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Holy smoke!

Out of censer’s heart the incense passes,
Winding it rises toward the ether’s height.
Matter it was; the fire its life hath swallowed;
Now ‘tis but fragrance filled with coloured light.Excerpt from the poem, ‘The Incense’ by the Ottoman poet and writer, Zabel Asadour (1863-1934), translated in English by Alice Stone Blackwell, https://allpoetry.com/The-Incense (accessed 12/08/2021)

The setting is holy, filled with silence and unspoken thoughts and pleas to God who is deemed compassionate and merciful. Wisps of scented smoke waft through the air as the fragrance of the aromatics fills the space and the moment, preparing worshippers for prayer and contemplation. As the incense smoke wafts heavenward, it symbolizes prayer, and in its mediatory role strengthens the power of prayer to bring favorable response.

Portable incense burners have been used by Chinese Muslims in temples, mosques or at home for burning incense sticks, powders or pellets made from vanilla, aloes, wood or camphor. Its scent is released after heating on charcoal at the base of the burner.Venetia Porter and Heba Nayel Barakat. Mightier than the Sword – Arabic script: beauty and meaning, exhibition catalogue, Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (Malaysia, 2004), p. 151..

Adherents of all major religions made abundant use of fragrances to mark specific moments, actions, objects and spaces as holy. Fragrances signalled the presence of the divine and through sensory channels allowed worshippers to access a sacred realm. Incense smoke is believed to mark and purify sacred places, ensure communication between the human and the divine, and protect worshippers from misfortunes. In Islam (Arabic word meaning ‘submission’), the practice of burning incense to sacralize congregational prayer on Fridays is of utmost importance. And in the nights of Ramadan when the frequency and the amount of incense burned is increased, the sacredness of the moments spent in prayer is heightened.Nina Ergin, ‘The Fragrance of the Divine: Ottoman Incense Burners and their Context, in The Art Bulletin 84, 4 (2014) p. 90.

Let us look through the smoke and observe the material that our incense burner is made of.