How the Persians went from Wine to Sherbet

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Published 2000

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As long ago as 5000 bce, the inhabitants of Iran were wine drinkers, as archeologists investigating ancient sediments have attested. Outsiders like the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century bce, commented on the Persians’ love of wine, and Persian poets then and later confirmed it in their verses.

I pressed my lip upon the winejar’s lip

And questioned how long life I might attain;

Then lip to lip it whispering replied;

“Drink wine—this world thou shalt not see again.”

With the advent of Islam, however, wine was forbidden, although courtiers (and poets) continued to enjoy it. They discarded the old Persian words for the drink (badeh and mey) and replaced them with sharab, Arabic for “sweet drink.” That is the source of the English “syrup.”