On a trip to Doha, Qatar organized by the Qatar America Institute for Culture, a group of delegates visit the Qur’anic Botanic Garden. In this post, Saskia Wilson-Brown shares some of her favorite plants, and smells, from the tour.
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March, 2023 – Doha
Stepping out of the airport after hours spent in the anaesthetised confines of a tight and itchy airplane seat, the first olfactory impression of Doha, Qatar is gloriously warm and unmistakably humid. It’s the familiar smell of moist, warm ocean air. I don’t quite know what I was expecting, but considering the sandy topography of the region, it was definitely not moist, warm ocean air. So, I check my geography and, lo and behold, I learn some fun facts. While the majority of Qatar’s total 4,483 square miles (11,610 square kilometers) is flat, gravelly desert, it is surrounded on almost all sides by water. It’s also hot! While I arrived to the city in the warm and mellow month of March when temperatures hovered around 85 degrees Fahrenheit, in the months between May and August those temperatures can spike to an average of 108. Ouch.
But for me and my group of fellow delegates, Qatar was eminently pleasant. It was a perfect time and a perfect temperature, and on our first full day in the city we went for a special outing organized by Qatar America Institute for Culture that would have been impossible in the summer months: a visit to the Qur’anic Botanic Garden.
The Qur’anic Botanic Garden (hereafter refered to as QBG) contains more than 60 species of plants that are cited in the Holy Qur’an and Hadiths. There are delightful plants familiar to anyone who has been to the warmer regions of our planet – date palms, pomegranates, banana palms, and jasmine. And then, there were some plants that are a little less well known, that are more historic or regional in nature. Most of the plants on display at the QBG are within sight of the modern minarets of the Education City Mosque, lending an unexpected sci-fi futuristic backdrop for the historic, spiritual and culturally significant plants on display. The QBC also hosts a seed bank, educational programs, and (to my delight) some vocal and sleek stray kitties that slunk about quietly making use of the many sources of water and plentiful shade.
Led by a gregarious Egyptian engineer-turned-botanist named Mohammed, our motley crew spent a few hours meandering the garden, digging up roots, crushing leaves, in some cases sampling fruits (desert apples, for instance, from the iconic, Qatari Sidra tree).
While we toured the Qur’anic Botanic Gardens for several hours, and took notes on more than 15 plants, I selected a few that resonated for me, in particular, to share.
Incidentally, you can follow QBC on Instagram right here.
Image: Mohammed shows the Balm of Gilead tree under the minarets of the Education City Mosque.
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Sweet Flag / Calamus
Arabic: Al-Dharira الذَّريرَة
Scientific: Acorus calamus L.
Is it a worm? A larvae? No! It’s a section of root from Sweet Flag, or Calamus. The long grassy stems of Sweet Flag grow among rivers and lake-sides, where their bright green spikes must make a nice visual juxtaposition with the running water. The roots and in some cases the leaves of the plant are dried and powdered to create a traditional perfume material which has a sharp green and even citrusy aspect.
As for its cultural significance, the plant appears by name as a perfume material in a Hadith narrated by Aisha: “During the last Pilgrimage Hallat-al-Wada, I perfumed Allah’s Apostle with Dharira with my own hands, both on his assuming Ihram and after finishing it.”
Off topic fun fact: Calamus also comes up in the Bible as one of the materials for a holy anointing oil: Then the Lord said to Moses “Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant calamus, 500 shekels of cassia—all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a hin of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.” (Exodus 22-25)
Image: A root section of the Sweet Flag plant.
Costus
Arabic: Al-Qust / القُسْط
Scientific: Cheilocostus speciosus
While we didn’t visit our friend the Costus plant at its most photogenic moment, we were stil thrilled to meet this important historic plant. The roots of the Costus (also known as Crepe ginger because it’s related to ginger) are dried and powdered to create a richly aromatic, slightly fatty, musty, and vaguely funky vegetal scent. While it is not mentioned in the Qur’an, it does come up in the Hadiths, specifically in the Sahih Al Bukhari, book of medicine, Book 76, Hadith 18 (https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5696). Here’s the quote, as related by the QBC curators:
Then the Prophet said, “The best medicines you may treat yourselves with are cupping and marine Costus.’ He added, “You should not torture your children by treating tonsillitis by pressing the tonsils or the palate with the finger, but use costus.”
Off topic fun fact: Costus is mentioned by Theophrastus (c. 370-c. 285 BCE) as one of the important perfume materials for Ancient Greek perfume creation, in his ‘Enquiry into Plants’.
Image: A close up of the stems of a costus plant
Balm of Gilead tree
Arabic: Al-Basham / الْبَشَامِ
Scientific: Commiphora gileadensis (L.) C. Chr.
A spiky tree that’s almost impossile to photograph, the Balm of Gilead is native to the Southwest Arabian peninsula, most particularly from Oman. Smelling it, the group noted a distinctive banana and geranium note. While this plant is not mentioned in the Qur’an, it is referenced in the Hadith Al-Mustadrak alaa Al-Sahihain by Hakim Al-Nishaburi, written in the year AH 393 (1002–1003 CE). Here’s what the curators of QBG noted:
We prayed Friday, then the people joined together around Abi Raja’a Al-’Utaridy, then people asked him about the sedition (dissension), he said: two men came to ‘Ubadah bin As-Samit, and they said: O bin As-Samit, repeat the hadith you did say for us!, he said yes, I had heard the Messenger of Allah peace be upon him, says, the good money will be two of Mecca’s and Medina’s sheep which shepherd over the heads of the housings, and eating from the leaves of Qatad (Desert thorn) and Bisham (balm of Gilead) plants, and its owner and his family eats from its meat and drink from its milk , while the majority of Arab in these days will be impeded in the dissension. Prophet Mohammad said this three times, and then He said; By Him in Whose Hand my soul is! If anyone of you has three hundred sheep eat form its meat, and drink from its milk, it will be much better for him than to own like these pillars (of the mosque) gold and silver.
Off topic fun fact: The Balm of Gilead has become synonymous with a substance that has the power to soothe and heal. This stems from a mention of the plant by name in the King James Bible, written (or re-written?) in 1611.
Image: A few branches of the Balm of Gilead tree
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Ginger
Two types: Ginger/Cooking Ginger, and Shampoo / Pinecone Ginger
Arabic: Al-Zanjabil or Al-Zarnab / الزَّنْجَبيل
Scientific: Zingier officinale Roscoe, and Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Sm ()
Ginger: so familiar! But then, life throws surprises at you, doesn’t it? We experienced two types of ginger at the QBC, dug up on the spot by our tour guide. One, the common ginger root, smelled rich and aromatic. Like ginger, in fact. And then, Mohammed unearthed a sample of the root of pinecone ginger, otherwise known as toothbrush ginger. This was something entirely new. It’s like ginger on citrus-smelling steroids. It’s like ginger on full spicy blast. It’s unbelievable, and if only I could transmit this smell over the internet, you would be as slack-jawed as I was. So, why ginger? Well, it’s mentioned in the Qur’an AND in the Hadith. In the Suras Al-Insan, verse 17, we see ginger appear as a reward – mixed with wine – for righteous believers. Here’s the reference. And then, in the Hadiths as related by Aisha, the Shampoo Ginger is mentioned by name. Here’s the passage from Sahih Al Bukhari, book of marriage, as provided by the curators at QBG:
‘A’isha reported that (one day) there sat together eleven women making an explicit promise amongst themselves that they would conceal nothing about their spouses. The eighth one said: My husband is as sweet as the Zarnab (the sweet-smelling plant), and as soft as the softness of the hare.”
More information:
Common Ginger: https://qbg.org.qa/plants/ginger-cooking-ginger/
Shampoo/Toothbrush Ginger: https://qbg.org.qa/?post_type=plants&p=1548
Off topic fun fact: Ginger has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for millenia, used to help in digestion and as a remedy for nausea, amongst other purposes.
Image: Mohammed unearths a section of common ginger.
For more information about the Qur’anic Botanic Garden, please visit their website or follow them on Instagram. They’re delightful people, and are important custodians of some equally delightful plants.
This blog post is one of a series of posts written by Saskia Wilson-Brown during a delegation to Qatar organized by the Qatar America Institute for Culture. You can learn more about QAIC on their Instagram page or on their website. The delegation included Jawad Khawaja and Micah Anderson (Oudimentary), Razwan Ul-Haq (calligrapher / artist), Regina Mamou (artist), Rubia Chaudri (independent perfumer / tech consultant), and Saskia Wilson-Brown (founder of the IAO). The delegation was led by Fatima Aldosari and Laila Jadallah, from QAIC.
