// Definition
11th-century Persian poetry from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam containing direct references to hashish consumption, predating the smoking era. A McCarthy translation from 1889 includes quatrains like 'take thou a morsel of hashish as large as a grain of barley' and 'with green youth I eat green hashish on the green sward.'
// From the Episode
Chris Bennett reads from the McCarthy translation (not the famous Fitzgerald one). Omar Khayyam was a contemporary of Hassan-i Sabbah, allegedly attended school together. These are pre-smoking era references - hashish was eaten, not smoked. Shows hashish culture in Persia much earlier than commonly placed.
// Source
Ep. 116 Hash Church CXIII 113 →