TheMilkOfLions
@MilkLions
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I tweet mostly about alcohol. “I drink today, I tend to serious matters tomorrow”. For my full name look at my Medium page.
New York, NY
Joined April 2019
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I decided to write a short article on the history of a Lebanese wine that became successful within an Islamic state: the Vin d'Or ("Golden Wine").
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My latest alcoholic map:
In Red: Countries where distilled liquor means “Water of Life”
In Blue: Countries where distilled liquor means “Sweat/Sweated”
Did I miss any country? Comments always welcome.
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I have come to realize that many "traditional" alcoholic drinks are not that old. The Scottish Whisky, Turkish Raki, Greek Ouzo, Levantine Araq etc. are all modern inventions (300 years ago or so).
And so, I decided to read "The Invention of Tradition"...
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We know that "Alcohol" never meant "Body Eating Spirit" in Arabic (it actually meant "eyeliner", but that's another story). But we also know who invented the false etymology of "Body Eating Spirit"
To understand its harm, let's review its history
The word Alcohol comes from the Arabic “al-kuhl” which means “BODY EATING SPIRIT”.
It is linked to the star known as Algol- “the Demon’s head.” The current Arabic name for alcohol is الغول al-ġawl – meaning “demon.”
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How did people consume cannabis/Hashish in the olden days? Ibn Al-Baytar (died 1248) describes one method:
1) Dry and then roast the cannabis leaves
2) Make into a paste mixed with hulled sesame and sugar
3) Eat [Smoking had not yet been discovered in the Old World]
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Why does Alcohol come from the Arabic for "eyeliner"? Glad you asked:
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In Lebanon, this summer fog is called the "grape and fig cooker" ("طباخ العنب والتين"). The weather is gently "cooking" the grapes and figs to get them ripe.
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The Mongol Emperor had this crazy fountain built in the 13th century. It served four types of alcoholic beverages, made of grapes, mare’s milk, honey and rice. The craftsman was from France and had been captured by the Mongols in one of their European conquests.
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I decided to compile a list of all intoxicants mentioned by pre-modern Islamic scholars from the Hanafi School: 26 substances, from grape-wine to opium. Comments are always welcome!
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Ibn Butlan (died 1038 AD) lists all the benefits of wine, including that it boosts sexual activity. This printed edition has censored "sexual activity" and replaced it with "strength"!
Compare manuscript on the left, with printed edition on the right.
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Fascinating alcoholic advertisement in an Arabic newspaper published in Argentina in 1924. The Ad is about an authentic brand of Lebanese distilled liquor 🥃 (araq) and quotes the Quran !
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The Caliph Harun al-Rashid (died 809 AD) drank “date-wine”, but did not drink “grape-wine”. The Caliph followed the precepts of a specific Islamic school, the Hanafi, who believed alcoholic beverages were permissible, except for grape-wine.
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The Quran exhorts against drinking wine but *never* mentions any punishment for intoxication. The first caliph set the punishment for drunkenness to 40 lashes. The second caliph increased it to 80 lashes.
(I am reading "Islamic Legal Theories" by Wael Hallaq")
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This year's alcoholic production: 43 liters of the best araq on earth. All made in our home distillery in Jezzine (South Lebanon) under the supervision of Master Distiller
@JosephElAsmar3
(my dad). Cheers 🥂
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@think_or_swim
@delong
@EliotJacobson
If you witness a "six-sigma" event in your lifetime, that means your model is probably wrong and it is not a six-sigma event...Same thing when Goldman Sachs CFO witnessed 6-sigma event during Global Financial Crisis in 2007. His model was wrong.
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My great grandfather. A keen araq drinker and "sheikh al shabab". Cheers 🥂
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The standard history of alcohol tells you that distilled liquors were invented in Europe before spreading to the rest of the world. Why do I think this history a wrong? I created the “Map of Araq”…
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This is a “robot-barwoman” designed by Ismail al-Jazari (died 1206 AD). This robot-girl was supposed to come out of a chamber at regular intervals to serve a cup of wine.
Image: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Hervey E. Wetzel
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This hoax keeps coming back again and again...Alcohol does not come from "body eating spirit" in Arabic. It comes from Arabic meaning eyeliner/eyedrops.
The word Alcohol is derived from the Arabic word Al-Khul which means, body eating spirit...
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Drinking wine can signal: "I don't do evil". Ibn Taymiyyah (died 1382 AD) was an Islamic scholar against the consumption of wine. But when he saw Mongols drinking wine, he did not want to interrupt them because drinking wine prevented them from killing/stealing/plundering.
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People from the Temperance Movement promoted this wrong etymology 100+ years ago. The Temperance Movement wanted to convince people to stop drinking alcohol, and cooked up this false etymology: Al-cohol --> Al-ghool --> Body Eating Spirit
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1/ Islamic scholars were unanimous in their prohibition of grape-wine. But what about liquors made from the leftovers from winemaking, the "pomace brandy"?...
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An Islamic medieval cookbook includes recipes about alcoholic beverages *and* includes many Islamic invocations, like Bismillah (in the name of God) or Inshallah (God willing).
Source: article by Limor Yungman on Medieval Arabic Cookbooks
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Islamic scholars from the Hanafi school were late to embrace full alcohol prohibition. For example, in this 18th century treatise, an Egyptian mufti is arguing that alcoholic beverages that are not made from grape or dates are permissible (Halal).
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How good/famous was Lebanese wine 200+ years ago?
Hanna Diyab (18th century) was travelling through France and mentions that Burgundy produced the finest wine in France and that it was similar to the wine from Lebanon.
Source: The Book of Travels, translated by
@QifaNabki
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My latest alcoholic find: Distilled liquors appear very early on in old Malay literature (14/15 century), including in the "Tale of the Wise Parrot" (Hikayat Bayan Budiman). Distilled liquors are (of course) called "araq"...
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There is an old Lebanese tradition around this time of the year: the village priest celebrates Mass to "bless" the upcoming harvest. Everyone from the village brings fruits/vegetables for the blessing. My parents brought figs, nuts...and limoncello ! Cheers 🥂
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Turkey, Greece, and the Levant share a similar "national drink": an aniseed-flavored distilled liquor 🥃, called raki, ouzo or araq. Where did they come from? I tried to find out and wrote about it...
Arap rakısı diye bir şey varmış, sosyal medyada neden gündem oldu?
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Traditional Italian food is the most extreme example of "inventing tradition". Turns out most traditional Italian food is less than 100 years old. You see something similar with "traditional" liquors: whiskey, cognac, araq are not that old (200-300 years or so)
Everything you know about Italian food is a lie!
The profile of Italian food myth buster Alberto Grandi, in
@ftmag
, is provoking laughter, rage and tears.
Discover the real story behind Italy’s culinary classics, here [FREE TO READ] 👇
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Such a delight reading the travelogue of Hanna Diyab (18th century), a key contributor to the story of Aladdin.
Kudos to the translator (
@QifaNabki
) and editor (Johannes Stephan): original text is weird mix of Arabic/French/Italian/vernacular.
And thank you
@LibraryArabLit
.
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Umar ibn Al-Khattab (died 644 AD) was the Second Caliph. He had a reputation for severely punishing drinkers of alcoholic beverages, BUT when the he was stabbed and about to die, the Caliph decided to drink wine. One last drink…
Image: Iblis Leads Umar (Morgan Library)
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Many distilled liquors are flavoured with aniseed: Araq (Lebanon), Raki (Turkey), Sambuca (Italy), Pastis (France) etc. When did alcohol distillers start adding aniseed ? I am struggling with this one. Seems the practice is not that old.
Image from Bibliothèque Forney
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@RagnarokSword
@fakehistoryhunt
It is not a stupid question. Clotilde is supposed to descend from Jeanne d'Arc's brother...So, not really descendant from Jeanne herself.
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On 15 August people celebrate the "Feast of the Lady" as they call it in Lebanon (Assumption of Mary). This day also marks the beginning of the harvesting of wine grapes 🍇.
Image is from our vineyard in Jezzine (South Lebanon) - September 2021.
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Have you asked your doctor about the many benefits of wine? Ibn Butlan (died 1038 AD) lists 10 benefits: 5 to the body and 5 to the mind…
(Thank you
@elainevdalen
for making me discover this manuscript, Bibliothecae Ambrosianae, A 125 inf. , S.P.67bis)
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I discovered that my ancestral village, Jezzine, has an area *full* of fossils 100 million+ years old. Our guide was François Helou, a passionate, self-taught paleontologist. His dream is to set up a museum and share his passion. Cheers 🥂
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The first non-Muslim source to mention the Prophet Muhammad seems to state that the Prophet prohibited grape-wine to muslims, not other types of alcoholic beverages.
Here is
@shahanSean
«Muhammad and the Empires of Faith »; and paper “Des amphores rouges et des jarres vertes”
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I am back in Lebanon, and starting with a Gin & Tonic. Cheers 🥂 from Jezzine (South Lebanon)
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The earliest mention of Japan's distilled liquor, Shōchū, is actually under the Arabic name of "araq". In 1548, Jorge Alvarez wrote that the Japanese drink a liquor called "oraka" (a Portuguese distortion of the Arabic word "araq"). That's the earliest mention of Shōchū!
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Cannabis was commonly consumed by Islamic mystics (Sufi) during medieval times. They used the drug to enhance their spiritual perception. Very similar to modern mystics using psychedelic drugs.
(I am still reading "Hashish" by Franz Rosenthal)
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The standard history of alcohol cannot explain how you have distilled liquors appear in Korea, Indonesia, Afghanistan etc BEFORE they appear in Scotland, the Nordic countries, Egypt, Turkey and the Balkans. Something is wrong…
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I believe I found the oldest mention of distilled liquor in the Levant, and it has a connection to the Mongols. Ibn 'Arabshah (died 1450 AD) mentions that Timur, the Turco/Mongol conqueror, drank "araq of wine" before dying.
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Yes, "cocaine wine" used to be popular in the early 20th century. In the US, they decided to remove the "wine" from the recipe ahead of Prohibition, and that gave us the ancestor of Coca-Cola.
The cocaine wine, Vin Mariani, is endorsed by the pope. Grant has throat cancer, so the cocaine wine serves a dual purpose, giving him energy to write, and numbing his stricken throat. His memoirs would become foundational to the American novel and have never been out of print.
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The prohibition of alcohol by Islamic states (Iran, Saudi etc) is a *modern* phenomenon. No Islamic dominion managed to ban alcohol in pre-modern times.
I am reading « Alcohol in the Muslim Worlds »
@pbourmaud
&
@ZnaienN
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Alcoholic Quiz: What "wine" is Safi Al Din Al-Hilli (died 1349) referring to in this poem?
"In the purse, not in the cup, I have a wine
Whose taste or smell makes me drunk
(Translated by Franz Rosenthal)
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I am very proud of my father (
@JosephElAsmar3
). Printed copies of his book have just arrived: "The Milk of Lions, a History of Alcohol in the Middle East". I enjoyed editing the book together with Gilgamesh Publishing (thank you
@Max0Scott
).
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Bizarrely, radical Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 AD) grasped this concept very well. He believed wine was forbidden by Islam; but he also believed it was wrong to interrupt a group of Mongols drinking wine, because wine was “keeping them away from bloodshed and plunder”
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There is also evidence that ancient Egyptians consumed antibiotics by drinking their beer...They had mastered the art of brewing AND antibiotics fermentation.
When bread is left until it rots, a fungus called Penicillium-Penicillium appears on the bread, this is a derived penicillin, the antibiotic used by Egiptians in the treatment of some types of bacteria.
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These beautiful frescos were (probably) commissioned by the Caliph Walid II, who had a reputation for loving wine and partying...
#frescofriday
from the eastern wall of the Apodyterium (changing room) at Qusayr Amra 730-740 CE, commissioned by the Walid II, Ummayad
#IslamicArt
#FridayFeeling
#Jordan
#Archaeology
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The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) took ownership of a farm in the Bekaa valley (now in Lebanon) in 1857. They started making wine and araq within an Islamic Empire (Ottoman). Here is a commercial directory from 1910 mentioning the liquor produced by these Jesuits. Cheers 🥂
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My “Map of Araq” shows how widespread distilled liquors (Araq/Araqi) were in Asia BEFORE 1450 AD. The Ottomans hadn’t conquered Constantinople yet, and Europeans hadn’t started properly exploring East Asia.
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A wine seller in 19th century Ottoman Empire…
Source: Pierre de Gigord collection of photographs of the Ottoman Empire
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Happy Easter to all of you celebrating 🎉! From humiliation and death, something extraordinary can emerge. Cheers 🥂
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The wine from Gaza (Palestine) used to be famous in Europe. Saint Isidore of Seville (died 636 AD) mentions in his writings the "Gazeum" wine from Palestine. The recent archaeological find of a huge winery north of Gaza makes sense...
@EdmondShami
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In Lebanon & Syria, the same word is used for "sweat" and a type of distilled alcoholic beverage: araq. I just published an article in Medium on what this word can tell us about the history of distilled alcohol in the Middle East:
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Many Islamic scholars believed that God had only forbidden a specific drink ("khamr"), while other intoxicating beverages were allowed as long as you didn't get drunk. This view is reflected in this report from a Companion of the Prophet (I corrected the mistranslation):
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My parents did some homemade limoncello, the traditional Italian liqueur. I look forward to drinking it this summer in Jezzine (South Lebanon) inshallah. Cheers 🥂
@JosephElAsmar3
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A dog can be a great “drinking buddy”, especially after you’ve been betrayed by your wife & your best friend. Ibn al-Marzubān (10th century AD) tells the story of Al-Harith who decided to have his dog as “drinking buddy”…
Image: Cambridge Digital Library
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1/ Christians in Lebanon and Syria celebrate "Drunken Thursday" today. It's the last Thursday before the start of lent. A day for celebration and drinking. Cheers 🥂
(It is called "Fat Thursday" in other countries)
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The harvesting of the grapes has started in my ancestral village of Jezzine, South Lebanon.
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I still find it amazing how opium was viewed as more benign than wine, until more modern times. Smoking + isolation of morphine from opium were game changers. Here Islamic scholar Al-Quhustani (died 1546 AD) considers opium permissible, unlike henbane or (of course) wine…
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I finally wrote a piece on the history of the Milk of Lions: araq, ouzo, and raki. Cheers 🥂
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The ancestor of our modern "barman" was the “cupbearer”. In ancient times, it was a position of trust to be cupbearer to a king, and poets would fantasize about taverns’ cupbearers (that aspect of the job has not changed). Arabic poetry is full of descriptions of cupbearers…
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I am thinking of writing short reviews on books I read on the history of alcohol. Hopefully you'll finding it useful.
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I am currently reading about Islamic Law and the punishment for drinking wine. Islamic jurists set the punishment for drinking wine at 80 lashes (only 40 for slaves). But the conditions required to apply the punishment were *very* stringent. Almost impossible to meet.
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It is fascinating to read how polarizing coffee was when this new beverage started to spread during the 16th century. There were several episodes of civil unrest: pro-coffee people fighting the anti-coffee faction!
(Hell, I would fight for my coffee...)
Nice find at the used bookstore! First published in 1985, a classic on the "great coffee controversy" of the 16th century Ottoman world.
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Among the first to produce "brandy" were probably the Uyghurs from Turfan (China). A 1358 Uyghur text mentions the distilled liquor "araki" (probably a brandy since Turfan had many vineyards).
Glad I found this research by
@MartonV
thanks to the very helpful
@ChakarChinggis
.
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@cute_history
Here, I wrote about it:
“Alcohol: the Story of an Arabic Eyeliner that got Drunk in Europe” by Marwan El-Asmar
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This is truly an impressive alcoholic encyclopedia: "The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails".
@DavidWondrich
: you are the Diderot of alcohol!
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What is the earliest reference to distilled liquor as a beverage (not a medicine)? In a Chinese cook book from 14th century: the Yinshan Zhengyao. The word used is “Arajhi”, an Arabic word that also gave the Lebanese araq and Turkish raki.
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I finally made it to Lebanon to drink the milk of lions ("araq") with Master Distiller
@JosephElAsmar3
(aka my father). Cheers 🥂 from our home distillery in Jezzine, South Lebanon.
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My father (
@JosephElAsmar3
) has started to distill his 2024 vintage araq, the aniseed-flavored distilled liquor 🥃. Here are the first drops of araq from our home-distillery in Jezzine (South Lebanon). Cheers 🥂
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We have completed this year's production of araq in our home distillery in Jezzine (South Lebanon). The araq is now in bottles, and needs to rest. The process of resting is important to let the araq settle down.
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This is my father's book in display at
@Antoine_Online
in Lebanon. If you are in Lebanon: buy, read and drink The Milk of Lions.
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Arabic has more than 70 words for "wine"...
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The Central Asian poet Fuzuli (died 1556 AD) wrote “Hashish and Wine”. The poem is a face-off between Cannabis and Wine. Distilled Liquor (“Araq”) and Beer (“Boza”) are two other protagonists. Goes to show the variety of intoxicants during his time...
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A Lebanese politician arguing that the price of alcoholic beverages should be lowered, so people get drunk and forget about their politicians. Makes sense... Cheers 🥂
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Our grapes have fermented into wine and are ready for for distillation. How do we know they're ready?
Look at this picture, and follow the Lebanese saying: "When you can see your face reflected in the barrel, it is time to light the fire [i.e. start the distillation]"
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We spent a lovely day at the Karam winery in Jezzine (South Lebanon). Captain Karam (a former pilot) gave us a tour of his winery and explained his craft. We got to taste his white, rosé, and red wines. Cheers 🥂
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Before modern “drugs”, people added natural substances to their alcohol to increase intoxication. Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari (died 1384) mentions the seeds of jimsonweed: If you add a little (one carat) to your wine it will make you very drunk, if you add a lot (a “mithqal”) it
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If you wanted to drink distilled alcohol in Europe 500 years ago, where would you go? You would go to the pharmacy ("apothecary"). Alcohol was viewed as a medicine, and taverns did not serve distilled liquors.
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Cannabis eating was widespread in the pre-modern Islamic world. It was cheap (much cheaper than wine 🍷), and Islamic scriptures are silent on edible intoxicants...
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Alcoholic news from our home-distillery in Jezzine (South Lebanon): our 2023 vintage of Araq has been produced! Today was the final stage of production when aniseed is added to the distilled wine. Cheers 🥂
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I am reading on the history of "alcoholism". I am realizing this phenomenon is relatively recent, and was probably triggered by the spread of alcohol distillation. None of the ancient medical texts mention the problem of alcoholism.
@PaulSkallas
probably knows more.
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Two keys points:
1) the Qur'an doesn't mention any punishment related to drinking alcoholic beverages
2) the Qur'an doesn't mention "alcohol". It mentions "wine" (an important distinction, which generated countless discussions among Muslim scholars).
@MilkLions
Interesting! Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, the Quran doesn't mention any punishment for drinking alcohol. It just says don't pray while drunk, then prohibited permanently without mentioning any specific punishment.
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My latest alcoholic finding: this is probably the earliest mention of a distilled liquor made from the leftover of wine-making. That would be similar to the modern-day Italian grappa liquor . The source is an Islamic treatise by Ibrahim al-Halabi (died 1549).
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I almost forgot that today is "World Arak Day". Cheers 🥂 to all fellow araq drinkers.
(Thank you
@TerraSanctaCo
for coming up with this feast day)
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How do you know that the araq you drunk the night before was excellent? You feel good the next morning.
(PS: there is only one way to obtain this bottle of araq. You have to make it to Jezzine in South Lebanon and befriend
@JosephElAsmar3
, aka Dad. He does not sell his araq)
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Should Hashish/Cannabis be condemned like wine?
Qadi Huseyn (died 1069) opined that « divine punishment » was required for wine, but not for intoxicants such as henbane, jimsonweed, or opium. This opinion implied Hashish should not be condemned like wine.
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This book argues that the secret art of alcohol distillation was transmitted to medieval Western Europe through a sect of heretic Christians, the "Cathars". Now, I found out from
@TheRestHistory
that the Cathars probably never existed! They were "made up" by the Church looking
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I finally met in-person
@Max0Scott
who was crazy enough to publish my father's book on the history of alcohol, "The Milk of Lions". Cheers 🥂
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A 2,600-year-old wine 'factory' has been unearthed in Lebanon. The Lebanese: Spreading wine (and the alphabet) for 4,000+ years...
(Thank you to fellow drinker
@bashshar
For the pointer)
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The role of wine and opium in pre-modern Iran is fascinating: The elite/court often consumed wine at feasts. For mystics wine + opium was a way to attain a truth beyond the tangible world. Wine was mostly consumed by the rich, while opium was cheaper and more widely consumed.
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Do you want to drink wine without getting drunk? You can try this ancient trick: drink from a glass made of amethyst. For a very long time, people believed the amethyst stone had an “anti-drunkenness” property…
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This is what I call "white magic"! When you mix an aniseed-flavored distilled liquor with water, the mixture turns white.
Parents usually prepared it “drop first”. The outcome was an uniform white drink, as in this video:
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Here is an alcoholic thread on a shady character from the Islamic tradition: Iblis. He is often wrongly associated with the Christian devil, but he is a more complex character
Image: BNF, Département des Manuscrits. Supplément turc 242
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Explorer Pedro Teixeira (died 1641) mentions a Persian distilled liquor called "Arequy". He notes that the name of the beverage comes from the word "sweat" in Persian. Quizz: why would Persians use "sweat" for a distilled liquor? (Teixeira provides a wrong explanation btw)
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Homemade "Limoncello", the traditional Italian liquor, made in Jezzine (South Lebanon) by Master Distiller
@JosephElAsmar3
. Cheers 🥂
(Note: like most Italian traditions, Limoncello is not that old...)
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