The products derived from the balsam tree (probably a cultivar of Commiphora opobalsamum [L.] Engl.) were employed extensively in medicine during the medieval period. This article presents a preliminary survey of the Arabic and European texts which discuss the varied medical uses of balsam. The analysis of the medical applications of balsam is organized into broad categories according to groups of illnesses and treatments. Although other sources of medicinal oleo-resin were available in the medieval period, the balsam gathered from the trees in the walled plantation at Matariyya in Egypt enjoyed a pre-eminent status. It is argued that the great regard shown to balsam in medieval medicine must be seen in the wider context of the history and legends associated with Matariyya and the earlier plantations in Palestine.

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The economic and political implications of commodity exchange in the mediaeval Mediterranean have been the subject of extensive study by historians and archaeologists. In recent years anthropologists and archaeologists working in other regions and historical periods have begun to focus greater attention upon the cultural aspects of commodity exchange. The functions performed by a commodity, and the value consequently accorded to it, may be subject to considerable variation across cultural boundaries. The control of both exotic imported commodities themselves and the information concerning their functions and provenance may form part of the ideologies of political elites. These issues are explored in a case study based on a luxury commodity, balsam. It is argued that greater attention needs to be paid to the role of information in the exchange of luxury commodities across cultural and political boundaries in the mediaeval Mediterranean.

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