Cannabis in Arabic Verse and Prose

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, a number of historians, jurists, poets, and others writing in Arabic turned their attention to a newly arrived plant, Cannabis indica, noting its psychoactive powers and how it first spread among Sufis. They discuss cannabis’s origins, who uses it and how, and whether or not it should be used. These works range from historical narratives to anecdotal, sometimes humorous, stories to legal remarks, all buttressed by quotations from poetry. Canna...