History of Arab Cosmetics
Popular culture is saturated with knowledge of the eccentric cosmetic ingredients employed by Roman and Greek women to achieve optimal beauty standards, the Elizabethans’ exorbitant use of lead-based carcinogenic facial powders, or the elaborate eye makeup of the Ancient Egyptians, and their ingenious sophistication, which continues to amaze us to this day.
An abundance of studies, essays, archeological research, books, articles, and monographs have been produced about the history of cosmetics, particularly focused on the beauty ways and rituals of the ancient civilizations in Egypt, the Near East, and occasionally some Asian traditions like China, and India, and proceeding to the mainstream Eurocentric paradigm; the Ancient Greco-Romans, skipping through Medieval Europe, the Elizabethan era and reaching the makeup renaissance in the 20th century.
Simultaneously, there was a thriving civilization with its rich history and culture in the Islamic Middle East that also developed its unique worldview on aesthetic preferences and beautification techniques that have been entirely neglected by academia and general discourse.
There is a deficiency in anthropological and archeological literature discussing Arab women’s historic makeup practices in the Islamic civilization, despite the tangible presence of a sophisticated material culture manifested in beauty tools displaying masterful Islamic workmanship, such as perfume flacons, bottles, kohl containers, cosmetic bowls, not to mention mirrors, tweezers, spatulas, spoons, combs, pyxides, and Jewelry.
The period spanning from the late 8th century to the 14th century culminated in the Islamic world’s cultural, scientific, and technological flourishing known as the Islamic Golden Age. Muslims made unprecedented contributions to many fields, especially in medicine, mathematics, astronomy, biology, geography, and philosophy.
Islamic medical practices were established by integrating traditional medical canons from various civilizations, including India, Greco-Roman, and Persian. Scholars within the Islamic Empire played a vital role in translating and adapting medical texts from languages like Syriac, Coptic, Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit into Arabic. These translations not only preserved the existing knowledge but also generated fresh medical insights.
Scientific advancements in chemistry and pharmacology achieved by Muslims led to monumental contributions to distillation, perfumery, and cosmetics.
Cosmetic preparations in urban centers of the Islamic world varied based on the availability of raw materials, cultural tastes, and socioeconomic factors. Medieval Islamic cosmetology mainly focused on enhancing the face, hair, and skin, and curing related ailments. These enhancements relied on various preparations such as perfumes, scented powders, unguents, lotions, aromatic oils, and scented distilled waters.
Additionally, Medieval Islamic medicine was influenced and shaped by the knowledge and practices of several medical conventions, including traditional pre-Islamic Arab medical practices, Prophetic Islamic medicine, Persian medicine, Indian Ayurveda, and Greco-Roman Humoral theory, in addition to medicinal knowledge from the Syriacs and Egyptians. Authors who compiled cosmetic recipes would preface that they took it from an outside source, such as Indian, Persian, or other.
Amongst the vast contributors to the development of the field of cosmetology is Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis). His work contained the first-ever mention of depilation sticks, underarm deodorants, and hand lotions. Hair dyes are mentioned, turning blond hair to black, and hair care is included, even for correcting kinky or curly hair. He even described suntan lotions’ benefits and their ingredients in detail. Perfumes, scented aromatics, and incense were discussed. There were perfumed stocks rolled and pressed into special molds, perhaps the earliest antecedents of present-day lipsticks and solid deodorants.1
Albucasis mentions several cosmetic recipes that were taken from Indian Ayurvedic sources or Greek ones.
Muslim physicians made significant contributions to dermatology and medical cosmetology. Other renowned scholars like Ibn al-Quff and Ibn al-Nafis explored topics related to skin health, hair care, and the treatment of various skin conditions. They wrote extensively on topics such as dermatological disorders, hair loss remedies, and cosmetic applications.
Al-Zahrawi’s 30-volume medical encyclopedia included various medicinal recipes, not only cosmetic. Medieval physicians always regarded medicine and cosmetics as intrinsically intertwined. Zahrawi considered cosmetics a definite branch of medicine and was called Adwiyat Al-Zinah (adornment medicine), used by women and many men. Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine also has a chapter on “adornment medicine,” where he discusses different medical preparations to prevent hair shedding and balding on the scalp and eyebrows, or those concerned with hair growth, and those which prevent hair from growing. He also discusses hair whitening preparations, recipes for blond hair, and anti-wrinkle creams.
Muslim physicians didn’t dismiss these cosmetic applications as vain aesthetic pursuits but were encompassed in a wider range of objectives, such as being an instrument of attraction and an impetus for coitus, to which a stable marital relationship is owed. The Islamic medical tradition seemed to take the same approach as other well-established medical traditions in the West and the East. Information on cosmetic or medical products was already included in papyrus and ancient Greco-Roman documents, written by Dioscorides (De Materia Medica I.52–76), Ovid (Ars amatoria, Book III, and De Medicamine Faciei Femineae), Pliny (Historia Naturalis, Books XIII and XV), or Theophrastus (De Sensibus).2
Despite condemnation, cosmetics have an extensive history throughout the ancient Mediterranean. Like today, there was a distinction between cosmeceuticals and cosmetics in antiquity.3 Medieval Islamic cosmetology generally fell into the former category. Cosmeceutical preparations (adwiyat az-zinah) were usually prescribed by Muslim physicians to treat skin disorders, exfoliate, moisturize the skin, treat hair loss, alleviate armpit sweat, and treat tooth decay with dentifrices, which were different from cosmetics, which were artificial, temporary colorants of red and white to be applied on the face.
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.4
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.5
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.6 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.7
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.8
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.
The Islamic tradition strongly emphasizes personal hygiene and Ṭahāra (purity) as a form of religious obligation. Purification rituals varied according to the occasion and the specific ritual. The most quotidian and necessary ritual was wūḍūʾ (ablution) required before each prayer throughout the day. Other rituals included Ghusul (full-body ablution), required after certain occasions such as sexual intercourse, after wet dreams, after childbirth, after post-partum bleeding, and after menstruation. Tayammum (dry ablution) is a substitute for water ablution in case of inaccessibility to water. Some cases necessitated the redoing of these rituals if the body or clothes came into contact with urine, feces, semen, or alcohol.
Islam encourages personal sanitary routines 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. Cookery books and literature (adab) are filled with instructions with cultured and refined men and women in mind, on the proper methods of handwashing before and after meals, with a wide variety of scented powders and perfumes.
The cleanliness of clothing, the environment, and the body were always emphasized and regulated per Islamic jurisprudence. Muslims enjoyed a sophisticated hygiene culture and etiquette that was at the center of their social and communal activities. It is credited to the Muslim world with the introduction of oil-based and scented soap bars to Europe.
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. A good host was to honor their guests by perfuming them 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. Women who wanted to ward off evil spirits and protect their families usually fumigated their entire house with incense while reciting some Quranic verses.
Perfumery in Islamic Tradition
Perfumery played a central role in Medieval Islamic culture and philosophy. The Islamic tradition values scents and fragrances as instruments of spirituality, hygiene, and mental well-being. Since antiquity, the Arabs were mostly traders and had greater access to a wide range of aromatic substances. Not to mention, many flowers and herbs, such as jasmine and rose, and aromatic resins such as frankincense, storax, and myrrh, were cultivated in the Middle East and are key ingredients in modern perfumery.
The Islamic Empire in the Middle East was situated in a strategic geographical location that controlled most of the world’s important land and maritime trading routes, aiding the transfer of goods from Europe, through the Red Sea trading ports, to the Indian subcontinent, and vice versa. This effectively facilitated access to all kinds of aromatic raw materials from and to India, China, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
This is why Arab perfumery treatises and medical encyclopedias mentioned more than 120 types of raw substances ranging from plants, flowers, bark, woods, roots, spices, minerals, resins, animal fats, and secretions. The vast quantity of raw materials yielded an endless amount of possible aromatic mixtures and preparations.
Muslims authored many books on the science of perfumery and developed the techniques and mechanisms of perfume-making that are still used to this day. Al-Kindi, a renowned Arab philosopher and physician often referred to as the “father of Arab Philosophy,” authored one of his most significant works called the “Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations.” This book includes over a hundred recipes and techniques for creating perfumes, salves, and aromatic oils. Notably, Al-Kindi also introduced innovative perfume-making apparatus, including the alembic, which remains highly regarded even in contemporary times for its remarkable contributions to the field of perfumery.
Abu Ali Ibn Sina, the Persian Muslim chemist and physician known as Avicenna, made a significant contribution to the field of essential oil extraction. He invented the distillation method, which is still widely utilized today, for extracting oils from sources like flowers. Avicenna’s pioneering work included the extraction of rose essences, leading to the production of rose water. Additionally, he formulated over 60 medicines that focused on the well-being of the heart and mind, incorporating the therapeutic properties of rose essences into these preparations.
Originally, the word for perfume in Arabic (Ar. ʿiṭr or ṭīb) was used to refer to naturally occurring scents emanating from a person, plant, or any aromatic substance. However, it came to include perfumes consisting of oil-derived plant substances that were extracted using various methods (distillation, enfleurage, maceration).
Muslim scholars generally divided perfumery into two types: natural aromatics and compound aromatics. Natural aromatics were subdivided into two types: Al-‘usul (principal aromatics) and Al-‘afwah (spices/secondary aromatics).
Al-‘usul or principal aromatics included musk, ambergris, aloeswood, camphor, and saffron. The spices or secondary aromatics are Sunbul (spikenard), Qaranful (cloves), Ṣandal (sandalwood), Jawzbuwwā wa al-Basbās (nutmeg and mace), Ward (rose), Falanja, Zarnab (yew), Qirfa (cassia or cinnamon bark), Harnuwa, Qāqulla (greater cardamom), Kabāba (cubeb), Hālbuwwā (lesser cardamom), Ḥabb al-Mīsum, Fāghira (fagara), Maḥlab (mahlab), Wars, Qusṭ (costus), Aẓfār (onycha), Bunk, Ḍirw (lentisk), Lādhan (labdanum), Mayʿa (storax), and Qinbīl (kamala).9
The principal and secondary aromatics were further divided according to their 4 humoral characteristics: hot, cold, dry, and moist.
Compound aromatics were aromatic preparations made from different substances to create various scented products used in everyday life, such as perfumes (āṭyāb), aromatic oils (adhān), incense (buẖur), handwashing powders (ḏarira/ušnān), soaps (ṣābun), detergents (ġāsul), breath refreshing tablets (ḥab muṭayyib lil fam), aromatic unguents (ġalīya), air fresheners (lāẖlaḥa), and aromatic distilled waters (mīyah mūqaṭara).
Aromatherapy: A Muslim Perspective
Healing using aromatherapy as a form of alternative medicine found in the modern world has ancient roots tied to all major ancient civilizations, such as the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, and Greeks.
The Arabs developed their own tradition of aromatherapy. Muslim physicians would often prescribe medicinal herbs and flowers in baths or massages. Public baths (Hammam) employed aromatic remedies in different formulas depending on the specific illness. Herbal extracts made from pine leaves were added to the bathing water as a cure for disorders in the digestive and urinary systems. Medicinal salves from pine lotion, spurge, and blue flowers were applied to cure kidney stones. Perfumes and fruit water were left in the bathrooms near bathers because they were believed to have heart-rejuvenating properties.
Physicians often recommended bathing in rose-scented waters as a cure for melancholy (black bile) or chronic headaches. Basil oil was used as a muscle relaxant and an anti-anxiety treatment. Musk’s scent was a nerve and heart rejuvenator, helping to cure melancholy as well. Certain types of incense were air purifying, and spraying the house with rose water, camphor, sandalwood, and common myrtle was a miasma (air pollution) repellent. Preventative measures against the plague included wiping the body with lavender oil and drinking it. Ibn Sina mentions that the scent of citron peels wards off the plague.
The 13th-century Abbasid Physician Ibn Al-kutuby describes eight methods of curing ailments using aromatherapy: (1) Using a pillow stuffed with medicinal plants, (2) carrying a small pouch full of dried medicinal plants, (3) breathing in the vapors emanating from boiling those medicinal plants, (4) breathing in the scents from flowers coming from gardens devoted to therapeutic practice, (5) hanging bundles of medicinal herbs in your house, (6) breathing the smoke coming from medicinal incense, (7) using aromatic lotions, (8) taking an aromatic bath.
Medieval Arab women’s cosmetic preparations
Medieval Muslim women beautified themselves with cosmetics, Jewelry, perfumes, and elaborate coiffures. Aside from women’s innate desires to enhance 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 that might snatch him at any time, since polygamy and concubinage were common practices in the Islamic Middle Ages, especially for the wealthy and upper classes.
Historical accounts convey that the average urban Muslim woman in the Middle Ages was extremely conscious of her visual appearance. Attention to self-maintenance and beauty relied on 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 and toiletries.
In my previous article, “Medieval Arab Women’s Makeup“, I highlighted the makeup practices of Medieval Arab Muslim women and briefly touched on some of their cosmetic preparations, such as facial makeup, skincare, haircare, and dental care. In this article, I want to go more in-depth, employing Al-Zahrawi’s 19th chapter on cosmetics from his book At-Taṣrīf Li-man ʿAjaza ʿAn At-tāʾlīf (The arrangement of manifold medical knowledge for one who is not able to compile a book for himself).
Cosmetic recipes from Kitāb At-Taṣrīf Li-man ʿAjaza ʿAn At-tāʾlīf (The arrangement of manifold medical knowledge for one who is not able to compile a book for himself)
Haircare recipes
Hair care treatments in At-tasrif included a variety of medicinal hair dyes, hair washes and shampoos, moisturizing scented oils, and hair growth treatments. A wide array of plants, flowers, minerals, and herbs was added to these preparations for their therapeutic and olfactory properties.
Hair dyes typically give a black or dark brown color. They were made from dark pigments extracted from indigo, henna, walnut hulls, oak galls, black grape vinegar, hematite, poppy anemone, black myrobalan, seaweed, Iris, woad, copper oxide, and carob. Still, there were also hair dye recipes for blond hair. He also wrote of a blackening hair dye made from litharge and quicklime.
Ghislah or ghasul (from Arabic gh-a-sl for wash or cleanse) are hair washes or shampoos that wash the hair and are primarily composed of soapy substances such as marshmallow (ẖaṭmī), Christ’s thorn Jujube (sidr), natron (būraq), clay (ṭīn), and soda ash (ušnān) alongside other aromatics.
The 10th-century pharmacist, At-tamimi, wrote many recipes for ghislah in his perfumery encyclopedia. These hair washes were meticulously concocted and required multiple complicated steps. They employed several fragrant plants and spices, which were mixed with aromatic oils and applied to the hair for a good smell and to soften the hair while combing it.
Naturally, the cost and labor required for their production were significant, since they were explicitly intended for wealthy ladies and princesses of the caliphal household. They employed the most exotic and pricey ingredients. Many hair wash recipes demand more than 20-30 ingredients with specific measurements and a unique treatment process for each ingredient, ranging from scenting, smoking, fermenting, boiling, drying, and sieving. The hair washes from Tamimi’s book resembled the modern viscous shampoos, not like the ones in At-tasrif, which were dry.
Sidr or Christ’s thorn Jujube was the principal hair-washing agent for Arab women. The leaves 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, gives it moisture, and gives it shine and luster. Sometimes henna was added if dyeing the hair was desired, but sidr is said to have dyeing properties as well, although 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.10 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“.11
A Ghislah also designates substances such as myrtle oil enhanced with aromatics, similar in effect to hair conditioners, that women apply to their hair while combing to help soften and untangle it.12
1- A recipe for a dye that blackens the hair:
Take duckweed (ṭuḥlub) dried on the baking plate (ṭābaq) of the clay oven (Tannour), and chard سلق dried in the shadow, and grind each one separately. Take the juice of chard, seaweed, and Myrtle آس mixed with one part of the dried chard and seaweed prepared earlier, then it is applied to the whitened hair. The hair is wrapped with chard leaves at night and is washed in the morning.
2- A dye that blackens the hair
Take a sour pomegranate, scoop out the seeds, and fill it with equal parts cordia سبستان and Aleppo oak عفص, and 2 dirhams worth of salt. The pomegranate is wrapped in dough and buried in a fire until it burns. It is removed from the fire, and the dough is unraveled. The inside mixture is emptied and mixed with water that had black raisins cooked in it. It is preserved in a lead container and used as needed.
3- A recipe for a dye:
Take fresh green walnut hulls, pulverize them, mix them with Shiraj (sesame oil), put them in a container, and dye the hair with it.
4- Another recipe for hair dye:
Pre-dye hair with henna, then wash, then dye with henna mixed with vinegar, then wash with water, and then wash with Ervil. It will come out well.
5- A recipe for a hair wash (Ghasul) that scents, strengthens, and blackens the hair:
A hair wash (ghasūl) that perfumes the hair, firms it, blackens and thickens it, strengthens the brain, and prevents colds caused by cold weather; but it should not be used to strengthen the brain until the brain has been purged.
Take 2 ūqiyas each of anemone, labdanum, mace, cloves, nutmeg, cyperus (suʿd), dyers’ madder (fuwwat al-ṣabbāghīn), leaves of shajar Maryam, and wild olive leaves. Take 3 ūqiyas each of green walnut husks, fresh or dry, and cypress cones. Take 1½ ūqiyas each of Indian pepperwort (al-shayṭaraj al-hindī) and emblic (amla). Pound and sift everything. Take 20 dirhams of this mixture with 30 mithqāls of marshmallow and 10 mithqāls of wasma (indigo leaves), knead it, and put it on the head. Then wash with water in which emblic, fresh walnut husks, and myrtle have been boiled, and anoint the hair, if needed, with gillyflower (khīrī) oil.
6- Another hair wash (Ghasul):
Take one part myrtle leaves, apple leaves, willow leaves, red flower petals, cypress leaves, and ½ mithqal Sumac, blossoms of the wild pomegranate tree جُلنار, amla, oak galls عفص, and Ramik (a dark-colored aromatic compound made from aged oak gall (ʿafṣ) and emblic myrobalan (umluj)). Grind it into a powder, sift it, and use as much as necessary to wash the hair and leave it for a long time. Then wash the hair with water in which (mung beans ?) and violets have been boiled. Then apply rose oil or myrtle oil, for it is beneficial, God willing.
7- A treatment that promotes hair growth and preserves it:
Take labdanum اللادن, wild marjoram (مرو), and myrtle oil, grind and pulverize until it becomes thickened like an unguent. It is applied to the roots of the hair and prevents hair fall.
8- Recipe for an oil that protects the hair
This remedy also strengthens the hair, gives volume, and embellishes it, avoids its weakening and loss, and improves its odor. It is amazing: It takes one ounce of cypress leaves, pomegranate flowers, dry myrtle, dry germander (jaʿda, dried apple leaves, willow leaves, olive leaves, and chard leaves; ½ ounce of absinthe, maidenhair, marshmallow, cedoaria (camphor root), cardamom, and juniper.
Mix everything and cook to a simmer in seven pounds of water and three pounds of aromatic sesame oil until the oil reaches the texture and consistency of the medicines and the water has been consumed. It is then separated and allowed to cool until it is tempered, poured into a glass container, and assiduously applied to the hair. This certainly embellishes and protects it.
9- A recipe that turns curly hair straight:
Take 1 ratl (a weight of varying value) of mucilage from marshmallow roots, which are mixed with sesame oil, and applied many times to the hair until it straightens. Al-Zahrawi mentions other plants to use as hair straighteners, such as mucilage from psyllium husk, fenugreek, flaxseed, and egg whites as well.
Skincare recipes for the body
1- A recipe for a depilator paste (Nura):
A depilator by Galenus that removes hair from its roots:
Take two parts quicklime and one part orpiment (arsenic) and grind them into a lead mortar, then add barely-kishk water until the mixture turns black, and keep it over a fire. Rest for an hour and apply the mixture in the bathroom, then wash. It will keep the skin soft and hair fine.
2- A recipe for a depilator paste (Nura) by Al-Razi:
A depilator that removes hair and makes it finer
In a mortar, take a firm, white, quicklime, and seashell lime, mix it in water with fine orpiment powder like kohl, then leave it to rest for two hours and apply. The seashell lime can be substituted with cuttlefish bone or gypsum; it is good, God willing.
3- A recipe to prevent perspiration:
Take Alum dissolved in rose water and rub it over the body.
4- A recipe for an armpit wax:
Knead Ervil flour with vinegar. It is good for removing underarm hair.
5- A moisturizer for dry and stiff hands:
Take purified tallow, honey, iris oil, sesame oil, or fresh oil, crushed and sifted marshmallow root (three ounces), and mix all the ingredients after the tallow has melted. Beat the mixture in a mortar until it becomes the consistency of an ointment. Apply the ointment on the hands and forearms. Wrap it with a cloth and leave it for a night, then wash it in the morning with hot water, and repeat for days.
6- A remedy for cleansing and moisturizing the skin:
In a mortar, take 3 awqiya of the mucilage from the marshmallow root, Mahlep seeds, and peeled bitter almonds, which are beaten well to the consistency of an ointment and applied like the previous recipe.
Skincare recipes for the face
In At-tasrif, there were recipes for facial cleansers, lotions, unguents, and masks that are complexion-enhancing, cure melasma and freckles, protect from the sun, and reduce smallpox scars and albinism. The skincare treatments were usually formulated to be smeared on the face.
The main formulas were the ġūmra (from the Arabic root verb gha-ma-ra to “submerge”), which also meant slathering the face with a cosmetic to even the complexion, lūṭūkh (from the Arabic word to “smear”), and ṭīlāʾ (from the Arabic word to “paint”). They were thick unguents or sometimes lotions made from dried and pulverized plants mixed with viscous liquids to make them more adhesive to the face (egg whites, yogurt, honey, marshmallows, flaxseed gel, wax, gums, and oils).
Of the remedies employed to treat all these skin-related ailments and were exfoliating, Albucasis recommends bitter and sweet almonds, melon seeds and pulp, the pulp of snake cucumber seeds, lupine flour, chickpea flour, fava bean flour, black-eyed pea flour, Vicia ervil flour, lentil flour, kishk (dried ball made from yogurt and barely), huskless barely, spelt flour, Salsola Soda (soda ash), Gum acacia, Gum tragacanth, rice, milk, sweet yellow clover, and bran juice.
Many of these pulses and legumes contain folic acids, biotins, and other essential vitamins beneficial to skin rejuvenation and overall health. The lactic acids found in dairy products like milk and yogurt have been used in various cultures to exfoliate and soften the skin, thus giving us a clearer and lighter complexion. Rice tightens and nourishes the skin from within, providing a multitude of healthy vitamins. Healthy sources of biotin include almonds, legumes, and eggs.
He further explains that there are more potent drugs in exfoliation to be used such as white and black bryony, white hellborn, costus, Iris florentina, natron, borax (bawraq), Narcissus bulb, asparagus roots and seeds, arugula seeds, pepper cress, mustard seeds, saffron, Anacyclus pyrethrum, Aristolochia, rock salt, gum ammoniac (washshaq), seeds of wild turnip and hortus, red myrrh, cassia, Chinese Rhubarb, sarcocolla (ʿanzarūt), tassel hyacinth, squill and rabbit’s blood, all used singularly or together.
1- A recipe for a treatment that whitens, softens, and cleanses the face:
Take chickpea flour, broad bean flour, barley flour, starch, gum tragacanth كثيراء, and radish seeds, mix with milk, and apply to the face. Wash the next day with hot water that has had bran نخالة and violets cooked in it for 10 days.
2- A recipe for a treatment that I [Al-Zahrawi] created for curing melasma, that whitens, softens, and cleanses the face:
Take one part of vetch starch, barley starch, rice flour, dried asparagus roots, chickpea flour, lupine flour, broad bean flour, and bitter almond, and mix with a woman’s milk. Apply to the face for three hours and wash with warm water—a tried-and-tested recipe.
3- A ghumra (face mask) belonging to Ibn Massuwiyh, which cleanses the face and cures melasma:
Take 4 dirhams of natron, lentils, mastics, de-seeded melon seeds, cabbage seeds, lupine beans, 3 mithqals Anacyclus pyrethrum root كندس, and 1 mithqal ervil flour, pulverize finely and mix with egg whites, apply to the face and wash with water which has had mung bean or ervil cooked in it for days.
4- A recipe for a ghumra (face mask) that exfoliates the skin and makes it glow:
Take 8 mithqals of of the polishing clay that goldsmiths polish their jewellery with, 8 mithqals of camel grass buds (idhkhir), 12 mithqals from Iris Florentina, and Arabic gum. These ingredients are not pulverized but kneaded with barley water, shaped into disks, and left to dry, and when needed, they are crushed and mixed with cold water and applied.
5- A recipe for a ghumra (face mask) that rouges the face and adds a rosy tinge to the face:
Take 7 parts of vetch flour, lupine flour, broad bean flour, Narcissus bulbs, and 1 part semolina powder, grind to a fine powder in a mortar, and knead with egg whites. Shape into disks and dry in the shade. When needed, add hot water, and it’s painted on the face. Leave for two hours, and wash.
6- A face unguent that removes smallpox:
Mix 5 dirhams of broad bean flour, 2.50 dirhams of radish seeds, and 2 dirhams of bleached litharge, Garden cress, and Indian costus, and mix with milk or barley water and paint the face with it.
7- A face unguent for melasma and hyperpigmentation:
Take 2 awqiya Iris florentina roots السوسن الأسمانجوني, broad bean and barley flour, 1/2 awqiya rock salt الملح الأندراني, 4 dirhams of burnt deer antlers and washag (Asafoetida), knead well after getting pulverized, and it is shaped into disks with water and applied when needed.
8- A face unguent that clears discoloration and melasma:
Take 10 dirhams of peeled broad beans, 20 dirhams of barley flour, 15 dirhams of de-seeded melon seeds, 15 dirhams of sifted semolina, 10 dirhams of peeled almonds, 20 dirhams of coarse whole-wheat flour خشكار, 8 dirhams of soda ash, and 6 dirhams of dry lupine. Pulverize the ingredients and sift them, then apply them to the face with safflower water, possibly in the morning and evening. It is washed with violet water or chamomile water until it goes away.
9- A face unguent that cures old melasma:
Grind wild Arum roots and mix with honey, spread over a rag, and apply to the face.
10- A paint for freckles and spots (namash and barash):
Take lupine flour, bitter almonds, natron, and radish seeds; it’s mixed with fenugreek mucilage and applied to the face after a poultice or a shower.
11- An unguent that cures smallpox scars and ulcers:
Take bleached litharge, dried sugarcane roots, chickpea flour, decomposed bones, rice flour, de-seeded melon seeds, Moringa seeds, and Indian costus. It’s mixed with fenugreek mucilage or flaxseed mucilage and then applied to the face.
12- A Sunscreen lotion:
Take black nightshade juice with some rose oil, paint on the face, and wash with hot water. Take egg whites and rose oil and mix until smooth. Apply to the face, leave for a while, and then rinse.
13- A recipe for sunscreen:
The face is painted with either gum tragacanth or Arabic gum dissolved in water, or starch dissolved in Arabic gum water.
14- A recipe for a rouge for the face, tried and tested:
Take equal parts of saffron, madder, duckweed, Frankincense, and myrrh. It is mixed with calf fat and mastics oil, and it is applied to the face and left for an hour. It is removed with a hot sponge.
Eyecare recipes
Medieval Muslim physicians dedicated a lot of their efforts to ophthalmology and curing optical ailments. Albacusis discusses in depth the various pathologies of the eyes and their treatments in his medical encyclopedia.
In the cosmetic section of his treatise, he focuses on curing superficial aesthetic disorders like preventing eyelashes from falling out, growing eyebrow hairs, growing fuller and darker lashes, etc. He also prescribed remedies for different ocular diseases in the form of Kohl recipes. These Kohls have combined therapeutic and cosmetic properties. They were concocted from various medicinal ingredients besides the main Kohl ingredient, such as Galena/antimony (ithmid). Kohl played such an important role in the ophthalmology field that an oculist or eye physician in the Medieval Islamic world was called a Kahhal (one who puts/employs kohl (collyrium) to treat the eyes).
1- A recipe for a treatment that promotes eyebrow growth and strengthens it:
Take one part each of myrtle berries and flowers, grind them, take bear fat, and dissolve it in oil, then add the oil to the mixture and apply it to the eyebrows three times. It will be helpful, God willing.
2- Another recipe that helps eyebrow and eyelash growth:
Take charred date seeds and labdanum, grind them very finely, mix them with myrtle oil, and apply to the areas.
3- A list of remedies that blacken eyebrows and embellish them, either taken alone or together:
Myrtle, Anemone, walnut hulls, mulberry, bramble, sumac, henna water, gum, vine leaves, fig leaves, cypress, oak tree bark, Aleppo oak عفص, woods of mastics tree مصطكى, frankincense smoke, tar smoke, and bitumen smoke.
4- A Kohl recipe that promotes lash growth from the eyelids and thickens it:
Take 5 dirhams worth of burnt black myrobalan seeds, 4 dirhams of pounded Frankincense, 3 dirhams of Indian ginger, 3 dirhams of balsam seeds (ḥabb al-balasān), and 10 dirhams of Lapis Lazuli stone. It is pulverized into a fine powder, sifted through a silk mesh, and used daily, God willing.
5- A remedy promoting lash growth from the eyelids and blackening them:
Take about 3 dirhams’ worth of date seeds and equal parts anemone, pulverize them, and apply them like kohl in the eyes.
6- A Kohl recipe promoting lash growth from the eyelids and blackening them:
Take 16 mithqals of equal parts of zinc oxide توتيا, Spikenard, and 12 mithqals of equal parts of copper oxide نحاس محرق, rock salt, white pepper, and ithmid kohl. The ingredients are pulverized into a fine powder and used as Kohl.
Oral hygiene
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.13 Medieval Arabic cooking treatises contain a plethora of recipes about making dentifrices and breath-enhancing tablets (ḥab) that are eaten in their tablet form or could be dissolved into a drink or water.
For teeth cleansers, a miswak (teeth-cleaning twig made from the Salvadora Persica tree) is used as a toothbrush with a dental cleansing paste made from ušnān (potash), charcoal, sugar, or salt. The dentifrice and the potash are stored in a compartmentalized vessel called Ushnandan.
A preparation called saʿoṭ سعوط, which is a cleansing nasal powder or a 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.“
1- A Recipe of tablets written by Ibn Māsawayh to strengthen the gums, perfume the breath, and color the lips:
Take cassia, frankincense bark, citron peel and leaves, red rose petals, yellow sandalwood, and cyperus, 5 mithqāls each; cubeb, clove, mastic, mace, and nutmeg, 4 mithqāls each; spikenard and tree moss, 10 mithqāls; and 1 mithqāl of camphor. Knead with maysūsan (iris wine) and citron-leaf water; and with this, you make some tablets the same size as the chickpeas. These tablets dissolve in the mouth and are then swallowed. This remedy has been proved.”14
2- A Recipe of a toothpaste to clean, whiten, and polish teeth, as well as to eliminate dental stains [fº87vº]
I [Abulcasis] have already tested. Take oven-tile shards, sea foam, burnt natron, burnt cow shin-bone, burnt date stones, burnt dried gourd rind, burnt goat horn, and burnt coral, 10 dirhams each; 5 dirhams of pumice; 3 dirhams of iris root; 2 dirhams each of pomegranate calyces and [?] seeds; and 1 dirham each of malabathrum, natron, Yemeni gum ammoniac, and costus.”15
- Nizamoglu, Cem. “Muslim Contribution to Cosmetics – Muslim Heritage.” Muslim Heritage, 20 May 2003, https://muslimheritage.com/muslim-contribution-to-cosmetics/ ↩︎
- Pérez-Arantegui, J. Not only wall paintings—pigments for cosmetics. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 189 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01399-w ↩︎
- Johnson, Marguerite. (2016). Ovid on Cosmetics: Medicamina Faciei Femineae and Related Texts. 10.5040/9781474218696. ↩︎
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- Başkanlığı, İ. Ü. B. İ. (n.d.). What Should You Expect from a Medieval Islamic Perfumery Monograph? Retrieved July 3, 2023, from iupress.istanbul.edu.tr website: https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/en/book/1-uluslararasi-prof-dr-fuat-sezgin-islam-bilim-tarihi-sempozyumu-bildiriler-kitabi/chapter/what-should-you-expect-from-a-medieval-islamic-perfumery-monograph ↩︎
- مفصل تاريخ العرب قبل الإسلام – المؤلف: الدكتور جواد علي ↩︎
- Dafni, A., Levy, S., & Lev, E. (2005). The ethnobotany of Christ’s Thorn Jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) in Israel. Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, 1, 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-1-8 ↩︎
- Nasrallah, Nawal. Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 26 Nov. 2007
https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004158672.i-907 ↩︎ - Nizamoglu, Cem. “Muslim Contribution to Cosmetics – Muslim Heritage.” Muslim Heritage, 20 May 2003, https://muslimheritage.com/muslim-contribution-to-cosmetics/ ↩︎
- Cambra, Luisa Maria. “Medieval Recipes about Toothpastes by Abulcasis.” Open Journal of Dentistry and Oral Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1, 2020, pp. 7–10, https://doi.org/10.13189/ojdom.2020.080102 ↩︎
- Cambra, Luisa Maria. “Medieval Recipes about Toothpastes by Abulcasis.” Open Journal of Dentistry and Oral Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1, 2020, pp. 7–10, https://doi.org/10.13189/ojdom.2020.080102 ↩︎
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