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Ibn Masawaih (Treatise on Simple Aromatic Substances)
(a Christian doctor working in Baghdad) (d857)
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Taken from: MARTIN LEVEY Ibn Masawaih and His Treatise on Simple Aromatic Substances: Studies in the History of Arabic Pharmacology I
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1961 XVI(4):394-410
jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/XVI/4/394.pdf
Iranica.com
Also called Masuya, Masawaiyh or Mesue Maior/ Abu Zakariya Yuhanna ibn Masawaih
Ambergris
There are various kinds of which some are superior. However, they are known from experience by their provenance. The best of the types of ambergris is the salahati. It is superior. The best of the salahati kind is the blue type, very oily, fatty, used in perfumery. Then, there is the qaquli (From Qaquala, west coast of Sumatra) which has a good odor and is a little dry. It is inferior to the first and is not good for perfumery except in case of necessity. It is for refreshing the air. Then there is the mand; (Persian A species of jet or black ambergris) it is the most inferior and is found in many varieties. Of the mand, that from Shahr (Arabian coast from Oman to Aden) is the best. One knows it by its color which is black with yellow in it. It dyes the hand if it is touched by it. Its odor is like that of dry ambergris; it does not, however, remain in water. It is best as an unguent. It does not yield the result obtained from the dry. It is used in perfumery when the salahati is hard to find. Of the mand, that from Zanj is like the Shahr type. It is inferior to it in odor, black with no yellow in it. Of the mand, there is the purple-red. It dyes the hand. It is not used with aromatic salve except rarely. This is good to make the dye disappear from the hand. Then, there is the samaki type; it is ambergris which the fish and the birds eat at sea. Then it kills those who ate it and the waves cast it ashore. It becomes spoiled and the ambergris remains a liquid similar to pitch. It is bad in aromatics and in odor. With it one falsifies the best [ambergris] The salahati and qaquli types both come from the region of Sofala, India. The mand, Shahr type, comes from the Yemen coast, bounded by Oman to the coast of Hadramut. Then it stops a distance of some days journey this side of Aden. The Zanj [black] and red-purple types both come from the land of Zanj. One says this also of the Shahr variety; however, the Zanj is named for its black color. It is said that ambergris is a plant on the floor of the sea. Also it is said that it is dung of an animal that is in the sea. Further it is said that it is the excrescence of the sea. Ambergris remedies the humours of the aged; it is put into electuarie. prescribed for them.
Clove
One kind. Its best is arid dry with a sweet, good odor. It is the fruit of a tree which comes from Sofala. It is introduced into liquid aromatics for women and into the cooking of nutmeg. It is hot, gentle, good for the ...
(most probably the Sofala mentioned here is in India)
Cardamon
Qaqola comes after harna/owa [the fruit of agalloch, Aloexylum agallochum Lour.] as to fragrance, which is like that of camphor. It enters into [the composition of] women's perfumes. It is brought from belad Sofala (the land of Sofala). It [consists in] a grain [sic, haabb, probably meaning 'seed pod'] like large chickpeas, sheathed [i.e., in a capsule], which, when crushed, produces small grains (like wheat grains) . . . Hal-bawwa is like the granules [i.e., seeds] of a crushed qaqola. It [also] is used in women's perfumes. It [also] is brought from the land of Sofala� (Sofala in these two cases may be taken to refer to the former Sofala district on the coast of southeast Africa, because the author specifies in the case of some other aromatics that they came from Sofalat al-Hend �Sofala in India�).