The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times, Issue #28, March 2015 | Page 17

Cinnamon : The Spice That Launched
A Thousand Ships
By A.L Laurice

Empires have been built,
islands enslaved and new
worlds found - all in the name
of cinnamon. Today, cinnamon
is often a generic and bland, sad
shadow of its former glory,
purchased dried up and stale
and relegated to children's
treats and unhealthy baked
goods. Rediscover the cinnamon
of myth and lore, a spice once
more valuable than gold.
History of Cinnamon
About 2800 B.C ancient Chinese
writings named it Kwai and

lauded it for its medicinal
properties. The Bible relates
that Moses added cinnamon to
his anointing oils. To the
Ancient Egyptians, cinnamon
was more valuable than solid
gold, and the pharaohs crossed
into the afterlife embalmed in
the precious, fragrant spice.
Cinnamon appeared in the
death rites of the ancient
Romans too, crackling from
their funeral pyres. That most
notorious and colourful of
tyrants Emperor Nero
murdered his wife in 65 A.D —