teachingemails

''Perfumes are amazing magicians being able to transport you through years.''

It is believed Babylonians were the first ones

to discover the earliest perfume 'incense' 4,000 years ago.

Later it caught up with Egyptians.

As ancient Egyptians believed in life after death,

they buried dead bodies along with a pint of perfume.

The aroma was so strong that some of the

excavated tombs emitted traces of fragrance even after 3,300 years.

Perfumes were the first choice of Cleopatra.

She owned a perfume factory near Dead Sea

and profusely perfumed the sails of her barge

on the eve of her first meeting with Mark Antony.

Greeks were the first ones to formulate the liquid perfume.

The invasion of Egypt by Alexander took the custom

to Greece and Rome.

Scented cedars of Lebanon were hallmarks

of ancient temples built by King Solomon.

Arabs, wizards of perfumes, were the first to

produce perfumes from fragrant flowers by distillation.

Their products gained popularity throughout the world.

In Shakespeare' s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth utters,

''All the perfumes of Arabia can not sweeten this little hand.''

Louis XV of France was so crazy about perfumes

that his court was nicknamed as the perfumed court.

Napolean emptied sixty bottles of double extract

of Jasmine every month while his sweetheart Josephine

exhausted so high a quantity of musk that traces

of its fragrance were lingering her boudoir even sixty years after her death.

In 1709, a German barber invented the giddy smelling

'Eau de Cologne' derived from grape spirits and lavender.

The word cologne actually refers to a German city

'Koln.' Known as admirable water,

its popularity gained roots throughout Europe rapidly.

Perfume madness was at its peak during Moghul rule in India.

Nicknamed as 'Queen of Perfumes'

empress Noorjahan even did extensive research on aromatics.

Aromatic rose water and Lemon water

were the products of her research.

Also 'Atter' is a legacy of the Mughal rule.

It is a class by itself as it is an oil-based perfume

while western ones are based on alcohol.