Editing Cinnamon (section)

== History ==
[[File:Cinnamon tree.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7| Cinnamon tree]]
Cinnamon has been known from remote [[Ancient history|antiquity]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Cinnamon|volume=6|page=376}}</ref> It was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, but those who reported that it had come from China had confused it with ''Cinnamomum cassia'', a related species.<ref name=HistoryFood/> Cinnamon was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs<ref name="EB1911"/> and even for a deity; an inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of [[Apollo]] at [[Miletus]].<ref>Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 437</ref> Its source was kept a trade secret in the Mediterranean world for centuries by those in the [[spice trade]], in order to protect their monopoly as suppliers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mohammadifar|first=Shamameh|date=2010-08-23|title=The Origin, History and Trade Route of Cinnamon|url=https://jihs.ut.ac.ir/article_24118.html|journal=Journal for the History of Science|volume=8|issue=1|pages=37–51|issn=1735-0573|access-date=7 June 2021|archive-date=26 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926023143/https://jihs.ut.ac.ir/article_24118.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

''Cinnamomum verum'', which translates from Latin as "true cinnamon", is native to [[India]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[Bangladesh]] and [[Myanmar]].<ref name="EB">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://global.britannica.com/plant/cinnamon|title=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2008|isbn=978-1-59339-292-5|chapter=Cinnamon|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |quote=(species Cinnamomum zeylanicum), bushy evergreen tree of the laurel family (Lauraceae) native to Malabar Coast of India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma).|access-date=17 April 2017|archive-date=6 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106221847/https://global.britannica.com/plant/cinnamon|url-status=live}}<!--better link needed--></ref> ''[[Cinnamomum cassia]]'' (cassia) is native to China. Related species, all harvested and sold in the modern era as cinnamon, are native to [[Vietnam]] ("[[Saigon cinnamon]]"), Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries with warm climates.<ref>{{cite web|last=Davis|first=Michelle|date=2 January 2019|title=Where Did Those Spices Come From?|publisher=[[University of California]] Agriculture and Natural Resources|url=https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28887|access-date=9 January 2025}}</ref>

In Ancient Egypt, cinnamon was used to embalm [[mummies]].<ref name=HerbCosmetic>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MaAZMbSxNt4C|title=Herbal principles in cosmetics: properties and mechanisms of action|last1=Burlando|first1=B.|last2=Verotta|first2=L.|last3=Cornara|first3=L.|last4=Bottini-Massa|first4=E.|publisher=[[CRC Press]]|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4398-1214-3|location=Boca Raton|page=121}}</ref> From the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] onward, Ancient Egyptian recipes for [[kyphi]], an aromatic used for burning, included cinnamon and cassia. The gifts of Hellenistic rulers to temples sometimes included cassia and cinnamon.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nguyen|first=Ngoc|title=What is cinnamons? Origin, History and Types of Cinnamons|publisher=VHB Group|url=https://vihaba.global/2022/03/18/what-is-cinnamons|access-date=9 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Mallick|first1=Anurag|last2=Ganapathy|first2=Priya|date=8 May 2021|title=Sweet wood|publisher=[[Deccan Herald]]|url=https://www.deccanherald.com/features/sweet-wood-983434.html|access-date=9 January 2025}}</ref>

The first Greek reference to {{lang|grc|κασία}} {{transliteration|grc|kasía}} is found in a poem by [[Sappho]] in the 7th century BC. According to [[Herodotus]], both cinnamon and cassia grew in Arabia, together with incense, [[myrrh]] and {{not a typo|[[labdanum]]}}, and were guarded by [[dragon|winged serpents]].<ref name=Herodotus>Herodotus, Book 3, sections 3.107-113. {{cite book|last1=Wheeler|first1=James Talboys|title=An Analysis and Summary of Herodotus: With a Synchronistical Table of Principal Events; Tables of Weights, Measures, Money, and Distances; an Outline of the History and Geography; and the Dates Completed from Gaisford, Baehr, Etc|date=1852|publisher=H. G. Bohn|url=https://archive.org/details/analysissummaryo00hero|page=110|quote=The incense trees are guarded by winged serpents[...] The cassia trees, which grow by a shallow lake, are guarded by fierce winged animals like bats|access-date=9 January 2019}}</ref> Herodotus, Aristotle and other authors named Arabia as the source of cinnamon; they recounted that giant "[[cinnamon bird]]s" collected the cinnamon sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew and used them to construct their nests.{{r|Herodotus|p=111|q=Cinnamon is produced in an unknown land, and large birds bring those rolls of bark which from the Phœnicians are called cinnamon}}

[[Pliny the Elder]] wrote that cinnamon was brought around the [[Arabian Peninsula]] on "rafts without rudders or sails or oars", taking advantage of the winter [[trade wind]]s.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Pliny the Elder|last2=Bostock|first2=J.|last3=Riley|first3=H. T.|year=1855|volume=3|title=Natural History of Pliny, book XII, The Natural History of Trees|chapter=42, Cinnamomum. Xylocinnamum|publisher=[[Henry G. Bohn]]|location=London|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof03plin|pages=137–140}}</ref> He also mentioned cassia as a flavouring agent for wine,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L35fAAAAMAAJ|title=Natural History|author=Pliny the Elder|date=1938|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-99433-1|page=14}}</ref> and that the tales of cinnamon being collected from the nests of cinnamon birds was a traders' fiction made up to charge more. However, the story remained current in [[Byzantium]] as late as 1310.<ref>[[Manuel Philes]] repeated the tale in a treatise of {{circa}}1310 prepared for emperor [[Michael IX Palaiologos]]: {{cite book |last1=Tennent |first1=James Emerson |author1-link=James Emerson Tennent |title=Ceylon: an account of the island |date=1860 |publisher=Longman |location=London |volume=1|page=600}}</ref>

According to Pliny the Elder, a [[Roman pound]] ({{convert|327|g|disp=sqbr}}) of cassia, cinnamon ({{lang|la|serichatum}}), cost up to 1,500 {{lang|la|[[denarii]]}}, the wage of fifty months' labour.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Natural History|volume=3|year=1855|url=https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof31855plin/|author=Pliny the Elder|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|via=Internet Archive|location=London, UK|page=140|quote=The right of regulating the sale of the cinnamon belongs solely to the king of the Gebanitæ, who opens the market for it by public proclamation. The price of it was formerly as much as a thousand denarii per pound; which was afterwards increased to half as much again, in consequence, it is said, of the forests having been set on fire by the barbarians, from motives of resentment[...]}}</ref> [[Diocletian]]'s [[Edict on Maximum Prices]]<ref>{{cite book|title=An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome |volume=V: Rome and Italy of the Empire |editor-last=Frank |editor-first=Tenney |last=Graser |first=E. R. |chapter=A text and translation of the Edict of Diocletian |year=1940 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins Press]] |isbn=978-0374928483}}</ref> from 301 AD gives a price of 125 {{lang|la|denarii}} for a pound of cassia, while an agricultural labourer earned 25 {{lang|la|denarii}} per day. Cinnamon was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome, but the Emperor [[Nero]] is said to have burned a year's worth of the city's supply at the funeral for his wife [[Poppaea Sabina]] in AD 65.<ref>Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 437f.</ref>

===Middle Ages===
Through the [[Middle Ages]], the source of cinnamon remained a mystery to the Western world. From reading Latin writers who quoted Herodotus, Europeans had learned that cinnamon came up the [[Red Sea]] to the trading ports of Egypt, but where it came from was less than clear. When the [[Sieur de Joinville]] accompanied his king, [[Louis IX of France]] to Egypt on the [[Seventh Crusade]] in 1248, he reported—and believed—what he had been told: that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the [[source of the Nile]] out at the edge of the world (i.e., [[Ethiopia]]). [[Marco Polo]] avoided precision on the topic.<ref>Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 438 discusses cinnamon's hidden origins and Joinville's report.</ref>

The first mention that the spice grew in the area of [[India]] was in [[Maimonides]]'s [[Mishneh Torah]], about 1180.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mishneh Torah|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Vessels_of_the_Sanctuary_and_Those_Who_Serve_Therein.1.3?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en|access-date=13 July 2024}}</ref> The first mention that the spice grew specifically in Sri Lanka was in [[Zakariya al-Qazwini]]'s {{transliteration|ar|Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-'ibad}} ("Monument of Places and History of God's Bondsmen") about 1270.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tennent|first=James Emerson|title=Account of the Island of Ceylon|volume=1|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61724#page/11/mode/1up|access-date=8 November 2014|publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts|year=1860|archive-date=26 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075419/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61724#page/11/mode/1up|url-status=live}}</ref> This was followed shortly thereafter by [[John of Montecorvino]] in a letter of about 1292.<ref>{{cite web|last=Yule|first=Henry|title=Cathay and the Way Thither|url=http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-1/page/0487.html.en|access-date=15 July 2008|archive-date=5 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205213841/http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-1/page/0487.html.en|url-status=live}}</ref>

Indonesian rafts transported cinnamon directly from the [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]] to East Africa (see also [[Rhapta]]), where local traders then carried it north to Alexandria in Egypt.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1984_June/ai_3289703|title=The life of spice; cloves, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon|work=[[UNESCO Courier]]|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709044345/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1984_June/ai_3289703|archive-date=9 July 2012|url-status=dead|publisher=Findarticles.com|year=1984|access-date=18 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Woods|first=Sean|url=http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=588&art_id=iol1078376795319P146&set_id=1|date=4 March 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050408160407/http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=588&art_id=iol1078376795319P146&set_id=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 April 2005|title=Discovery: Sailing the Cinnamon Route|website=Independent Online|access-date=18 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=299440|pages=222–224|last1=Gray|first1=E. W.|title=The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire 29 B.C. – A.D. 641|volume=60|journal=[[The Journal of Roman Studies]]|year=1970|last2=Miller|first2=J. I.}}</ref> [[Venice|Venetian]] traders from Italy held a [[monopoly]] on the spice trade in Europe, distributing cinnamon from Alexandria. The disruption of this trade by the rise of other Mediterranean powers, such as the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk sultans]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]], was one of many factors that led Europeans to search more widely for other routes to Asia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hess |first=Andrew C. |date=1973 |title=The Ottoman Conquest of Egypt (1517) and the Beginning of the Sixteenth-Century World War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162225 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=55–76 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800027276 |jstor=162225 |s2cid=162219690 |issn=0020-7438 |access-date=6 June 2022 |archive-date=13 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913065029/https://www.jstor.org/stable/162225 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Early modern period===
During the 1500s, [[Ferdinand Magellan]] was searching for spices on behalf of Spain; in the [[Philippines]], he found {{lang|la|Cinnamomum mindanaense}}, which was closely related to ''C. zeylanicum'', the cinnamon found in Sri Lanka. This cinnamon eventually competed with Sri Lankan cinnamon, which was controlled by the Portuguese.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mallari|first=Francisco|date=December 1974|title=The Mindanao Cinnamon|journal=[[Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society]]|volume=2|pages=190–194|jstor=29791158|number=4}}</ref>

In 1638, Dutch traders established a trading post in Sri Lanka, took control of the [[manufactories]] by 1640, and expelled the remaining Portuguese by 1658. "The shores of the island are full of it," a Dutch captain reported, "and it is the best in all the Orient. When one is downwind of the island, one can still smell cinnamon eight [[league (unit)|leagues]] out to sea."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Braudel|first1=Fernand|author-link=Fernand Braudel|title=The Perspective of the World: Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century|volume=3|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1984|pages=15|isbn=978-0-520-08116-1}}</ref> The [[Dutch East India Company]] continued to overhaul the methods of harvesting in the wild and eventually began to cultivate its own trees.<ref>{{cite web|last=Overmeer|first=Marjolein|title=The Dutch East India Company in Ceylon|publisher=Schaakstukkenmuseum|url=https://www.schaakstukkenmuseum.nl/?p=1859&lang=en|access-date=9 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Klein|first=Wouter|date=17 February 2021|title=Plant of the Month: Cinnamon|url=https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-cinnamon|publisher=[[JSTOR Daily]]|access-date=9 January 2025}}</ref>

In 1767, Lord Brown of the British [[East India Company]] established the Anjarakkandy Cinnamon Estate near [[Anjarakkandy]] in the [[Kannur]] district of [[Kerala]], India.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cinnamon Valley|publisher=Kerala Tourism|url=https://www.keralatourism.org/destination/cinnamon-valley-anjarakandy/501|access-date=9 January 2025}}</ref> It later became Asia's largest cinnamon estate. The British [[Invasion of Ceylon|took control of Ceylon]] from the Dutch in 1796.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.library.mq.edu.au/digital/under/research/background.html|title=Under a Tropical Sun|publisher=[[Macquarie University]]|date=2011|access-date=9 January 2025|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401230335/http://www.library.mq.edu.au/digital/under/research/background.html|archive-date=1 April 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref>