ATTAR  OF  ROSE. 
129 
ON  ATTAR  OF  ROSE. 
By  Dr.  R.  Baur  of  Constantinople. 
Translated  and  abridged  from  the  Neues  Jahrbuch  fur  pharmacie,  Bd. 
xxvii ,  Heft  1.    (Januar  1867j,  by  Daniel  Hanbury. 
Attar  of  Rose  or  Rose  Oil  is  the  volatile  oil  obtained  on  the 
southern  slopes  of  the  Balkan  by  distilling  the  flowers  of  Rosa 
damascena.  It  is  called  in  Turkish  Crilljag  (Grid,  rose  ;  jag,  oil).* 
The  word  Attar  the  author  had  never  heard  used,  nor  was  he 
able  through  the  help  of  his  Turkish  friends  to  gain  any  infor- 
mation about  it.f 
The  region  in  which  the  distillation  of  roses  for  the  sake  of 
attar  was  first  commenced  is,  according  to  some,  India,  according 
to  others,  Persia  or  Arabia,  while  othors  again  refer  it  to  Mace- 
donia or  Bulgaria.  The  author  confirms  that  of  which  many 
pharmacologists  by  profession  have  long  been  perfectly  aware, 
that  commerce  at  the  present  day  knows  of  but  one  source  for 
attar  of  rose  worth  naming,  and  that  is  the  southern  slopes  of 
the  Balkan. 
The  Balkan  range  extends  along  the  Lower  Danube  from  west 
to  east,  forming  an  imposing  chain  of  vast  mountains  which  in 
some  places  project  as  gently  sloping  hills  into  the  Tunja  valley 
and  in  others  break  off  in  rocky,  impassable  declivities.  At  the 
foot  of  one  of  the  highest  of  these  mountains  and  in  the  middle 
of  a  splendid  valley  through  which  flows  the  Tunja,  lies  the 
Bulgarian  town  of  Kizanlik,  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  partly 
Turks  and  partly  Bulgarians.  This  is  the  central  point  of  the 
trade,  and  the  first  market  from  which  proceeds  attar  of  rose  to 
all  countries  of  the  world.  The  extent  of  country  over  which 
the  attar-producing  villages  are  scattered  is  bounded  by  about 
25°  and  26°  E.  long,  and  42°  and  43°  N.  lat.  The  mountain 
chain  which  dominates  this  district  consists  chiefly  of  syenite, 
which  by  its  detritus  has  produced  a  soil  so  fertile  as  to  require 
*  This,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  the  German  way  of  representing  the 
sound  of  the  Turkish  name.  Mr.  Redhouse,  the  author  of  a  recent 
Turkish  and  English  Dictionary,  writes  ghyul  and  ydgh. 
f  Yet  Attar  and  Otto  are  well  known  to  be  equally  derived  from  the 
Arabic  Itr  a  word  signifying  perfume,  odor,  scent ;  and  Attar  of  Rose 
is  certainly  called  Itr-yaghi  as  well  as  Ghuyul-yaghi.  D.  H. 
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