanded that hosts be honored by perfuming their guests with incense at the entrance. It is also customary to offer guests perfumes or scented oils to refresh themselves after a long journey or after finishing a meal.

Brass incense-burner,14th-century, Mamluk. The British Museum.

Incese was believed to provide spiritual and talismanic protection in various Islamic cultures. Women who wanted to ward off any evil spirits and supplicate for divine guardianship of their families usually fumigated their entire house with incense while reciting some Quranic verses.

From antiquity, the Arabs were mostly traders and had greater access to a wide range of precious woods, herbs, spices, resins, and animal fragrance substances like ambergris and musk. Besides, many flowers and herbs, such as jasmine and rose, were cultivated in the Middle East and are key ingredients in modern perfumery to this day.

Large molar flask Possibly 9th–10th centuries, Egypt.

Perfumes (ʿiṭr, pl. ʿuṭūr) were made from a wide variety of natural aromatics, such as animal-derived substances or plant-derived substances. In ancient times, oils were used as the carrier medium for perfumes, but in today’s technologically advanced world, alcohol is usually the carrier medium. Aromatic animal substances were extracted from types of animal fat secretions such as ambergris, musk, and civet. Essential oils were extracted by distillation from plant substances like woods, barks, spices, leaves, peels, or flowers such as lavender, jasmine, narcissus, spikenard, saffron, etc. Incense was made from resins such as frankincense and myrrh and woods like sandalwood, agarwood, and camphor.

Perfume flask-Fatimid period,11th -12th century CE

Other scented substances used for sanitary purposes include washing powders (ušnān/ḏarīra), perfumed unguents (ġālīya), breath refreshment tablets (ḥab), ds (ġasūl), and clothing fragrances (ṭīb al-thiyāb).

Medieval Muslim brides were sprinkled with perfumes and incense as the final preparation for their wedding. After the wedding professionals (bath specialist, hairdresser, and makeup artist) finished beautifying the bride for the wedding ceremony and her first meeting with her husband, she was doused with all kinds of perfumes and scents. Amber, Musk, and Agarwood were most ubiquitously used.

Incense Burner, 14th century, Mamluk Egypt or Syria.

The wearing of perfumes not only provides therapeutic and cosmetic functions but also signifies patriarchal hierarchical demarcations. According to Muslim jurists, a distinction should be made between men’s and women’s oils and perfumes. Men’s oils and perfumes should be colorless and smell strong, probably to avoid hues of yellow prohibited for men’s clothing, while women’s perfumes and body oils can be colored but exhibit only a light smell. The basic principle for women’s perfuming is “that its color is seen and its smell is hidden”.

Molar flask Possibly 9th–10th centuries, Egypt.

Women were prohibited from leaving their homes with a trail of smell behind them for fear it might incite unwanted male sexual desires and control women’s sexuality. Some of the prohibited perfumes for men are khaluq (a compound of perfumes dominated by saffron), Safra (a yellow compound of perfumes and za`fran (saffron), ghaliya (a compound of perfumes) used by concubines and slaves.¹⁰⁵

Cosmetic containers and implements

Elaborately ornamented jewelry boxes and cosmetic containers were a part of the trousseau of every bride’s dowry and were carried to the bride’s new house. Several boxes or pyxides have survived the Middle Ages, originating from Andalusia, the Fatimid Caliphate, and the Mamluk Sultanate. These pyxides were used to preserve the various cosmetics, perfumes, and jewelry, and may have had multiple compartments to store each item individually.

General terms for containers of various cosmetics and perfumes included mikḥala (Kohl bottle) for keeping and applying kohl, qinnīna/qārūra (bottle/phial) for holding perfumes and scented oils, qūmqūm or mīrash (sprinkler) for sprinkling perfumes and scented waters, ḥūq (container or bowl with a lid) for keeping cosmetic powders, hair washes, and potash, and mabẖara (incense burner) for incense. However, the terminology of these storage vessels naturally varied across geographical regions and the changing eras.

Kohl bowl. glass, 9th-10th century, Egypt.

These containers were made from a wide array of materials, including glass, crystal, metal, silver, ivory, gold, wood, and copper. They were decorated with inlay, or animal or vegetal relief carvings on the body of the container. Perfume bottles were preserved in profusely inscribed or beaded pouches.

The principal storage trunk brought by the bride was called the muqaddama, which contains the wife’s clothing (lingerie and outer garments) and personal effects. Muqaddama means to put first, leading, probably because the donkey carrying it headed the procession that transported the outfit from the bride’s domicile to that of her future husband.¹⁰⁶ It was inlaid with tortoise shell (dhabl) and ivory (‘aj), as was the kursi or stool for holding it.

Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts de l’Islam, OA 4068

There were small boxes for storing the various cosmetics, jewelry, and perfumes. These were made from different materials and probably had several compartments to store different items. The safaṭ (pl. asfāṭ) was a small chest or casket, or a basket made from woven palm leaves, often sectioned into separate compartments, and used to store women’s perfumes and cosmetics. In the Geniza trousseau lists, the safaṭ was made from bamboo (khaizuran) and was placed on a stool.

Jewel boxes were called durj in the Geniza era, but other designations were also used, such as qimtara and ḥuqq. The majority of durj boxes in the trousseau lists were made from silver, and their prices ranged from 8 dinars to 20 dinars. One box was “burnished” with gold, and another was adorned with filigree and sandalwood. One durj box was made with ebony adorned with copper.

It seems that the durj was not solely dedicated to storing jewelry, but sometimes was used to store toiletries or personal grooming items. An ebony durj for sanun, tooth care materials (toothpicks and dentifrice), costing 5 dinars, is listed in the marrigae contract of a well-to-do bride around 1028.

A jewel box, qimtara, was referenced in a wealthy bride’s trousseau and was made from porcelain with silver luster. In the 10th century, a box “containing precious objects” called bayt tara’if (lit. house of oddities) was valued at 10 dinars. The ḥuqq, a container with a lid generally corresponding with the term “pyxis”, was used for storing jewelry. However, Al-maqrizi writes that the trousseau of brides of the Mamluk elites contained copper inlaid pyxides for the ushnān (soda ash) “aḥqāqq al-ushnān al-mukaffata bin-nuḥās”.

A Mamluk bronze and gold-overlaid mirror, Egypt, 14th century. Credit to Sotheby’s

Mirrors were an indispensable grooming item for any woman. Intricately decorated bronze hand-held or stationary mirrors were found in several archeological sites dating to the Islamic period. The Geniza trousseau mentions that upper-class brides brought ornamented mirrors made from metal, silver, or gold. Some were covered with a case, and some had handles. The bridal trunk usually contained a mirror, a practical accessory since the trunk included the wife’s wardrobe.

Perfume Sprinkler [Qumqum], 11th–mid-13th century.

The unguentarium or ointment jar was called a madhan(ah) in Arabic, and was used specifically to store unguent and aromatic oils like labdanum and Ghaliya. Perfume sprinklers were called mirash or qumqum, a long-necked bottle to sprinkle scents and aromatic waters like rosewater.

Soda ash compound or ushnān, used to wash the body, was stored in a vessel called ushnāna or ushnāndān. It was usually made from brass and was covered with a lid to preserve the soda ash’s chemical properties and fragrance, if perfumed. It was accompanied by a little scoop or spoon and came in a set called tawr mukmal or dast kamil.

Cosmetic spoon, 10th–11th centuries, Fustat (medieval Cairo), Egypt, Bronze, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1969.2.96

Other cosmetic implements included small spoons to mix the different cosmetic products, along with mixing vessels. Flat spoons or spatulas used to apply facial paints were found in some archeological finds; however, they are very scarce.

Abbasid rock crystal cosmetic bowl, Iraq, 9th-10th century.

Mixing vessels were called madāf, and usually came in a set with a lid or cover, along with a small stirring spoon or probe (mil). Some madafs were made of several compartments, “mujamma” to store different perfumes and scented ointments. They were usually made from silver, sometimes crystal, and one was made from sandalwood. Small bowls called zibdiyya were used to mix different perfumes or cosmetics.

As for toiletries and grooming tools, they included tweezers (minqāsh or milqāt) to shape and preen the eyebrows, as well as to remove undesirable facial hair. Bath scrapers (maḥak) and pumice stones (nashafa) were used to exfoliate the skin and were kept in special holders. There are two holders from the Cairo Museum of Islamic Art, dating to the 12th-14th century, from Iran. Mortar and pestles (hāwn) were used to grind cosmetic powders and mix the scented oils, dyes, and perfumes. Many of these items were mentioned in bridal trousseau lists, especially those for the wealthy.

The Khalili Islamic collection has unearthed a cosmetic set from the Islamic Middle Ages comprising a flask on an attached boat-shaped base and a square tray that may have been used as a palette for grinding kohl. While cosmetic palettes are found in abundance in ancient Near Eastern and Romanized Mediterranean cultures, a limited number of palettes were found in the Islamic Near East.

The Aga Khan Museum collection has a rectangular block palette of rock crystal with two circular holes dating to the 10th-century Abbasid/Fatimid period. Based on the two round wells, it’s surmised that they were used as a painter’s palette or inkwell since the object’s delicate carvings and clarity seem too precious for such everyday tasks. This palette is similar in its form and style to the cosmetic palette discovered in Yemen above and other cosmetic palettes excavated from the Iranian plateau ca. 500 BC- 350 BC, so it’s not far off in assuming it might’ve been used as a cosmetic palette for mixing the different pigments as well.

Cosmetic Palette or an inkwell. Fatimid or Abbasid period, 10th century. Material: rock crystal, carved, The Aga Khan Museum Collection, **Accession Number:** AKM653

Cosmetic palette. Almost square palette.Egypt, 9th century. © The Trustees of the British Museum, Ac No 1613210043

B) Hair-care:

1) Hair washes/shampoos:

Hair care treatments included a variety of medicinal hair dyes, hair washes or shampoos, moisturizing scented oils, hair masks, and hair growth treatments. A wide array of plants and herbs was added to these preparations for their therapeutic and olfactory properties.

Medieval Arab pharmacists and physicians advised the usage of Myrtle and its berries, labdanum, Amla, myrobalan, Myrrh, burnt donkey hoofs and antlers, sesame oil, and aloe vera for promoting hair length and preventing hair fall. An oil for promoting hair length was made from myrtle berries, oak galls, and amla cooked in rose or myrtle oil. A remedy that blackens the hair and preserves its health was made from anemone leaves and myrtle oil. Remedies for moisturizing and straightening the hair included violet oil, myrtle oil, and flaxseed mucilage.

Women washed their hair with a ghasul (from Arabic gha-sa-l for wash or cleanse). These were shampoo-like hair cleansers for oil buildup and dirt. The hair washes were composed of soapy substances such as marshmallow (ẖaṭmī), natron (būraq), Christ’s thorn Jujube (sidr), clay (ṭīn), and potash (ušnān) alongside other aromatic herbs and plants. These hair washes provided multiple functions like scenting the hair, promoting its longevity, and even dyeing it.

The 10th-century pharmacist, At-Tamimi, wrote many recipes for ghislah/ghasul in his perfumery encyclopedia “Tiib al-‘arus”. These hair washes were meticulously concocted and required multiple complicated steps. Naturally, the cost and labor required for their making were significant since they were designated explicitly for wealthy ladies and princesses of the caliphal household.

These hair washes employ the most exotic and pricey ingredients imported from afar, many of which require more than 20-30 ingredients with specific measurements and a special treatment process for each, ranging from scenting, smoking, fermenting, boiling, drying, and sieving.

Sidr, or Christ’s thorn Jujube, was the principal washing agent for Arab women. The leaves of the tree were ground into a powder and mixed with water to create a shampoo-like detergent.

Sidr is praised for revitalizing hair health and cleaning the scalp of dirt and buildup because it naturally contains saponins. It promotes hair growth, works as an anti-dandruff, tames damaged and frizzy hair, and gives it moisture, shine, and luster. Sometimes henna was added if dyeing the hair was desired, but sidr is said to have dyeing properties as well, but not as strong as henna.

Pre-Islamic Arabs used sidr as soap to wash their bodies and clothes. They grind the sidr leaves into a powder and mix them with water, resulting in a white foamy substance used for cleansing. ¹⁰⁷ In Ibn Sīdah‘s al-mukhassas, he writes that the women of Egypt and the al-Sham region [Levant] used to comb their hair with the “sidar“. ¹⁰⁸

2) Hair Dyes

Hair dyes typically gave a black or dark brown color and were made from dark pigments extracted from henna, indigo, katam (indigo-like plant grown in Yemen), Cypress, walnut hulls, oak galls, tragacanth, black myrobalan, clove, Iris, woad, carob, bitumen, copper oxide, litharge, iron slag, and mud. One recipe even called for using leeches that were used to treat wounds, which were then immersed in oil for 40 days! There were also hair dye recipes for red and blonde hair.

Red hair dyes were extracted from hibiscus, pomegranate peels, Cyperus, red wine sediment (lees), and sumac. In Avicenna’s canon of medicine, he lists several remedies used to make the hair blonde. He mentions that henna is kneaded with cooked Anacyclus pyrethrum. Also, dyeing the hair with alum, saffron, or Myrrh left overnight produces the most desired effect. According to him, strong blonding remedies are made from Cyperus and Anacyclus pyrethrum cooked in water. Hair dye fixatives consisted of alum, natron, and Sal ammoniac.

– Henna:

Natural henna colors the hair a reddish-brown rust color; however, it was mixed with other pigments made from natural ingredients to create different hues of brown/red. Hair graying was the primary reason for dyeing the hair, followed by a woman’s aesthetic preferences. Men and women were allowed to dye their hair with henna. Elderly men dyed their gray beards with henna.

– Other Hair Dye sources:

Historical sources say pre-Islamic Arab women dyed their hair with henna alongside the katam plant (Myrsine dioica), similar to indigo, which was only grown in Yemen. Wasma (Isatis tinctoria or woad) was another plant used to dye hair in pre-Islamic Arabia, and gave a black henna. Another plant that contributed a deep hue to the henna was ẖiṭr, which is similar to the katam plant.

The plant known as ʿaẓlam in Arabic was used in conjunction with henna to dye the hair. Arabic lexicons often define ʿaẓlam as a plant from which a blue dye comes and is considered to be another term for true indigo (Indigofera tinctoria or nīla), while other authors claim it’s woad (wasma).

Red colorants were primarily made from Saffron (zaʿfarān) and Safflower (ʿusfur) and were added to the henna mixture for a bright red or mahogany tint.

There were no restrictions on colors for dyeing the hair. Dyeing the hair with henna was a recommendation from the Prophet to the good people of faith: “The best things with which grey hair is changed are henna and katam.”

This dancer is from Kitāb Al-Diryāq, ca 1198–99 CE. This dancer stained her fingertips and toes with henna.

Two female party attendants adorned with jewelry and headbands. The one on the left has dark black hair and stained her fingernails with black henna. The one on the right has reddish-brownish hair. Kitāb Al-Aghāni, 13th century.

C) Skincare routines:

Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, known in the West as Albucasis or Zahravius, the famous Muslim physician and surgeon born in 936 AD, Andalusia, wrote his most monumental work, a multi-volume medical encyclopedia titled “Al-Tasreef Liman ‘Ajaz ‘Aan Al-Taleef” (The Clearance of Medical Science for Those Who Can Not Compile It). In the 19th volume of Al-Tasreef, a chapter was devoted completely to cosmetics and is considered the first original Muslim work in cosmetology.

His contributions to medicated cosmetics included underarm deodorants, solid lipsticks, and hand lotions. He also mentioned hair care products, including hair dyes and preparations for correcting kinky or curly hair. Moreover, he described suntan lotions’ benefits, describing their ingredients in detail.

He also included methods for strengthening the gums and bleaching the teeth. He dealt with perfumes and scented aromatics. Also, he employed “Adhan” (aromatic oils) for beautification in addition to medication and developed recipes for hair removal. Albucasis introduced a method of tooth bleaching using tooth whiteners. For a dentifrice, he recommended brushing with a well-ground mixture of natural sodium carbonate, hydrosilicate of magnesium, and common salt. ¹⁰⁹

Women relied on a wide variety of plant-based facial cleansers and scrubs to enhance and rouge the complexion of their faces. A 12th-century Andalusian inspection manual (ḥisba) mentions the type of cosmetic treatments of female slaves, or more so, the fraudulent alterations slave merchants employ to enhance the appearance of female slaves to make them more appealing to potential buyers.

One recipe for a ghasul (cleanser) for rouging the cheeks is: “Take broad bean powder and five parts Vicia ervilia, and a quarter part of saffron roots, natron, and henna.” Moroccan women used red clay from the soils of the Atlas Mountains as a facial cleanser, which gave the complexion a reddish glow.

Beauty spots were a desired feature, unlike freckles, which were considered undesirable and often concealed with cosmetics and treatments (sometimes lemon juice was used to lighten them). Women seeking an ivory-like complexion also used the skin-bleaching agent batikha, a paste made from pounded white marble, natron, pulses, and other ingredients, sun-dried to a powdery consistency.

Fruit juices, rosewater, honey, watercress, and poppies softened the skin. Women stained their lips red with iron oxide and other substances. Face creams were produced from powdered stones, crushed flowers, spices, and dried herbs. Rose petals, moss, herbs, and plants from many a garden were mixed with a little water, pounded in a mortar and pestle, then dried in the sun.

The result was ghasul, a paste with various cosmetic applications, including adding a desirable reddish glow to cheeks. Melon juice and milk were good for dry skin, always a hazard in extremely hot climates, and face masks were made with fresh fruit. Some of these cosmetics are concocted by women to this day in Saudi Arabia, according to their personal preferences. ¹¹⁰

Maintaining smooth and hairless skin was the ultimate goal for most Medieval Arab women. They relied on various depilatory techniques, such as threading and waxing, to remove facial and body hair. Many Medieval Jurists wrote indignant censures against the increased number of prepubescent black slaves in the profession of plucking facial hair (tahfif), a process women didn’t want to partake in, while in the public bath.¹¹¹

The removal of coarse pubic hair was left to the Hammam session to be performed by bath specialists. Since pubic hair was an arduous and painful task to remove by conventional methods, it necessitated the usage of Nura. It is a depilatory cream made from a mixture of arsenic and lime, and used to remove pubic hair, similar to the modern Veet hair removal cream. It was a complicated and hazardous process if not applied or created properly.

The climate of the Arab regions would’ve required moisturizing the skin with ointments and emollient preparations. These moisturizers would’ve been undoubtedly scented with aromatics and colored with saffron or wars. In Al-Zahrawi’s treatise, he formulated various moisturizing lotions for dry skin.

Indigo, or nila in Arabic, was utilized for its medicinal and cosmetic purposes, such as a skin ointment, hair dye, or for tattooing. Two western travelers in Yemen earlier this century commented that ‘although they [the Yemenis] wash their bodies but seldom and smear them with samn and indigo, it is surprising how little one sees of itch and other skin troubles’.

They clearly failed to make the rather obvious connection between healthy skin and the indigo treatment. Indigo for skin emollient was usually mixed with an oil such as sesame oil, which, in itself, of course, would have been beneficial in a harsh, dry climate.

Women have not only found indigo beneficial for the skin for the above reasons, but they have also used it as a facial bleach – rubbed on at night, it would ‘whiten’ the skin. It has also been thought effective for removing freckles, which are unattractive to Arab eyes. An added bonus has been their husbands’ appreciation of the smell of indigo – an appreciation that spans Oman to Mauritania.

Sometimes, indigo is applied to the face to mark a special occasion, such as the birth of a child or the Eid festivities, or it is applied in decorative patterns, like henna. Indeed, the powdered indigo leaf that Isobel Burton found on the cosmetic stalls in the suqs of Syria in the nineteenth century was called ‘black henna’.¹¹² In North Africa, the indigo dye in the indigo plant was used to color skin as well as textiles.¹¹³

The prevention of sweat and armpit odor was another pursuit in the course of beauty. A woman was particularly concerned with stopping any foul smell emanating from her, lest she drive her husband away. Numerous recipes were written for perspiration drugs used to mask and/or eliminate the smell of sweat. These drugs usually came in the form of tablets and were composed of rose water, alum, and other aromatic herbs and perfumes. They were kneaded into pills and left to dry, and used.

1) Exfoliating tools

Extensive exfoliation of calluses and dead skin was reserved for the lengthy Hammam bathing session. After being washed with water and soap, the vapor emanating from the Hammam’s hot chamber opens the skin’s pores, making for smoother exfoliation. The skin is oiled and massaged, then it is perfumed with ambergris and musk-based incense.

Traditional scrubbing tools were used to remove calluses, cracked heels, and ingrown hairs, achieving softer and fresher skin. These could include pumice stones, scrapers, and bath gloves.

A pumice stone (ḥaǧar al-ẖafāf) is a type of stone formed during volcanic eruptions. It has a perforated appearance and is lightweight. Pumice stones were used to exfoliate the dead skin that accumulates all over the body, particularly on body parts that experience constant friction and movement, such as the elbows, knees, and heels. Some pumice stones had handles to make them easier to pick up. The unused part of the pumice stone had a silver coating with a long handle.

The Bath scraper (maḥak), usually made from ceramic or terracota (ṭīn muḥraq), was another variety of exfoliating implements. Very few extant examples of these implements survive the Middle Ages. The Met Museum holds several examples of ceramic scrapers from Iran in the 12th-13th century. Their decoration includes a variety of animal, floral, and geometric patterns, suggesting customers could select their own designs.

Due to their degradation by natural decay, there are no archaeological remnants of mitts or gloves (kīs) from contemporary sites. Literary sources, on the other hand, attest to the usage of such exfoliation bags in the Hammams, often made from natural coarse fibers and worn in the hands. “and the bath attendant and his aids attend to the session by massaging, prodding, and exfoliating the body with a glove, and submerging the body with water”. However, you can find similar variations of the Medieval versions still being used in traditional hammams in Iran, Morocco, Turkey, and Syria.

The front of the scraper. Bath scraper, Iran, 12th-13th century, The Met Museum.

2) Body Scrubs (Dulouk)

According to Medieval Hisba manuals, pomegranate peels were used in the hammams to scrub off dead skin. Women employed several exfoliating preparations and scrubs, called dulouk in Arabic.

Recipes for these scrubs are scarce in contemporary sources. In his book Firdaus al-Hikmah, al-Tabari mentions a recipe for a bath dulouk and several recipes for bath paints (tila’at). Cautionary injunctions mentioned in hisba manuals proscribe the usage of “scrubs (dulouk) made from broad bean or lentils as they are considered food for consumption, and it is not befitting to bring them to the hammams.” This alludes to the fact that types of legumes were used as the base material for these scrubs, probably for their exfoliating properties and benefits for the skin.

In his Seyahatnâme, Evliya Çelebi mentions that the Egyptian elites use lupine flour to wash their hands instead of soap and use it as a scrub in the bathrooms to remove sweat and exfoliate the skin. This flour is well used by brides, fine girls, and handsome women in the hammams to soften their bodies.

Modern folk beauty traditions in the Arab world still use these dulouks in their skincare routines, particularly Sudanese dulouks, as they are a specialty of Sudanese women.

Sudanese dulouks primarily use millet or corn flour, although a cereal, legumes are sometimes used as the base material. These legumes or cereals are pounded into a powder, cooked down to a porridge, and scented with other aromatic liquid essences for their therapeutic effects and good scents. They are spread on a flat tray and placed into a fire pit to be smoked with aromatic wood for a prolonged period. After smoking, they are shaped into balls and left to air-dry.

D) Oral Hygiene:

Prophetic traditions and Islamic jurisprudence heavily stressed the preservation of oral cleanliness and dental care, among other hygienic aspects. Muslims were keen on brushing their teeth and cleaning them of any food residue with toothpicks (Khilal). Oral grooming was equally attended to and observed by women along with the skin, hair, and face.

The companion Abu Malik at-Ash’ari reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Cleanliness is half of faith and Alhamdulillah (the best and highest praises be to Allah) fills the scale, and SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah) and Alhamdulillah fill up what is between the heavens and the earth, and prayer is a light, and charity is proof [of one’s faith], and endurance is a brightness, and the Quran is a proof on your behalf or against you.”

The cleanliness of the mouth became a symbol of status among the elites. If hygiene, and especially the care of cleaning one’s teeth, had become a binding law among the Raffins, they also established the modalities, I would even say the rituals, which Wassa has preserved for us.¹¹⁴

1) Tooth brushes/dentifrices

For teeth cleansers, a miswak (teeth-cleaning twig made from the Salvadora Persica tree) is used as a toothbrush with a dentifrice made from ušnān (soda ash), charcoal, sugar, or salt. Dentifrice recipes were mentioned in an array of cookbooks, pharmaceutical books, medical encyclopedias, and perfumery treatises.

ušnān is a cleanser made from soda ash attained by burning salsola soda (barilla plant) or any variety of saltwort plants. The soda ash was mixed and prepared with other ingredients to yield different cleansing products. The Arabs used potash (ušnān) in a wide variety of preparations. It was used as a handwashing powder, soap, detergents, and toothpaste.

Sometimes, chewing betel leaves (tunbul) or the bark of the walnut tree (derm), apart from the tonic, astringent effect that it had on the lips and jaw, gave the gums and lips a fine carmine colour and a highly sought-after brilliance.¹¹⁵

The Miswak toothbrush was wrapped in delicately intricate silken covers called Lafa’if As-siwak. It was stored, along with the toiletries (dentifrices, snuffs, tablet deodorants, and oral preparations), in a box called a Miswakdana.¹¹⁶ The geniza trousseaux list mentions that upper-class brides brought several ušnān powders and their storage boxes in their dowry items. These boxes would’ve been made from ivory or wood with mother-of-pearl decorations, or any material based on the socioeconomic class of the woman.

2) Snuffs

A preparation called saʿoṭ سعوط, a cleansing nasal powder or snuff made from the Dolomiaea costus (Indian costus) plant, was mentioned in several treaties as a breath enhancer. It was inhaled in powder form, causing a person to sneeze, thus emptying the sinuses of impurities. It was also used in incense or as a nasal rinse by dissolving it into lavender oil and spraying it into the sinuses to remove bad breath. Saʿoṭ was also known to have medicinal purposes like curing colds, pneumonia, and other respiratory ailments.

The prophet is said to have praised the medicinal benefits of Indian costus (Al-Qust Al-Hindi). A woman came complaining of her son’s palate and tonsils, which she had pressed with her finger as a treatment for a throat and tonsil disease. The prophet said: “Why do you pain your children by pressing their throats! Use Al-u’d Al-Hindi (Indian costus), for it cures seven diseases, one of which is pleurisy. It is used as a snuff for treating throat and tonsil disease and inserted into one side of the mouth of one suffering from pleurisy.“

3) Breath enhancers

Albucasis recommended cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and chewing on coriander leaves to relieve bad breath from eating onions and garlic. In his book, he also included methods for strengthening the gums and bleaching the teeth, and multiple recipes for dentifrice. ¹¹⁷

Medieval Arabic cookbooks contain a plethora of recipes for making breath-enhancing tablets (ḥab) that are eaten in their tablet form or can be dissolved into a drink or water.

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9 Ancient Arabic Beauty Rituals That Work Wonders Today says:

May 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM

[…] Medieval Arab Women’s Beauty Rituals and OrnamentsAn in-depth exploration of beauty practices among medieval Arab women, highlighting the cultural significance of cosmetics like kohl. […]

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Medieval Arab Women’s Makeup

Make-up in the Medieval “Arabo-Islamic” Empire

Medieval Arab Women’s Cosmetic Preparations

Arab beauty standards

A) Makeup and cosmetics:

1) Kohl

2) Face powder/foundation

3) Ghumra/Yellow face paints

4) Rouge and blush

5) Harkous or Khitāt [Eyebrow liner]:

6) Body decorations/markings:

– Beauty spots:

– Tattoos:

– Henna:

6) Perfumes and incense

Cosmetic containers and implements

B) Hair-care:

1) Hair washes/shampoos:

2) Hair Dyes

– Henna:

– Other Hair Dye sources:

C) Skincare routines:

1) Exfoliating tools

2) Body Scrubs (Dulouk)

D) Oral Hygiene:

1) Tooth brushes/dentifrices

2) Snuffs

3) Breath enhancers

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