Araq: an Alcoholic Word Hunt Along a Middle Eastern Trail
In Lebanon and Syria, people will use the same word to designate “sweat” and an aniseed-flavored distilled drink: “arak” or “araq”, as it is sometimes transcribed in the Latin alphabet[1]. Similar words are used across the planet to describe liquors. Sri Lankans, for example, enjoy the inebriation of their coconut-based “arrack”. The use of the same word for sweat and distilled drinks is most probably due to the perceived similarity between the process of distillation and perspiration. The droplets that are formed as the distilled liquid’s vapor condensates do resemble sweat.
The word for “araq” in the Arabic (or Persian) scripts can have many meanings including sweat, root, vein or race; rendering any quest of its alcoholic origins all the more challenging. And the word “araqi” can designate distillates, whether alcoholic or not. Despite these linguistic obstacles, an obstinate word hunt for “araq” through ancient books sheds a light on the early beginnings of distilled drinks in the Middle East, and their ensuing diffusion across the rest of the world.
One of the earliest traces of the word is found in a Chinese dietary book dated 1330[2]:
“Arajhi Liquor [Brandy] is sweetish in flavor and piquant. It is very heating and has great poison. It is good for dispersing chill hard accumulation. It removes cold ch’i. Good wine is distilled to procure a dew. This is the Arajhi.”[3]
On the one hand, this Chinese dietary book from the early 14th century is using an Arabic word to describe distilled wine. On the other hand, there are no examples of the word “araq” being used in the Near East to describe an alcoholic drink during the 14th or 15th century. Neither the natives nor the foreign travelers of this period have described the consumption of hard alcohol in the Levant[4]. A Central Asian region, somewhere between the Far East and the Near East, therefore appears to be the most likely birthplace of the inebriating araq.
And there are indeed several examples of the word araq being used in Central Asian literature of the early 15th century to describe the alcoholic drink. Sharaf ad-DīnʿAlī Yazdī was a historian who wrote a biography of Timur, the great Central Asian conqueror [5]. In this historical account, we read that in 1391 after he vanquished the ungrateful Tokhtamysh, the great Timur held a splendid banquet where wine and araq were served[6]. After his death, one of Timur’s sons, Shah Rukh sent a large embassy to China in 1419–1422. Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh, who was part of the contingent, wrote an account of the mission and in one passage states “At every post-house the travellers were presented with sheep, geese, fowls, rice, flour, honey, dardsun, araq, garlic, pickled onions and vegetables.”[7]
While the drinking of distilled drinks was confined to parts of Asia until the 15th century, the “araq brand” appears to have gone global at an astounding pace in subsequent years. The great explorer Magellan and his crew reached the Philippine islands in 1521. Antonio Pigafetta who was part of the expedition mentions a very strong rice wine that the locals call “arach”[8]. On the other side of the globe, Fray Diego de Haedo, who was held captive in Alger between 1578 and 1581 mentions in one of his works a distilled alcohol called “arrequin”[9].
Obviously, drinkers of the Levantine araq who know the pleasure this drink procures to the palate and the mood, may not be all that surprised about the speed at which the drink, and the word, spread across continents and literary works.
Notes:
[1] The Arabic word “عرق” starts with the guttural sound ayn that does not exist in Romance language, and is sometimes transcribed as a raised semi-circle open to the right 〈ʿ〉as in ʿaraq.
[2] In his book, Studies in Al-Kimya’: Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry, Ahmad Y. Al-Hassan claims to have found earlier uses of the word (page 286). The first one is in Ḥikāyat Abī al-Qāsim al-Baghdādī (10th or 11th century). The expression “araq of wine” quoted by Mr. Al-Hassan refers to the actual perspiration of the protagonist who is drinking so much wine that his sweat is made of it: “ويشرب أقداحا إلى أن لا يبقى في بدنه عرق ينبض إلا عرق النبيذ ”. The second one is in Al-Nuwayrī’s Nihayat al-arab fī funūn al-adab (Volume 8, page 261), which was written in the beginning of the 14th century. The expression used by Al-Nuwayri, “العرق وعشر” may be enigmatic, but is highly unlikely to mean “10% taxes on araq” as claimed by Mr. Al-Hassan. The modern edition of Al-Nuwayrī’s work has a footnote stating that “araq” means “date molasses” in this passage.
[3] Paul D. Buell, Eugene N. Anderson, A soup for the Qan : Chinese dietary medicine of the Mongol era as seen in Hu Szu-Hui’s Yin-shan cheng-yao : introduction, translation, commentary and Chinese text (page 499)
[4] The claim that the Near East region was not acquainted with araq around the 14th century and 15th century could be refuted if we could find but one historical document mentioning the usage of the drink around that time. I have not been able to find such document to date. In one of his works, Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442) discusses the different types of beverages Egyptians drink. He mentions beer made from wheat ( “المرز المعمول من الحنطة “), shamsi (“الشمسي”) a type of wine fermented in the sun and mixed with honey, grape wine (“الخمر”) as well as date and cooked wine (“والتمري المطبوخ النبيذ”). There is no mention of araq or any distilled drink. In the same passage Al-Maqrizi states that Egyptians tend to prefer shamsi because it does not deteriorate as quickly as the other drinks. Distilled alcoholic drinks tend to have longer shelve lives than fermented ones, and it would therefore be even more surprising for Al-Maqrizi to omit “araq” from this passage unless it was indeed unknown to Egyptians at the time. See Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Maqrīzī “Kitb al-mawi wa-al-itibr bi-dhikr al-khia wa-al-thr : yakhtau dhlika bi-akhbr iqlm Mir wa-al-Nl wa-dhikr al-Qhirah wa-m yataallaqu bi-h wa-bi-iqlmih” (1853 edition, page 44).
[5] This work is referred to as the Zafarnama (“Book of Victory”).
[6] See Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. Sciences politiques, histoire et philologie, Volume 3. The passage in Persian is on page 235 (“قمز بود وبال ونبيد وعرق”), while the French translation is on page 413. The banquet is supposed to have happened in the year 1391 (793 AH). Sharaf ad-DīnʿAlī Yazdī wrote his Zafarnama several years later (probably in 1404) and we can only speculate on whether araq was actually served at Timur’s feast. The passage does however ascertain that at the time of his writing, the historian was acquainted with the distilled drink.
[7] See Sir Henry Yule, Cathay and the way thither : being a collection of medieval notices of China.
[8] “lo chiamano arach”. See Magellan’s voyage around the world (1906).
[9] See Diego de Haedo, Topographia, e historia general de Argel, repartida en cinco tratados, do se veran casos estranos, muertes espantosas, y tormentos exquisitos. The original texts states “y en vino y arrequin, que es agua ardiente” (“agua ardiente” or “ardent water” was the term used in Europe to described distilled alcohol).
