History of saffron foods, saffron stigmas were also soaked in water to yield a golden-yellow solution that was used as a fabric dye. Some historians believe that saffron first came to China with Mongol invaders by way of Persia. Saffron is mentioned in the ancient Chinese medical text "Shennong Ben Cao Jing", believed to be from the 3rd century AD (but attributed to mythological emperor Shennong). Yet the Chinese were referring to saffron as having a Kashmiri provenance. The Chinese medical expert Wan Zhen wrote that "[t]he habitat of saffron is in Kashmir, where people grow it principally to offer it to the
History of saffron must have been. For instance, in 1478, the saffron tax levied by the Bishop of Albi reached 1/12th of saffron production. Saffron demand "skyrocketed" when the Black Death of 1347–1350 struck Europe. It was coveted by plague victims for medicinal purposes, and yet many of the farmers capable of growing it had died off. Large quantities of non-European saffron were therefore imported. The finest saffron threads from Muslim lands were unavailable to Europeans because of hostilities stoked by the Crusades, so Rhodes and other places were key suppliers to central and northern Europe. Saffron was one of the contested points