Tobacco
Tobacco is another import from the New World by the Spainards. The word may be related to Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, or the Caribean island of Tobago. However, similar words in Spanish and Italian were commonly used from 1410 to define medicinal herbs, originating from the Arabic tabbaq, a word dating to the 9th century.
Used as a sacred herb since at least 3000 BCE in various North American native cultures, tobacco was introduced as a recreational drug in Europe during the Elizabethan era, imported principally from Spanish colonies in and around the Caribbean and from the English colonies in South Virginia.
Unlike the most common modern tobacco use, the Elizabethan English smoked tobacco in small clay pipes, a habit which did not enjoy favour with James Stuart.
Tobacco reached the Muslim world through the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 16th century, after the end of period.
Tobacco in the SCA
In the SCA, as in other medieval reenactment groups, smoking tobacco is generally seen as an offensive anachronism and those who smoke are encouraged to do it discreetly or at a distance. This restriction is aided, in Canada, by the widespread legal ban of smoking in enclosed spaces.
