Persia, ancient

Hydrocarbons were first used in the field of medicine by the Romans. Bitumen was used in ancient Mesopotamia as mortar for bricks, as a road constmction material, and to waterproof boats. Arabia and Persia have a long history of producing oil. 

This was unknowingly utilized in ancient Persia where, by law, drinking water had to be stored in bright copper vessels. 

The use of hydraulics is not new. The Egyptians and people of ancient Persia, India and China conveyed water along channels for irrigation and other domestic purposes. They used dams and sluice gates to control the flow and waterways to direct the water to where it was needed. The ancient Cretins had elaborate plumbing systems. Archimedes studied the laws of floating and submerged bodies. The Romans constructed aqueducts to carry water to their cities. 

Holmyard, Eric John. Chemistry in ancient Persia. Art Archaeol 30, no. 1-2 (Jul-Aug 1930) 11-15. 

The Greek writers make numerous references to opium with some evidence that they used species other than P. somniferum. Hippocrates, considered by some to be the father of medicine, rejected the supernatural attributes of opium but acknowledges opium s usefulness as a narcotic, especially in the treatment of certain diseases. It has been claimed that Alexander the Great took opium to Persia and India in 330 BC. The Romans continued the use of opium in medical applications and there is little evidence that addiction was a problem in these ancient cultures. After the rise of Islam, the use of opium in medicine was further developed and documented. At some stage, the Arab spice traders took opium to the Far East and some credited them with introducing it to China. By the middle ages, the drinking of opium mbctures for recreational use is recorded in Persia and India. 

There has been much speculation as to the sources whence the ancient Egyptians obtained the tin for their bronzes. No nearby sources have been discovered. Geologic evidence is to the effect that tin occurred in Persia, and it may have been from this region that the earliest supplies came. It is also possible that sources of tinstone from farther south on the African continent may have been drawn upon, but any evidence to that effect is also lacking. 

Traditions of ancient writers attribute some discoveries in these lines to India or Persia, or other Asiatic countries, but as to whether any of these countries contributed in any important way to the development of Egyptian chemical knowledge, or whether at some time these countries learned their arts from Egypt, we cannot safely determine from such tradition. It is quite certain that both in China and in India the chemistry of the metals and alloys, methods of dyeing and the use of certain chemicals in medicine were practiced at ancient periods, but their chronology is diffi-... 

The traditions of the ancient pagan schools and their literature were, however, preserved and cultivated especially by the Syrian scholars who took refuge in Persia, after the closing of the Alexandrian schools, and there founded and maintained schools modeled after the Alexandrian. By these scholars, the classical works of Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Dioscorides and others, and of some early chemical and alchemical writers, as the pseudo-Democritus and Zosimos, were preserved and translated into Syrian. Astronomy, astrology, medicine, alchemy, were among the subjects taught in their schools. 

Pomegranate first appeared in Persia (4000 b.c. to 3000 b.c.) and gradually moved toward China, India (100 b.c.), North Africa, Europe, Mexico (1521), and the U.S. (1792). Pomegranate is one of the first fruits cultivated by humans. In Greek mythology, the pomegranate symbolized death and fertility in ancient Chinese culture, it was a symbol of immortality. One of the earliest cultivated fruits, it is also called a gift from God in the Bible and also in the Koran. 

The most important mineral containing antimony is stibnite, Sb2S3. Antimony sulfide was used as a dark material for painting around the eyes by women in ancient Egypt and Persia. Other minerals containing arsenic include ullmanite, NiSbS, tetrahedrite, Cu3SbS3, and a number of other complex sulfides. 

India has known little peace. Invaded from both land and sea, it has seen many conquerors and has witnessed many empires come and go. Cyrus and Darius of Persia sent their armies there. On the heels of the Persians came Alexander the Great. After Alexander came more Greeks, then Parthians from Iran, Kushans from beyond the mountains in the north, then Arabs, followed by Europeans. Unlike China, which remained remote and isolated from the rest of the world for much of its history. India was known to all the great nations of the ancient world. 

The Vendidad also contains a cryptic reference to bhanga s being used to induce abortions, but this seems not to have been an accepted usage of the drug in ancient Persia since the abortionist is called an old hag, not a doctor. 

This was unknowingly utilized in ancient Persia where, by... 

Distillation is an art that was practised long before the Christian era by the ancient Egyptians and was cultivated and protected as secret science by temple priests. It also appears to have been carried out in early times in India, Persia and China. Schelenz [1] is of the opinion that the discovery of distillation must be ascribed to the Persians, who employed the art for the preparation of rose water. Another view shared by v. Lippmann [8 — 10] is that the principle of distillation found its origin in the carbonization of wood, since descending distillation is referred to in the Ebers papyrus of about 1500 B.C., so that the process would be almost 3500 years... 

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