This chapter examines the medieval Greek and Arabic sources for the movement of medical substances between the Byzantine and Islamic worlds in the period from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Although commerce was the most common means employed in the movement of materia medica, and the part played by tribute taking and looting was not negligible, the role of diplomatic gift exchange cannot be ignored. A relatively wide range of drugs were exchanged, ranging from theriac and a stone against dropsy to spices and perfumes. Moreover, this chapter examines the peculiar role of drugs as gifts in diplomatic communication compared to more typical diplomatic gifts such as expensive textiles and luxurious objects. Not suited to acting as objects of display, materia medica seemed to convey a personal message of care, creating mutual ties between the sender and the recipient.

The canonical eighteenth-century novel Hongloumeng (Dream of the Red Chamber) archives the intangible heritage of perfume culture in late imperial China. Chapter 1 explores the material culture of perfume and the spiritual, philosophical, and social subtexts of smell through a close reading of the novel. I argue that the author Cao Xueqin’s engagement with the sense of smell is twofold. On the one hand, he illustrates how culture tunes neurons cognitively and aesthetically: smell acts as an embodied form of knowledge to conceptualize time, space, gender, class, sexuality, and morality; aromas also elevate the everyday into an aesthetic way of living. On the other hand, he indicates the fragility of this painstakingly choreographed order of things. Overall he weaves an allegory about contamination as an inevitable human condition through smell. Unwittingly he forecasts the onset of a modern olfactory revolution premised on the arguable impurity of China.