Saffron (zafran) ( qesar)

Main article: History of saffron   

A detail of the "Saffron Gatherers" fresco from the "Xeste 3" building. The fresco is one of many dealing with saffron that were found at the Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri, Santorini.

The history of saffron cultivation reaches back more than 3,000 years. The wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus was Crocus cartwrightianus. Human cultivators bred wild specimens by selecting for unusually long stigmas. Thus, a sterile mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, C. sativus, emerged in late Bronze Age Crete.

Asia

The 17.8 metres (58 ft) monolith of Gomateshwara, dating to 978–993 AD, is anointed with saffron every 12 years by thousands of devotees as part of the Mahamastakabhisheka festival.

Experts[who?] believe saffron was first documented in a 7th century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal. However, as כרכם karkom occurring in the Song of Songs ( it would predate this by several centuries to Solomon's time of the 10th century BCE. Moreover, it was the orally transmitted ingredient of the Ketoret which is used when referring to the consecrated incense described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud. It is also referred to as the HaKetoret (the incense). It was offered on the specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle was located in the First and Second Jerusalem Temples. The ketoret was an important component of the Tabernacle service after the Exodus from Egypt (1312 BCE), and through the periods of Temple service in Jerusalem. A mountain in the Negev is named after the spice as Har Karkom.

Documentation of saffron's use over the span of 4,000 years in the treatment of some 90 illnesses has been uncovered.

Saffron-based pigments have been found in 50,000 year-old depictions of prehistoric places in northwest Iran. Later, the Sumerians used wild-growing saffron in their remedies and magical potions. Saffron was an article of long-distance trade before the Minoan palace culture's 2nd millennium BC peak. Ancient Persians cultivated Persian saffron (Crocus sativus 'Hausknechtii') in Derbena, Isfahan, and Khorasan by the 10th century BC. At such sites, saffron threads were woven into textiles, ritually offered to divinities, and used in dyes, perfumes, medicines, and body washes. Thus, saffron threads would be scattered across beds and mixed into hot teas as a curative for bouts of melancholy. Non-Persians also feared the Persians' usage of saffron as a drugging agent and aphrodisiac. During his Asian campaigns, Alexander the Great used Persian saffron in his infusions, rice, and baths as a curative for battle wounds. Alexander's troops imitated the practice from the Persians and brought saffron-bathing to Greece.










Conflicting theories explain saffron's arrival in South Asia. Kashmiri and Chinese accounts date its arrival anywhere between 900–2500 years ago. Historians studying ancient Persian records date the arrival to sometime prior to 500 BC, attributing it to either Persian transplantation of saffron corms to stock new gardens and parks or to a Persian invasion and colonization of Kashmir. Phoenicians then marketed Kashmiri saffron as a dye and a treatment for melancholy. From there, saffron use in foods and dyes spread throughout South Asia. Buddhist monks in India adopted saffron-coloured robes after the Gautama Buddha's death. However, the robes were not dyed with costly saffron but turmeric, a less expensive dye, or jackfruit. The Tamils have been using saffron for more than 2000 years. In Tamil it is called "gnaazhal poo" It is used to cure head ache, for painless labor etc.

Some historians believe that saffron came to China with Mongol invaders from Persia. On the other hand, saffron is mentioned in ancient Chinese medical texts, including the forty-volume Shennong Bencaojing (神農本草經—"Shennong's Great Herbal", also known as Pen Ts'ao or Pun Tsao) pharmacopoeia, a tome dating from 200–300 BC. Traditionally attributed to the legendary Yan ("Fire") Emperor Shennong, it documents 252 phytochemical-based medical treatments for various disorders. Yet around the 3rd century AD, the Chinese were referring to saffron as having a Kashmiri provenance. For example, Wan Zhen, a Chinese medical expert, reported that "[t]he habitat of saffron is in Kashmir, where people grow it principally to offer it to the Buddha." Wan also reflected on how saffron was used in his time: "The [saffron crocus] flower withers after a few days, and then the saffron is obtained. It is valued for its uniform yellow colour. It can be used to aromatise wine."





Europe/Mediterranean

Minoans portrayed saffron in their palace frescoes by 1500–1600 BC, showing saffron's use as a therapeutic drug. Later, Greek legends told of sea voyages to Cilicia. There, adventurers hoped to procure what they believed was the world's most valuable saffron. Another legend tells of Crocus and Smilax, whereby Crocus is bewitched and transformed into the original saffron crocus. Ancient Mediterranean peoples—including perfumers in Egypt, physicians in Gaza, townspeople in Rhodes, and the Greek hetaerae courtesans—used saffron in their scented waters, perfumes, ointments, potpourris, mascaras, divine offerings, and medical treatments.

This ancient Minoan fresco from Knossos, Crete shows a man (stooped blue figure) gathering the saffron harvest.

In late Hellenistic Egypt, Cleopatra used saffron in her baths so that lovemaking would be more pleasurable. Egyptian healers used saffron as a treatment for all varieties of gastrointestinal ailments. Saffron was also used as a fabric dye in such Levant cities as Sidon and Tyre. Aulus Cornelius Celsus prescribes saffron in medicines for wounds, cough, colic, and scabies, and in the mithridatium. Such was the Romans' love of saffron that Roman colonists took their saffron with them when they settled in southern Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until Rome's fall. Competing theories state that saffron only returned to France with 8th century AD Moors or with the Avignon papacy in the 14th century AD.

Medieval European illuminated manuscripts, such as this 13th century depiction of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket's assassination, often used saffron dyes to provide hues of yellow and orange.

European saffron cultivation plummeted following the Roman Empire's fall. The spread of Islamic civilization allowed saffron's reintroduction to Spain, France, and Italy. During the 14th century Black Death, demand for saffron-based medicine skyrocketed, and much saffron had to be imported via Venetian and Genoan ships from southern and Mediterranean lands such as Rhodes. The theft of one such shipment by noblemen sparked the fourteen-week long "Saffron War". The conflict and resulting fear of rampant saffron piracy spurred significant saffron cultivation in Basel, which grew prosperous. Cultivation and trade then spread to Nuremberg, where epidemic levels of saffron adulteration brought on the Safranschou code, under which saffron adulterators were fined, imprisoned, and executed. Soon after, saffron cultivation spread throughout England, especially Norfolk and Suffolk. The Essex town of Saffron Walden, named for its new specialty crop, emerged as England's prime saffron growing and trading center. However, an influx of more exotic spices such as chocolate, coffee, tea, and vanilla from newly contacted Eastern and overseas countries caused European cultivation and usage of saffron to decline. Only in southern France, Italy, and Spain, did significant cultivation endure.

Europeans introduced saffron to the Americas when immigrant members of the Schwenkfelder Church left Europe with a trunk containing saffron corms; indeed, many Schwenkfelders had widely grown saffron in Europe. By 1730, the Pennsylvania Dutch were cultivating saffron throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Spanish colonies in the Caribbean bought large amounts of this new American saffron, and high demand ensured that saffron's list price on the Philadelphia commodities exchange was set equal to that of gold. The trade with the Caribbean later collapsed in the aftermath of the War of 1812, when many saffron-transporting merchant vessels were destroyed. Yet the Pennsylvania Dutch continued to grow lesser amounts of saffron for local trade and use in their cakes, noodles, and chicken or trout dishes. American saffron cultivation survived into modern times mainly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.



Saffron Benefits

The health benefits of saffron are not necessarily the first thing fans of the exotic spice think of. The spice is very difficult to harvest, making it an expensive ingredient. It takes more than 4,500 flowers to yield a single ounce of the spice. The expense and painstaking efforts may be well worth the effort considering the possible health benefits the spice offers.

Saffron is full of surprises, including its medicinal purposes. Health problems that have been treated with the spice include:

• Digestive problems
• Asthma
• Insomnia
• Menstrual problems
• Common colds