Spice Way

Although the importance of herbalists and spices in Anatolian lands is known, there are quite a lot of people who will remember that it is very important for the whole world when they browse the history books again. In ancient times, the difficulty of doing trade could only be explained by the existence of products worth doing this trade. In other words, there had to be a demand for transport. From this point of view, the first trade route we come across is the Silk Road from China to Europe. Although the Silk Road draws attention as one of the oldest routes used for trade, the Spice Road, which has a very important place in history books, is also a route where important commercial activities were carried out. In ancient times, the Spice Route was one of the trade routes connecting the Far East to the West. In medieval Europe, spices, which managed to enter the tables of the nobility and became very popular, became a very important trade product. The trade of spice, which was mostly available to wealthy people due to its high cost, was started by the Chinese before Christ.

Spices were brought to Europe from the east in two different ways. The first of these was the Silk Road through Central Asia. However, the Silk Road was originally famous as the route through which Chinese silk was transported to Rome in ancient times. The other route was the sea route from India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, the coasts of Yemen or the Persian Gulf. The spices unloaded from the ships in the ports on these coasts were transported by road to the coasts of Phoenicia and Palestine, Alexandria in Egypt and the Black Sea, and then to Europe by sea. This route, known as the spice route, was under the control of the Venetians. The geopolitical importance of the route was realised when important points of the route came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The spice-producing countries and the Western countries that wanted to break the Venetian domination over the spice trade started to look for different routes. Finally, Vasco da Gama opened the route to India by travelling around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. Christopher Columbus reached the West Indies and Magellan reached the East Indies by travelling around South America. Thus, new routes were opened to spice producing countries.

The Place of Spice in Our History

Spices, which formed its own route with its trade for a period and which people were fond of consuming, had an important meaning in Anatolian lands along with many other countries. On the one hand, it was an intermediary for trade and the geological importance of the Ottoman Empire was increasing, on the other hand, it was becoming an important tool to contribute to the taste buds and to treat diseases with its medicinal plant feature, which is the characteristics of eastern societies.

In Bursa, one of our cities with a high value due to being the capital city before Istanbul, herbalists and herbalism have gained an important place since the 14th century. Bazaars known as Uzun Bazaar, Attarlar Bazaar, Sandıkçılar Bazaar, Tuzpazarı Bazaar were prepared right around the Ulu Mosque, which is also seen and visited today and which people always desire to see with its spiritual atmosphere and which has a very pleasant atmosphere with the sound of water inside. The tradition of establishing bazaars in the centre, which started in Bursa, continued in Istanbul, and the Uzun Bazaar, as well as the Egyptian Bazaar, where the smell of spices was never absent, became one of the most important places of trade. The herbalists' bazaar or market, which is located in almost every Ottoman city, welcomes us in every city we visit as another indicator of the importance attached to this subject.

After modern pharmacy, the place of spice, which continues its relationship with treatment in a limited area and stands out with its supplementary properties, has recently been questioned again. Although it is not seen as a direct treatment tool, herbal products, which have started to be used again to reduce the discomfort of certain diseases or to be used as a supplement, have recently come to the fore again.

The flavour that spices give to food has never lost its importance, it is used especially in the seasoning stage to experience better flavours, and it continues to be consumed by pouring it on food.

Recently, the increasing interest in this field can be used positively and negatively. On the one hand, there are businesses similar to our company Lokman Aktar, which uses its knowledge and experience in this field to train new herbalists, as well as those who turn the business into a trade of hope. In this respect, various regulations have been made and continue to be made in our field. Both the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the Ministry of Health aim to discipline this profession, which has a history of thousands of years, with their regulations, and try to pave the way for the disciplined growth of the sector by playing a more educational and enlightening role. This is achieved by encouraging the right practices and businesses and penalising the wrong ones.

Lokman Aktar is one of the oldest representatives of this sector, which is embodied with the existence of Anatolian lands, in the history of the Republic. Our company, which believes that herbalism also has an ethical side similar to ahilik from the side of craftsmanship, has not refrained from fulfilling its obligations to guide our sector in the right way. Lokman Aktar, which knows that herbalism is not just a product sale, will continue to act with the awareness of this historical background.