Page 106 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(1) (2025)

opium dissolved in alcohol, often combined with
other ingredients, as a treatment for pain and
coughs (Sigerist 1941).
Garcia da Orta, the Portuguese physician in
Goa (India) also wrote a chapter on his Colóqui-
os about amfião. Among several points of infor-
mation, he asserted that it is the same product as
the one called opium in Europe, and being eat-
en by some men, they claimed that it made them
‘not feel the labour’, although the majority used
it for ‘carnal lust’ (Orta 1563, 154).
More than a century later, European ob-
106 servers reported opium use in the Ottoman Em-
pire. In 1686, the French diplomat Girardin de-
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 13 (2025), številka 1 / volume 13 (2025), number 1
scribed court celebrations in Istambul where
wine and tobacco were banned, but certain indi-
viduals consumed a form of opium called afium
benghilik, or hannebaume. He wrote that it ren-
dered employers to become ‘stupid’ and trans-
Figure 3: Detail of ‘Smoking the lethal liamba [riamba, ported them through vivid visions, much like
Cannabis indica]’ (Capelo and Ivens 1881, 27) those allegedly induced by tobacco smoke (Gi-
rardin 1686, 289–291).
to it, writing: ‘Riamba, like opium or alcohol, te- The previous citation from the French am-
naciously takes possession of its victim and does bassador in seventeenth-century Constantino-
f3 not let go’ (Ficalho 1884, 267–268). ple was written after the 1679 book of the Ital-
ian adventurer Cornelio Magni, who denounced
Opium: Laudanum and Amfiam (1679, 592, emphasis added): ‘At this time they
Although Papaver somniferum (opium poppy) can treat themselves to coffee and sorbets, but
has been proposed as possibly the only plant do- never to wine. Some take opium called Afion,
mesticated in Neolithic Europe, this hypothesis with which they remain almost stupefied, and
remains unconfirmed (Jesus et al. 2023, 2). Nev- enjoy various visions that their mind, cluttered
ertheless, by the early sixteenth century, opium by vapours, represents to them.’ Nevertheless,
was already recognized as a highly valued com- the first literary source documenting opium in
modity. In 1513, Afonso de Albuquerque, then
Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India, wrote the Ottoman court in these terms was the 1665
to King Manuel I of Portugal suggesting the cul- Serai Enderum written by Wojciech Bobowski
tivation of amfião (Papaver somniferum) in Por- (also known as Albertus Bobovius or Ali Ufkî)
tuguese territories, especially the Azores islands, who lived for about twenty years in the Top-
stating that ‘the Indians were lost without it’ kapı Palace and declared in a passage entitled
(Bulhão Pato 1884, 174). Whether the proposal Entertainment of Pages: ‘Drinking wine, vod-
was implemented remains unknown. ka and smoking tobacco is forbidden. [Howev-
Probably in 1527, opium’s medical use was er], some of them take opium, [in Turkish] called
being promoted by Paracelsus (Philippus Aure- afyon, bengilik [sic] or hiosciamo [sic]. These are
olus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), substances that cloud their minds and induce
who developed laudanum, a tincture made from various visions. To put it shortly, they cause