In Egypt, Ibn al-Baytar, a Arab botanist from Spain, observed hashish being eaten by the Sufis. He noted that the Sufis had a special way of preparing their hashish, by first baking the leaves and then forming a paste by rubbing them in between their hands. They would then roll the paste into a ball and eat it like a pill. In his diary, Ibn al-Baytar notes: "People [i.e. the Sufis] who use it [hashish] habitually have proved its pernicious effect, it enfeebles their minds by carrying to them maniac affections, sometimes it even causes death." Ibn al-Baytar also adds: "I recall having seen a time when men of the vilest class alone dared to eat it, still they did not like the name 'takers of hashish' applied to them."
Source: Marijuana - The First Twelve Thousand Years (n.d.). Schaffer Library of Drug Policy.
| Drugs: |
Cannabis (marijuana) |
| Regions: |
Egypt |
Related Timeline Items
Egyptian government bans cannabis (1879 CE)
In 1879 the Ottoman government in Egypt banned the cultivation, distribution and importation of hashish (cannabis) in Egypt, and ordered the destruction of cannabis confiscated at customs. An 1880 decree then ordered the destruction of cannabis fields and stipulated a fine for growing cannabis.
Though cannabis was generally condemned by Islamic jurists as an intoxicant, its use had been a common social practice in Egypt for hundreds of years, and earlier attempts at banning it had not been very successful.
The official rationale for the ban was: "Since it is among our precious duties to safeguard public health, and since it is no secret that intoxicating hashish, cultivated in some places, has no other products but ones harmful to bodies and minds, it is the government’s grace to ban the cultivation of this plant totally in order to prevent such damages."
This health argument was likely influenced by an 1868 report by Muhammad Ali Bey, a prominent medical doctor. But the ban likely also reflects a desire by the Egyptian elite to present Egypt as a "modern" nation and change the image of the Egyptian as a delirious hashish smoker being popularized by European travellers.
Sculpture of Ibn al-Baytar
