The Orientals made great use of this water in various ways in their houses, and in the purification of their temples when they thought they had been profaned by any other worship than that of Mahomet. There are many anecdotes told by historians of the use of rose-water by the Sultans on various occasions; and several of these, as Chateaubriand remarks, are stories worthy of the East. It is related of Saladin, that when he took Jerusalem from the Crusaders, in 1187, he would not enter the Mosque of Omar, which had been converted into a church by the Christians, until the walls and courts had been thoroughly washed and purified with rose-water brought from Damascus. Five hundred camels, it is stated, were scarcely sufficient to convey all the rose-water used for this purpose. An Arabian writer tells us that the princes of the family of Saladin, hastening to Jerusalem to worship Aliah, Malek-Abdul, and his nephew, Taki-Eddin, distinguished themselves above all others. The latter repaired with all his followers to the “Chapel of the Holy Cross,” and taking a broom himself, he swept all the dirt from the floor, washed the walls and the ceiling several times with pure water, and then washed them with rose-water; having thus cleansed and purified the place, he distributed large alms to the poor.
Bibars, the fourth Sultan of the Mameluke dynasty, who reigned from 1260 to 1277, caused the Caaba of the temple of Mecca to be washed with rose-water.
Mahomet II., after the capture of Constantinople, in 1453, would not enter the Mosque of St. Sophia, which had been formerly used as a church, until he had caused it to be washed with rose-water.
It is stated by a French historian that the greatest display of gorgeous magnificence at that period was made in 1611, by the Sultan Ahmed I., at the dedication of the new Caaba, which had been built or repaired at his expense; amber and aloes were burnt in profusion, and, in the extravagance of Eastern language, oceans of rose-water were set afloat, for washing the courts and interior surface of the walls. Rose-water is by no means so generally used now as for a few hundred years subsequent to its invention. In France, during the reign of Philip Augustus, it was a necessary article at court. It was formerly the custom to carry large vases filled with rose-water to baptisms. Illustrating this custom, Bayle relates a story of Rousard, the French poet: “It nearly happened that the day of his birth was also that of his death; for when he was carried from the Chateau de La Poissoniére to the church of the place to be baptized, the nurse who carried him carelessly let him fall; his fall, however, was upon the grass and flowers, which received him softly; it so happened, that a young lady, who carried a vase filled with rose-water and a collection of flowers, in her haste to aid in helping the child, overturned on his head a large part of the rose-water. This incident was considered a presage of the good odor with which France would one day be filled by the flowers of his learned writings.”
At one time rose-water was largely consumed in the preparation of food and the seasoning of various dishes. In the “Private Life of the French,” it is mentioned that in the fourteenth century, the Comte d’Etampes gave a feast in which a large part of the dishes and even the chestnuts were prepared with rose-water. It is still used to flavor various dishes, but its principal use is in affections of the eyelids, or as a perfume for the toilet. The principal consumption of rose-water is, however, in the East, where the inhabitants are very fond of perfumes. In Persia a very large quantity is made annually for domestic use. They deem it an excellent beverage mixed with pure water.
The Corinth Grape, mixed with rose-water, and a slight infusion of spices, is the nectar so much in vogue among the Greeks of Morea. The Persians, according to Lebruyn, sprinkle with rose-water those who visit them. They also make it an important article of commerce; large quantities are sent to different parts of the East, and entire cargoes are sometimes shipped to India.
In Egypt, the nobles and wealthy inhabitants consume large quantities of rose-water; they scatter it over their divans and other places where they spend their time; they also offer it with confectionery to their visitors.
The custom of offering rose-water to a guest is alluded to by Shakespeare, who makes one of his characters in Padua say:
“What is it your honor will command?
Let one attend him with a silver bason
Full of rose-water, and bestrewed with flowers.”
Almost all the rose-water used in Egypt is distilled in the province of Fayoum, from the pale rose. “About the middle of February, in Fayoum,” says a French writer, “they pluck the roses every morning before sunrise, while the dew is yet upon them; they then place them immediately in the alembic, not allowing them to become dry or heated by remaining too long a time without distillation. This lucrative branch of manufacture has not escaped the monopoly of Mehemet Ali. No private individual can now distil roses in Egypt, and those who cultivate them are obliged to sell the petals to government at a low price. The value of all the rose-water distilled in Fayoum, annually, is estimated at 50,000 or 60,000 francs.” Of the profusion with which rose-water is used in India, some idea may be formed from the narrative of Bishop Heber, who was shown, in the ruins of the palace of Ghazepoor, a deep trench round an octagonal platform of blue, red, and white mosaic pavement. This trench, he was told, was filled with rose-water when the Nawâb and his friends were feasting in the middle. “The ancient oil of roses,” according to Loudon, “is obtained by bruising fresh rose-petals, mixing them with four times their weight of olive oil, and leaving them in a sand-heat for two days. If the red Rose of Provence is used, the oil is said to imbibe no odor; but if the petals of pale roses are employed, it becomes perfumed. This preparation was celebrated among the ancients. Pliny says that, according to Homer, roses were macerated for their oil in the time of the Trojans. The oil is chiefly used for the hair, and is generally sold in perfumers’ shops, both in France and England, under the name of L’huile antique de Rose.”