PERFUMES OF THE ROSE. 45 



been made by Ainaiid de Villeneuve, a physician, who Hved in 

 the latter part of the thirteenth century. 



The Orientals made great use of this water in various ways 

 in their houses, and in the purification of their temples, when 

 they thought they had been profaned by any other worship than 

 that of Mahomet. There are many anecdotes told by historians, 

 of the use of rose-water by the Sultans on various occasions ; 

 and several of these, as Chateaubriand remarks, are stories 

 worthy of the East. It is related of Saladin, that when he took 

 Jerusalem from the Crusaders, in 1187, he would not enter the 

 Mosque of Omar, which had been converted into a church by 

 the Christians, until the walls and courts had been thoroughly 

 washed and purified with rose-water brought from Damascus, 

 ^ive hundred camels, it is stated, were scarcely sufficient to 

 convey all the rose-water used for this purpose. An Arabian 

 writer tells us, that the princes of the family of Saladin, hasten- 

 ing to Jerusalem tow^orship Allah, Malek- Abdul and his nephew, 

 Taki-Eddin, distinguished themselves above all others. The 

 latter repaired with all his followers to the " Chapel of the Holy 

 Cross," and taking a broom himself, he swept all the dirt from 

 the floor, washed the walls and the ceiling several times with 

 pure water, and then washed them with rose-water ; having 

 thus cleansed and purified the place, he distributed large alms to 

 the poor. 



Bibars, the fourth Sultan of the Mameluke dynast)^, who 

 reigned from 1260 to 1277, caused the Caaba of the temple of 

 Mecca to be washed with rose-water. 



Mahomet II., after the capture of Constantinople, in 1453, 

 would not enter the Mosque of St. Sophia, which had been for- 

 merly used as a church, until he had caused it to be washed 

 with rose-water. 



It is stated by a French historian, that the greatest display of 

 gorgeous magnificence at that period, was made in 1611, by the 

 Sultan Ahmed I., at the dedication of the new Caaba, which 

 had been built or repaired at his expense ; amber and aloes were 

 burnt in profusion, and, in the extravagance of eastern language, 



