On the Origin of Fun in Distilled Liquors (or the Story of Araq)
My father waited for his children to reach adulthood before he could finally focus on his alcoholic passion: araq, a distilled liquor flavored with aniseed. Araq is widely consumed in Lebanon and interwoven with the country’s conviviality: it is the accompaniment par excellence at banquets and joyous gatherings. My father wanted to build a distillery in accordance with the ancestral way of producing the “milk of lions” (one of the drink’s monikers). Unbeknown to him at the time, tracing back araq’s ancestry holds the key to a question that has confused many historians: What is the origin of drinking distilled liquors for fun?
Convivial gatherings to enjoy the consumption of alcoholic beverages are an enduring human activity stretching back for thousands of years. But while wine or beer have been providing us with their exquisite intoxications for millennia, distilled liquors such as whiskey, tequila or araq, were late guests to our parties and have histories measured in centuries rather than millennia.
The technology of distillation enabled humans to produce beverages with much higher alcohol content than fermented drinks. Yet, for most of its history, the human species has failed at the art of alcohol distillation. This failure is due in large part to the physical properties of the capricious substance we call alcohol[1]. Most historians trace back the early beginnings of alcohol distillation to 13th century Europe, and by the 14th century, doctors and alchemists were able to produce distilled wine with high alcohol content[2]. This alcoholic success was due in large part to the invention of a water cooling mechanism, as well as advances in glass technology that enabled the manufacture of more robust equipment[3].
But then something strange happened in Europe: distilled alcohol became a medicinal rather than a social drink. For at least another two hundred years, there is no clear evidence across Europe of distilled liquors being consumed at banquets or feasts. Distilled alcohol, or “water of life” as it was then called in Europe, was drank in small doses, produced by apothecaries and prescribed by doctors. For two centuries, people in Europe drank distilled alcohol for good health, rather than good fun[4]. Unfortunately, the technological advances of alcohol distillation in Europe led many to conclude that the genesis of distilled liquors as social drinks also occurred in the Old Continent. The reality is more exotic, and the origin of fun in distilled liquors lies further East.
During the 14th century, across Asia, a mysterious new drink makes an appearance. The beverage is given the name of “araq” or “araqi”, meaning “sweat” or “sweated”, a probable reference to the process of distillation generating droplets akin perspiration. In Central Asia, China, Korea, and even the remote island of Java, people started to enjoy the delightful intoxication of araq as a social drink. Timur, the great Central Asian conqueror, served araq at his banquets (He is also said to have drank araq shortly before dying). The Chinese poet Zhu Derun wrote about araq in his “Poem About Arajhi Liquor”, probably the first poem ever dedicated to distilled liquors. And, the royal court of Java served araq made of sugar palm at its banquets[5]. Distilled alcohol found its true vocation as a social drink in Asia, while Europe would have to wait two more centuries.
Araq was also more democratic than the European “water of life”. Alcohol distillation in Europe was an elitist activity few people could afford. It required expensive equipment made of glass and sometimes metal. It involved a complicated cooling mechanism with a serpentine tube going through a water tank. By contrast, distilling araq was a more accessible endeavor. It did not require glass or metal equipment. Clay and wood sufficed. The cooling mechanism was simple and did not involve an undulating tube. Instead, a simple water bowl was placed on top of the distillation equipment[6].
My father did end up building his home distillery, and even wrote a book on araq and the history of alcohol in the Middle East[7]. And when our family and friends are gathered around a meal in my ancestral village of Jezzine, enjoying each other’s company and drinking the araq of my father, we are partaking in a sacred and alcoholic ritual that started somewhere in Asia more than 700 years ago: drinking distilled liquors for fun.
[1] Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, which makes the process of distillation very difficult, especially in medieval times when regulating the temperature would have been very difficult to achieve. See for example R. J. Forbes, A Short History of the Art of Distillation (1948, page 83).
[2] The earliest mention of alcohol distillation is in the 12th century manuscript Mappa Clavicula. For a translation, see page 59 in Smith, Cyril Stanley, and John G. Hawthorne. “Mappae Clavicula: A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 64, no. 4 (1974): 1–128.
[3] See Chapter 6 of Seth C. Rasmussen, The Quest for Aqua Vitae (2014).
[4] One striking illustration of this development can be found in Thomas Cogan, The Haven of Health (1636). The author discusses seven types of drinks commonly drank in England: “Water”, “Wine”, “Ale and Beere”, “Cyder”, “Whey” and “Metheglin”. He does not include the “water of life” (“aqua vitae”) in this list, but rather considers it to be in a different category of drinks that are “rather used as medicines than with meates”. The great historian Fernand Braudel wrote “Mais l’eau-de-vie n’a échappé aux médecins et aux apothicaires qu’a très petits pas”. See Fernand Braudel, Civilisation Matérielle et Capitalisme, Tome 1ier (1967, page 182).
[5] All of these examples occurred sometime between the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century. For araq served at one of Timur’s banquets see Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. Sciences politiques, histoire et philologie, Volume 3 (Persian passage is on page 235, and French translation on page 413). For the passage on Timur drinking araq shortly before dying see Archiv Orientální 6, 1934 (pages 451–452). For a reference to Zhu Derun’s poem, see Hyunhee Park, Soju A Global History (2021, page 51). For the passage on araq in Java see Theodoor G. T. Pigeaud, Java in the 14th century : a study in cultural history : the Nāgara-Kĕrtāgama by Rakawi Prapañca of Majapahit, 1365 A. D. (Canto 90, stanza 3, verse 2).
[6] There are few literary sources describing in detail the traditional apparatus for distilling araq. For archeological findings, see Luo Feng, Liquor Still and Milk-wine Distilling Technology in the Mongol-Yuan Period (2012). The “Moor’s Head” is a type of distillation equipment with a water cooling apparatus sitting on top. The “Moor’s Head” appeared very late in Europe, towards the end of the 15th century. In all probability, this type of technology came from the East, and from the method of distilling araq. See R.J. Forbes, Short History of the Art of Distillation (1948, page 83), and Lu Gwei-Djen, Joseph Needham & Dorothy Needham, The Coming of Ardent Water (1972, pages 77–78).
[7] Joseph El-Asmar, The Milk of Lions: A History of Alcohol in the Middle East.
