A bottle of Turkish rose water

Rose water is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals. Rose water, itself a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume, is used to flavour food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations, and for religious purposes throughout Europe and Asia. Rose syrup is made from rose water, with sugar added.

Origin[link]

Since ancient times, the rose has been highly prized for its source of perfume, medicinal use and nutritional properties. In fact so much so that, ancient Greeks, Romans and Phoenecians placed as much importance on large public rose gardens as they did on wheat fields and fruit orchards.^[1]

Rose perfumes are made from rose oil, also called attar of roses, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam-distilling the crushed petals of roses, a process first developed in Persia and Bulgaria.^{[citation needed]} Rose water is a by-product of this process.

In other cultures[link]

Rose water has a very distinctive flavour and is used heavily in Iranian cuisine—especially in sweets such as nougat, raahat and baklava. For example, rose water is used to give gulab jamuns and some types of loukoum (or "Turkish Delight") their distinctive flavours. Beside food usage, they used it as perfume especially in religious ceremonies (both Muslims and Zoroastrians).

The Cypriot version of mahleb uses rosewater.^[2] In Iran, it is also added to tea, ice cream, cookies and other sweets in small quantities, and in the Arab world and India it is used to flavour milk and dairy-based dishes such as rice pudding. It is also a key ingredient in sweet lassi, a drink made from yogurt, sugar and various fruit juices, and is also used to make jallab. In Malaysia and Singapore, rose water is mixed with milk, sugar and pink food colouring to make a sweet drink called bandung. Rose water is frequently used as a halal substitute for red wine and other alcohols in cooking.

In Western Europe, rose water (as well as orange flower water) is sometimes used to flavour marzipan. Rose water was also used to make Waverly Jumbles, a type of cookie much favoured by the American President James Monroe. American and European bakers enjoyed the floral flavouring of rose water in their baking until the 19th century when vanilla flavouring became popular.

In the United States, rose syrup is used to make rose scones and marshmallows.

A rose water ointment is occasionally used as an emollient, and rose water is sometimes used in cosmetics such as cold creams. Water used to clean the Kaaba, the Qibla for Muslims located in Mecca, combines Zamzam water with rose water as an additive. Rose water is used in some Hindu rituals as well. Rose water also figures in Christianity, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox Church.^[3]

Rose water was first produced by Muslim chemists in the medieval Islamic world through the distillation of roses, for use in the drinking and perfumery industries.^[4]

In parts of the Middle East, rose water is commonly added to lemonade.

In India, rose water is used as eye drops to clear them. Some people in India also use rose water as spray applied directly to the face for natural fragrance and moisturiser, especially during winters. It is also used in Indian sweets and other food preparations. Rose water is often sprinkled in Indian weddings to welcome guests.

Composition[link]

Depending on the origin and type of manufacturing method of rosewater obtained from the sepals and petals of Rosa damascena from Central Iran through steam distillation, the following monoterpenoid and alkane components could be identified with GC-MS: mostly citronellol, nonadecane, geraniol and phenyl ethyl alcohol, and also henicosane, 9-nonadecen, eicosane, linalool, citronellyl acetate, methyleugenol, heptadecane, pentadecane, docosane, nerol, disiloxane, octadecane, and pentacosane. Usually, phenylethyl alcohol is responsible for the typical odour of rose water but not always present in rosewater products.^[5]

See also[link]

• Damascus rose water
• Rose history by Rosense UK

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up rose water in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Oman’s Rose Water in Jebel Akhdar

Mark Rosewater is a Magic: The Gathering card designer. He is currently Magic's head designer.

Biography[link]

Rosewater grew up in Pepper Pike, Ohio, where he attended the Orange High School.^[1] Rosewater has a Jewish background.^[2] Rosewater has described himself in his youth as a "social outcast", who did not have many friends.^[3] He was particularly small, smart and was bullied by other children.^[4] In his youth, he worked as a professional magician.^[5]

Rosewater attended Boston University, where he got a Bachelor of Science in Communication.^[6]

Career[link]

Television[link]

After graduating, Rosewater started his career in television as a runner.^[7] He then found work as a writer. Before 1994 he was on the writing staff of Roseanne.^[8] He is credited for two Roseanne episodes: "Vegas, Vegas" and "Take My Bike, Please", both aired in 1991.^[9] He considered his time in Hollywood a "roller coaster ride."^[10] While working as a free lance writer he took a job at a game store in order to have some social contacts. Working there he first found out about Magic: The Gathering from a customer.^[11]

Magic: The Gathering[link]

Since 1995, Mark Rosewater has worked for Wizards of the Coast, the company which makes Magic: The Gathering. He wrote puzzles based on Magic cards and other articles for the The Duelist, the Wizards of the Coast magazine promoting and covering Magic.^[12] In 1996 Magic: The Puzzling was published, a collection of 25 puzzles written for The Duelist.^[13] Since 1996 Rosewater has worked for Wizards of the Coast as a designer of Magic cards. Rosewater has designed at least one card for every Magic expansion since Alliances. While working for Wizards of the Coast, he wrote columns called “Insider Trading” for the magazines The Duelist, Topdeck, and The Sideboard which gave an inside look at Magic design.^[14]

Rosewater has been the lead designer for Tempest, Urza’s Destiny, Odyssey,^[8] Mirrodin, Ravnica: City of Guilds, Future Sight, Shadowmoor, Eventide, and Zendikar. He was also the sole designer of Unglued;^[15] in it he combined his career as a magic card designer with his previous career as a comedy writer. Picking up on the comic note of the "un"-sets, he judged the Unglued pre-release wearing a chicken suit and the Unhinged pre-release wearing a donkey suit.^[16] He also wrote flavor text in various sets including Mirage and Tempest.^[17]

Rosewater championed the Pro Tournament for years, including the important idea of having feature matches at professional events.

Since 2002, Rosewater has a weekly column called "Making Magic" on magicthegathering.com, the official site of Wizards of the Coast. In these columns, much like in his previous "Insider Trader"-columns he gives an inside look on how Magic cards are created.^[14] He has written on many controversial subjects, such as why Wizards of the Coast makes "bad rares".^[18][19] Other key subjects of his columns include Wizards of the Coast's "psychographic" profiles of players called "Timmy", "Johnny", and "Spike"^[20][21][22] and the color wheel.^{[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]} He often writes his articles in off-the-wall or unusual styles. For instance in one column he took the perspective of the Magic card "Welding Jar",^[31] in another he wrote from the perspective of the mechanic "splice".^[32] One article, which even had the subject "Mark Rosewater Admits He’s %#@$ Insane!" was written like a bulletin board on one of his columns.^[33] Many articles also touch upon his personal life.^[11] Rosewater claims he reads every email sent to him and has written several mailbag columns in which he responds to praise and criticism alike.^[34][35]

In December 2003 he became Magic's lead designer, later called head designer.^[36] Before that he was senior head designer.^[8] As head designer Rosewater has written a "State of Design"-column every year, in it he has reviewed the Magic design of the last year and he has written his plans for future Magic designs. His most important contribution as a head designer is the institution of block design.^[37]

Mark Rosewater's nickname is Maro. This came about because the old email system of WotC had a feature that could complete names based on the letters typed in and Bill Rose found out that the shortest unique combination of letters that he could write to email Mark Rosewater was Maro.^[12] In the Mirage expansion of the card game, a creature card named "Maro" named after him was included; Rosewater claims that it is his favorite magic card.^[12] Look at Me, I'm the DCI is his second favorite card. He made the art of this card himself.^[10] Rosewater considers his personality to align with that ascribed to blue-red in the game itself,^[38] and the player profile of "Johnny."^[11]

Private life[link]

Rosewater is married to Lora Rosewater.^[8] They have three children; a daughter Rachel (born 2000) and twins Adam and Sarah (born 2004).^[39] As a hobby Rosewater likes "stereotypically geeky things", such as comics, television, games and writing.^[11] For instance he owns a collection of action figures of comic book characters.^[40]

References[link]

External links[link]

• All Mark Rosewater articles on magicthegathering.com
• profile on IMDB.com
• Tales from the Pit, Mark Rosewater's blog on Tumblr