Perfumes have been known as utilizable but exclusive products sinceantiquity. Use of aromatic substances was first mentioned in archaic sourcesof the ancient world. The origin of such fragrant substances was mainlyvegetable and animal. Throughout history, the use of subtle perfumesincreased and some of the exotic materials became expensive and valuablecommodities. They were the source of wealth for cultures and rulers. Thecontribution of the Arabs to the distribution of new crops, knowledge,industrial techniques and substances is a well-known phenomenon. In ourarticle we intend to focus on the new perfumes that were distributedthroughout the world thanks to the Arab conquests and the knowledge of theirother uses, mainly medicinal, that was handed down along with the productsthemselves. About 20 common perfumes are known to have been used in themedieval world, though half of them were not mentioned in earliersources.

These phenomena will be dealt with and presented in a profile we built upfor four perfumes: agarwood, camphor, musk and ambergris. The theoreticaland practical uses of these perfumes that are presented in detail (based onvarious sources including traders’ documents, medical literature andpractical Genizah fragments, dealing mainly with medicine) will serve ascase studies for the understanding of new trends in the uses of perfumesafter the Muslim conquest. Arab perfumes can be divided into three groups,according to their level of importance:

A. New perfumes, mainly from the vast region named “India”;most of which (such as camphor, ambergris and sandalwood and a compound madeout of them known as nadd and ghāliya)were not known in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region until theMuslim conquests.

B. Perfumes that kept their popularity including: a variety ofcinnamon, costus, spikenard, frankincense, saffron and rose.

C. Perfumes that lost their worth like balsam and myrrh.

It seems that camphor was the best and most cherished perfume thatsubstituted balsam. Like balsam, the importance of myrrh that was importedfrom Arabia and East Africa also declined and it seems that its substitutewas musk. Transformations in perfume fashion were in fact only part of awider revolution of the Arabic material culture which the Middle East, theMediterranean region and even many European countries experienced due to theArab conquests.