Odors of Sanctity
Distinctions of the Holy in Early Christianity and Islam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v3i2.133Keywords:
Smells, Odors, Sanctity, Senses, Christianity, IslamAbstract
Medieval scholars and cultural historians have recently turned their attention to the question of “smells” and what olfactory sensations reveal about society in general and perceptions of holiness in particular. In this paper, I examine how early Christians and Muslims linked notions of the “sweet smell of sanctity” with ideas of the body and sexuality. I demonstrate that early Christians associated the body’s sweet smells with salvation and spiritual transformation usually linked with asceticism. Christian bodies, even riddled with
decay and decomposition through harsh asceticism, or transformed through virginity, wafted the sweet smell of sanctity. Early Muslims associated the body’s odors with sanctity with purity. The use of perfumes and scent provided a glimpse into the pleasures of Paradise. Both traditions, in different ways, warned against the power of scent associated with women and female sexuality because they function to tempt and distract men from God.
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