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Cumin, camels, and caravans : a spice odyssey / Gary Paul Nabhan.

by Nabhan, Gary Paul.

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University of California Press, c2014.

382.456645 N115c

Spices -- History.

Trade routes -- Africa -- Sahara -- History.

Trade routes -- Asia -- History.

California studies in food and culture ; 45.

9780520267206 (hc.)

0520267206 (hc.)

xiv, 305 p., 8 p. of plates : ill. (some coloured) ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-292) and index.

Aromas emanating from the driest of places -- Caravans leaving Arabia Felix -- Uncovering hidden outposts in the desert -- Omanis rocking the cradle of civilization -- Mecca and the migrations of Muslim and Jewish traders -- Going east: merging the spice routes with the Silk Roads -- Selling your wares where the sun goes down -- Building bridges between continents and cultures -- From China to Africa: a steady stream of spice traders -- The beginning of the end: Vasco da Gama and the dubious age of discovery -- The drawbridge across the Eastern ocean.

"The author describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes -- the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate) -- Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict -- Arabs and Jews -- have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future"--Provided by publisher.

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