The Scent of Peace?

May 19, 2008

The World Economic Forum on the Middle East at Sharm El Sheikh reeks of solemnity. There is a sense that the people who attend this annual business-driven meeting carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. With speeches by three heads of state (Presidents Hosni Mubarak and George W. Bush and King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud) at the opening event Sunday, with 1,500 world leaders from many different sectors, the gravity of the issues at hand seemed overwhelming.

So I was intrigued to see, amid this serious talk, a session about interreligious dialogue, scent and religion. This was a part of the forum devoted to dialogue between the Muslim World and the West.

As the â€œscent of peace and dialogueâ€ was released into the air, Christophe Laudamiel, senior perfumer from International Flavors and Fragrances (a New York based group), presented a narrative of why smells and religion are intricately linked. The perfume, he said, was made up of scents reminiscent of the three monotheistic faiths that were born in the Middle East: musk and rose, representing Islam, frankincense and sea breeze, symbolizing Christianity, and Jaffa citrus and orange, for the Jewish faith. Added to it is Egyptian absolute (a perfume fixant) and jasmine. And finally a whiff of sandalwood.

We were reminded that in the past religious leaders were experts of the olfactory, both because they were keepers of most learning in ancient times and because they understood how important the sense of smell is for peopleâ€™s state of mind. Smell affects mood and thinking, and influences how people communicate. Some universities are studying its properties and Harvard University, Laudamiel said, has been asked to create an archive of scents.

In the midst of the intractable problems the conference is addressing, it was refreshing to have a whiff of something new.

About the Author

Katherine Marshall

Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, leads the center’s work on religion and global development. She is also a professor of the practice of development, conflict, and religion in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, teaching diverse courses on the ethics of development work and mentoring students at many levels. She helped to create and now serves as the executive director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue, an NGO that works to enhance bridges between different sectors and institutions. In September 2022, she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Marshall has five decades of experience on a variety of development issues in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and the Middle East, particularly those facing the world’s poorest countries. She was a World Bank officer from 1971 to 2006, and she led the World Bank’s faith and ethics initiative between 2000 and 2006. Marshall is a member of the Working Group on Child Rights and Family Values and the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, both part of the Culture of Encounter Project.