- The Persians have always been lax in regard to the abstinence
from wine.
According to Athenaeus, Aristotle, in his Treatise on Drinking (a work
lost, I imagine, to posterity), says, "If the wine be moderately boiled it
is less apt to intoxicate." In the preparation of some of the sweet wines
of the Levant, such as that of Cyprus, the must is boiled, but I believe
this is not the case generally in the East. Baber notices it as a
peculiarity among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Tavernier, however, says
that at Shiraz, besides the wine for which that city was so celebrated, a
good deal of boiled wine was manufactured, and used among the poor and
by travellers. No doubt what is meant is the sweet liquor or syrup called
Dushab, which Della Valle says is just the Italian Mostocotto, but
better, clearer, and not so mawkish (I. 689). (Yonge's Athen. X. 34;
Baber, p. 145; Tavernier, Bk. V. ch. xxi.)
[1] The Encyc. Britann., article "Money," gives the livre tournois of
this period as 18.17 francs. A French paper in Notes and Queries
(4th S. IV. 485) gives it under St. Lewis and Philip III. as
equivalent to 18.24 fr., and under Philip IV. to 17.95. And lastly,
experiment at the British Museum, made by the kind intervention of my
friend, Mr. E. Thomas, F.R.S., gave the weights of the sols of St.
Lewis (1226-1270) and Philip IV.
