Editing Cinnamon (section)

===Middle Ages===
Through the [[Middle Ages]], the source of cinnamon remained a mystery to the Western world. From reading Latin writers who quoted Herodotus, Europeans had learned that cinnamon came up the [[Red Sea]] to the trading ports of Egypt, but where it came from was less than clear. When the [[Sieur de Joinville]] accompanied his king, [[Louis IX of France]] to Egypt on the [[Seventh Crusade]] in 1248, he reported—and believed—what he had been told: that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the [[source of the Nile]] out at the edge of the world (i.e., [[Ethiopia]]). [[Marco Polo]] avoided precision on the topic.<ref>Toussaint-Samat 2009, p. 438 discusses cinnamon's hidden origins and Joinville's report.</ref>

The first mention that the spice grew in the area of [[India]] was in [[Maimonides]]'s [[Mishneh Torah]], about 1180.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mishneh Torah|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Vessels_of_the_Sanctuary_and_Those_Who_Serve_Therein.1.3?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en|access-date=13 July 2024}}</ref> The first mention that the spice grew specifically in Sri Lanka was in [[Zakariya al-Qazwini]]'s {{transliteration|ar|Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-'ibad}} ("Monument of Places and History of God's Bondsmen") about 1270.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tennent|first=James Emerson|title=Account of the Island of Ceylon|volume=1|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61724#page/11/mode/1up|access-date=8 November 2014|publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts|year=1860|archive-date=26 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075419/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61724#page/11/mode/1up|url-status=live}}</ref> This was followed shortly thereafter by [[John of Montecorvino]] in a letter of about 1292.<ref>{{cite web|last=Yule|first=Henry|title=Cathay and the Way Thither|url=http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-1/page/0487.html.en|access-date=15 July 2008|archive-date=5 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205213841/http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-1/page/0487.html.en|url-status=live}}</ref>

Indonesian rafts transported cinnamon directly from the [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]] to East Africa (see also [[Rhapta]]), where local traders then carried it north to Alexandria in Egypt.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1984_June/ai_3289703|title=The life of spice; cloves, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon|work=[[UNESCO Courier]]|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709044345/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1984_June/ai_3289703|archive-date=9 July 2012|url-status=dead|publisher=Findarticles.com|year=1984|access-date=18 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Woods|first=Sean|url=http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=588&art_id=iol1078376795319P146&set_id=1|date=4 March 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050408160407/http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=588&art_id=iol1078376795319P146&set_id=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 April 2005|title=Discovery: Sailing the Cinnamon Route|website=Independent Online|access-date=18 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=299440|pages=222–224|last1=Gray|first1=E. W.|title=The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire 29 B.C. – A.D. 641|volume=60|journal=[[The Journal of Roman Studies]]|year=1970|last2=Miller|first2=J. I.}}</ref> [[Venice|Venetian]] traders from Italy held a [[monopoly]] on the spice trade in Europe, distributing cinnamon from Alexandria. The disruption of this trade by the rise of other Mediterranean powers, such as the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk sultans]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]], was one of many factors that led Europeans to search more widely for other routes to Asia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hess |first=Andrew C. |date=1973 |title=The Ottoman Conquest of Egypt (1517) and the Beginning of the Sixteenth-Century World War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162225 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=55–76 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800027276 |jstor=162225 |s2cid=162219690 |issn=0020-7438 |access-date=6 June 2022 |archive-date=13 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913065029/https://www.jstor.org/stable/162225 |url-status=live }}</ref>