I had interesting discussion with Dato Prof. Latif yesterday.
He said in Al-Quran, there are 24 plants species mention, and 4 species originated from this region. One of the species mentioned is ginger as in sura Al-Insan ;
And they shall be made to drink therein a cup the admixture of which shall be ginger,
We may wonder, how did tropical plants species end up in middle of middle east earlier than we thought.
However, further research especially referring to Robert Dentan paper,Semai-Malay Ethnobotany; Hindu influences on the trade in sacred plants, ho hiang postulate there was connection between Indian trader plying monsoon season route and besadai, besyngeitai, saesadai, term coined by Ancient Greek meaning traders in jungle produce.
This paper also illustrate several species that become synonym with ceremonial purposes and valuable for Indian continent market.
Without doubt, Ginger, acquire from the people of this peninsular finally become a sought after drinks for Arab in early times.
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