Among the blessings life has allowed me is
the joy of staying in touch with many of my childhood friends. Sure, belonging
to a generation where communication became the easiest and fastest in human
history, helps to keep that blessing ongoing.
A friend with whom I shared a primary
school desk sent me an email about his trip this summer. It started:
“Do
you remember the Lebanese tennis-ball-size nougat confiserie we used to eat? It
was made with Manna and filled with pine nuts. It was called Mann wa Salwa or
Mann el Sama’a – perfect name for what falls from the sky! Say, you remember?”
And he continued:
“Well,
we thought it was a Lebanese, or an Iraqi sweet confection but, we were wrong!
This summer my wife wanted to see Sardinia, so we did. And, Manna does not fall
from the sky on that island, my friend – they harvest it like Canadians do with
maple syrup – they make holes in the ash trees and the sap that comes out is
Manna!
We
stayed in Palermo and I ate Manna made in Castelbuono whenever my wife was not
looking!!!”
Wow, that was more than half a century ago
when we used to get either Baba au rhum
(from a special tray made without rhum for the kids…) or Mann el Sama from the confectionery on our way home from school.
…So my mind left the present moment and
went back where memories await us.
Manna is known as the “bread
of angels” since when Moses and the people of Israel
left Egypt for the promised land they faced starvation in the desert. But they ate quail and Manna
came down the sky to assist them during the 40 year journey across the desert.
The Bible refers to Manna as a bread-like substance, tasking sweet and of white
colour like snow. The Old testament has
descriptions of how manna was snowed over Israelites in Exodus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Nehemiah, and Psalms.
But manna and the exodus of Israelites from Egypt are also
described in the New Testament, and the Quran. In a 10th century
Persian medical book, one finds a more scientific description of Manna (called taranjabin
in Farsi) as the sap of the Tamarisk tree, which is still commonly found in
today’s Iraq and Iran.
… And with the Middle East as my context, I grew up with my
mother’s sayings as guide. One such saying was about manna:
“May in your difficult
times, blessings fall upon you my son, just like Mannana once did”
I worked in Arabian Gulf for a few years and was told that there
was an annual manna collection excursion to the desert. Since manna is the sap
of ash trees, and since there were no ash trees in the desert (at least in the
1970s when I was there…) but there was a shrub called Rimth in Arabic that was said to drip its sap when punctured by
insects. That is when I heard the term Manna-Rimth as yet another possible
source of manna proposed by Arabian desert Bedouins.
No matter, the name given in Iraq to the sweet substance they to
this day collect, be that as ash tree sap or the sap of the Rimth shrub (Haloxylon
salicornicum) remains Mann El Sama’a
(or Manna
from the sky or From the sky), perhaps staying
within the historical context of manna being “food of angels” that came down
from the sky as if snowflakes tasting like honey.
But for me manna has specific association with the Armenian Apostolic Church, an Eastern Christian
denomination in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches. And that
association is with incense smoked during religious or cultural ceremonies.
Indeed, similar to Eastern Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian), frankincense
offering is made during religious ceremonies in the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The connection between manna and frankincense comes from ancient Greek when
this incense was called livanománna
(λῐβᾰνομάννα)
or powdered frankincense.
Frankincense is the hardened resin obtained from Boswellia trees
after cuts are made to drain the sap. So manna and frankincense are either sap
or resin from trees and shrubs. Interestingly, while manna was called the “food of angels”, ancient Egyptians called frankincense the 'Sweat of the Gods.’
I have
written more about frankincense and the historic Spice Road here:
https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-spice-road-from-lebanon-to-mongolia.html
… So now, my mind was curiously navigating through history, religion
and the magic powers given to manna and frankincense. And that takes me to two
other historical “superfoods” – ambrosia and suma, both enshrined in myth and
mythology.
In ancient Greek myth, the gods on Mount Olympus feasted on ambrosia brought to them by doves. Just
like manna, the true composition or origin of ambrosia remains unknown,
although in Homer’s writings nectar is usually the drink
and ambrosia represent the food of the gods assuring immortality, while nectar is the drink of gods. Needless
to say that does not explain much more about what ἀμβροσία (ambrosia) or
nectar are or contain!
Finally,
there is Soma, a drink used in ancient India, by the Vedic culture.
Just like ambrosia, the true nature of Soma remains unknown, although it is a
drink that gave Vedic gods power and longevity. Although it is a myth, Soma as
a drink, is believed to contain Ephedra
elata (Alanda in Arabic) known to modern medicine to have anti-oxidant,
anti-obesity and anti-diabetic characteristics.
Is that enough, however, to give gods immortality?
… It was a long journey into myth and mythology based on an email
I got from a childhood friend who reported on eating “manna”, a sweet
– tasting sap from Fraxinus ornus ash
trees in Castelbuono during a trip in Sardinia.
As a scientist, I do not know what
manna, ambrosia, nectar and soma really are. They represent a myth but also enablers
of how humans have faced adversity, challenged death, and risen above the earthly
banalities.
But, though the cultural and social symbolism
represented in the form of food or drinks, even when their chemical composition
is unknown, the effect they had on the course of human history and our vision
of cosmic powers, remain undeniably potent.
PS/ I took this photo of a female camel herder in Morocco.
Although I have lived in the Arabian Peninsula desert and now I am a permanent
resident in the high desert of Arizona, the ecosystem of each desert is
different. Yet, all make me think of our history more than forests of Aspen
trees and snow covered blue spruce trees do.
October 13, 2022
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022
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