Written by Ma HebinThe fragrance is full of innocence and profundity
Arabian spice culture is a beautiful scenery in Arab culture, and its philosophy has gone beyond the scope of ordinary materials and integrated into the lofty spiritual realm that people yearn for, this special phenomenon has been perfected after thousands of years of baptism, and it is more innocent and profound.
I remember what I witnessed in Medina, Saudi Arabia: a local man took his child to worship at the Holy Mosque in the early days, and at the father's behest, the child took out the perfume he had brought with him and shared it with the people around him. The child's immature hands held the small perfume bottle, and the happy face flowed among the dozen or so elders around him, until the perfume bottle bottomed out, and this moment was all moving. In fact, when Muslims meet, there are always people who bring out their perfumes and share them with others. The most precious gift that Muslims bring back during the Hajj pilgrimage is an alcohol-free liquid fragrance from the Arabian Peninsula. 
On Dubai's National Day, young girls take part in the celebration with incense burners. It is recorded that the body of the Prophet Muhammad was able to secrete the scent of musk. The famous Islamic hadith scholar Anas reported: "I have never smelled a more beautiful fragrance than the scent of the Messenger of Allah, whether it is ambergris, musk, or anything else." "The sages of the past dynasties must give incense to all major events. Imam Malik, one of the four leading scholars of Islam, told visitors that they should wash their hadiths, use spices, and make up neatly. During the narration, spices are also burned until the end of the narration. The Arabs are also a people who pay great attention to cleanliness, and regard cleanliness as the first element of life, and the use of spices to cleanse the body or environment has become one of the main ways to achieve this element. Tracing the origin of the Arab nation's love for spices, it is not difficult to find that it is based on two main reasons: first, the Arabian Peninsula has a special climate and soil for the growth of spices; The second is that Muslims believe that the use of spices is a Sunnah, a perfect combination of noble spiritual life and good material comforts, and the two can never be separated. 
Frankincense is collected by cutting a wound in the bark of a tree and waiting for the resin of the outgoing milk to harden and condense into a yellowish, reddish-tingly translucent clot when exposed to air. "There are Arabs in the world and spices".
The use and affection of the Arabs for spices may well have benefited from the influence of Egyptian civilization. In 4000 B.C., Pharaoh traveled to the Horn of East Africa to obtain 31 incense trees, and the fragrance of these "trophies" was breathtaking, as can be seen from the ruins of the temples of Hatshepsut and Edfu in present-day Egypt. If you are lucky enough to visit, you can still see the scenes of people using, processing and storing spices in those days. The daily life of the Egyptians, from cooking food, wounds to embalming and beauty, are all related to spices: the unique embalming function of spices makes "mummies" a mystery explored by the archaeological community; In the history of world warfare, the ancient Cleopatra Cleopatra made Caesar and Antony's dream of conquering Egypt come to naught after she was scented with jade and hairstyled with olive oil. 
In the Valley of the Kings fresco (restoration) in Egypt, Ramses I holds an incense burner during a sacrifice. After the success of the Ethiopian spice tree in Egypt, it was introduced to the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and the special climate and soil conditions make the spice tree species one of the most vibrant tree species in the region's biosphere. Soon, the Arabs, having discovered their surprising and singular properties in these imports, began to expand their cultivation and study how to extract more of the secretions of the spice tree and trade the surplus spices with the inhabitants of other regions. Spices in the Arabian Peninsula are mainly concentrated in the Dhofar region of the Sultanate of Oman and have been cultivated for 7,000 years. Dhofar is the southwestern province of Oman, bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north and Yemen to the west. There are as many as 36 species of trees that can extract spices, and there are 26 kinds of frankincense, which is known as the crown of spices. 
Vendors selling all kinds of spices and spice products at the oldest market in Matola, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman. According to the climatic conditions, the Omani people can accurately grasp the best harvest time of spices, so that the spice trees produce the maximum amount of gums; They gave special names to the different quality of the spice trees, and gave them different names according to the amount of gelatinous substances secreted by the spice trees. An adult incense tree in the Dhofar region can produce 10 kilograms of latex per harvest season, and the total production of about 7,000 tons of frankincense in the region is about 7,000 tons per year.
B.C., historians found that the front and back of the houses in the Dhofar area were full of trees that could secrete a faint fragrance; In the 15th century, Ma Huan, a traveler of the Ming Dynasty who accompanied Zheng He to the West, once admired the spice culture in the region: men and women bathed together, dressed and painted on the body, or rose dew or agarwood perfume to smoke the clothes and body, and burned the sandalwood with the stove, and then saluted......Frankincense is produced in resin. 
The monument in the shape of a huge incense burner in the Ali Sheep Park in Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, reflects the profound influence of incense culture on the country. Arabian spices connect Eastern and Western civilizations
The voyage of the Portuguese da Gama opened the precedent for the cross-regional use of spices, laying the foundation for the world's favor of spices. From Ethiopia to Egypt, Yemen, Oman and other places, the cultivation area of spices has expanded, and the consumer group has also changed greatly, no longer a single noble, chieftain and wealthy, ordinary people are also eligible to enjoy. It is reported that the Persian king Darius I (549 485 BC) imported up to 30 tons of frankincense per year from Arabia. Many ports in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula were the transit points for ancient ancestors to carry out foreign spices**, and they used these ports to traffic the roots, flowers, and fruits of plants that could extract spices from the Roman Empire to cities along the Mediterranean coast. 
Ruins of the ancient city of Petra, JordanPetra was an important transshipment point at the northern end of the ancient Arabian Spice Route, and most of the spices used in the Mediterranean region were transshipped from there. According to historical records, the goods trafficked to China by Arab merchants were divided into three categories: incense, rhinos, and treasures. Incense medicine is the main medicine, and the market is the widest. Arabic incense medicine occupies an important position in Chinese medicine. According to the relevant documents of the Song Dynasty, there are 12 kinds of pills, pills and scatters made mainly of frankincense, 6 kinds of soups and pills based on wood incense, and 7 kinds of pills and pills made mainly of myrrh. After the Song Dynasty, Arabic incense was more widely used, and the frankincense, myrrh, musk, saffron, wood, camphor, ambergris and so on contained in the "Hui Hui Prescription" inherited the medicinal principles, uses and usage of Arabic spices, and were absorbed and accepted as new members by traditional Chinese medicine. Frankincense, aloe vera, ambergris, rose water and other medicinal materials imported from Arabia to China are widely used in the Chinese medical community, and some medicinal materials still use Arabic names, such as myrrh (murr), fenugreek (hulban), halilaj (halilaj) and so on. So far, it is not difficult to find in the library of traditional Chinese medicine that some of the drugs for bruises, blood circulation and blood stasis, and chronic pain relief have ingredients such as frankincense and myrrh. 
The city of Shibam, a city in central Yemen, known for its mud skyscrapers, is one of the few cities of ancient spices that have survived. The aftertaste is passed down and lasts for a long time
Arabic spices are divided into three categories: edible, medicinal, and ordinary. Edible and medicinal spices have been widely used in daily life for a long time, and have become the first choice for enhancing flavor and removing fish, relieving pain and activating blood, and regulating internal organs. The Arabian spice family is large and diverse, represented by cloves, cinnamon, cinnamon, cardamom, myrrh, musk, agarwood, wood, frankincense, saffron, camphor, etc., rhizomes, flowers and leaves, fruits, etc. are very important raw materials, usually used alone or mixed. The special substances in the spice are the main reasons why people trust it, such as lime acid and vacuuming factors to clean the air of impurities, sesame oil has a smooth** and beauty effect. Nowadays, the concept of people's use of spices has undergone a qualitative change, optimizing the living environment, enhancing physical health is the basic use of spices, some people use spices to protect metal utensils, to avoid their tarnishing after oxidation, and there are also spices made into pastes for daily life, such as toothpaste, candles, pomade, etc. Some Arab households add spice oil to water and bring it to a boil, filling the room with fragrance. 
Among the spices in the Israeli souks** is frankincense from the Arab region. There is still a large consumer market for spices in the Arab countries. Agarwood is known as the king of spices in Saudi Arabia and is an indispensable item in almost every family. The essential oil extracted from spices is expensive, its production process is complex, the storage environment is special, the refined liquid must be stored in a well-sealed container, the longer the storage, the better the quality. In addition to spices, there are also various types of perfumes, incense burners and special watering cans used to spray perfumes. At banquets, VIP visits, weddings or celebrations, a burning spice burner is handed to the guests and all attendees are incense. It is not surprising that this is the custom of the Arab people, and whoever smokes more incense will be happier for his owner. Incense is usually smoked twice, the first time to welcome and the second time to indicate that the meeting is coming to an end. Arabs often put a few drops of perfume on the back of their friends' hands (who may not know all of them) to show that they have "fragrance" to share. In their view, spices can bring people the enjoyment of a good life, and the person concerned has also inadvertently performed a good deed that is rewarded. 
A Dubai girl with a Hannah ornament painted on her hand, Hannah is a ceremonial art from ancient Asia, popular in the Muslim world of South Asia and the Middle East, and used for some special occasions. The Arabs used spices differently. Agarwood is an ordinary spice used by almost all people, and it is widely used; The market for benzoin is in the countryside; Frankincense is a daily consumer product for the wealthy; Spice blends are a favorite of urban beauties. In big cities such as Riyadh, balsam made from a variety of spices is more popular: this kind of balm is a blend of heavyweight spices, including henna, rose juice, agarwood oil, black and white musk, ambergris, sandalwood oil, saffron oil and other 17 kinds of spice essence, prepared and fermented and pressed into lumps**, which are very well sold. In addition, several spices such as vanilla and rosin are mixed together, which are the first choice for beauty and skin care for women in medium-sized cities; Fragrance nail polish, a mixture of henna, agarwood, rose juice, sandalwood and camphor are also favored. In some social activities, the fragrance of Arabic spices with pure natural raw materials fills the air, which has become the consensus of people's pursuit of fashion. Arabian incense, let time and space change, long-lasting fragrance. **: Civilization Communication, Civilization Magazine