(2007)  Page(s) 15.  
 
A species closely allied to the centifolia, the Damask rose (Rosa damascena), which is known in Persian as the Muhammadan rose (gul-i Muḥammadĩ), represented the chief source of rose water (gulāb) and rose oil ('ațr > Eng. attar) in Iran. The highly fragrant, rose-pink species apparently obtained its name from the Islamic legendary belief that the rose was created from the drops of perspiration that fell from the forehead of the orophet Muhammad during his miraculous nocturnal ascent (mi`rāj) through the seven heavens to the Throne of God. This legend represented an imaginative extrapolation from the traditional Islamic accounts that held that the Prophet exhibited a characteristic feature of sanctity in that his body exuded a fragrant odor. The association of the rose with Islam's Prophet was expressed in many spiritually and artistically creative ways, one of which was the depiction of the Muhammadan rose with the ninety-nine epithets of Muhammad inscribed on its petals.
According to medieval sources, the finest quality rose water in the Near East was produced in the Region of Shiraz in the southern Iranian province of Fars, whence it was exported to all parts of the world, including Egypt, India, and China, and referred to simply as the "Persian rose" (gul-i fārsī). In the high caliphal period (circa ninth century), the province of Fars was known to have sent thirty thousand flasks of rose water and one thousand measures of rose honey to the 'Abbasid treasury in Baghdad as part of its annual Tribute.

(2007)  Page(s) 15, 20-21.  Includes photo(s).
 
p. 15: No species of rose was more important economically or culturally more significant in Iran than the "hundred-petalled rose" (gul-i şad barg) or Rosa centifolia. Characterized by its densely packed petals, it was highly valued for the sweetness of its scent. The thirteenth-century agricultural and horticultural manual, Āsār va aḥyā' [by Rashid al-din Fadl-allāh Hamadānī (1247?-1318)], mentions varieties with one hundred and even two hundred petals, and the Irshad al-zirā‘a refers to both yellow and red varieties, such as the "fiery centifolia of Mashhad" (ātish ĩ mashhadĩ) Commonly referred to in the West as the Cabbage rose, it was introduced into Europe via the Netherlands in the sixteenth or early seventeenth century, either directly from Iran during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I, a period of vigorous trade Relations and cultural Exchange between the Safavid state and Holland, or else through the Ottoman empire during the time of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, whose court evinced an unprecedented interest in the culture of flowers, and in roses and rose oil in particular.

p. 20-21: The use of flowers and floral symbolism figured prominently in ancient Iranian religions, which developed an Elaborate "language of flowers"...In Zoroastrian religion, and especially in Mazdaism, a different flower or herb was associated with each of the deities called yazatas, who presided over the days of the month and who were honored in special liturgical ceremonies. ....the rose was associated...with Daena, one of the female yazatas, who was the deity of Religion. Moreover, her species of rose was even specified in the Pahlavi texts as the gul-e sad varg (New Per. gul-i şad barg), the "hundred-petalled rose," that is, Rosa centifolia, which as already indicated was renowned for its sweet fragrance.
The Daena represented a central concept in Zoroastrian theology, daēnā (Middle Pers. dēn denoting religion not in the traditional sense but, rather, man's spiritual self, his inner vision, and moral conscience. In view of the importance of the sophianic principle in Zoroastrianism, daēnā also referred to innate humen wisdom as an emanation of divine wisdom, a quality always associated in Persian thought with the feminine. Henry Corbin discerned in the figure of the Daena the female archetype of wisdom and intuitive vision who represents the secret presence of the Eternal feminine in man, and who, necessarily construed as an angelophany, is the "Angel of his incarnate soul," his heavenly guide and celestial Counterpart (see Fig. 1). [Angel Holding a hundred-petalled rose, Rosa centifolia, Iran, 1575-1600. Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Art and History Collection, LTS1995.2.72.]
...Daena's appearance was heralded by her beautiful scent, which could be discerned from afar by the soul of the righteous as she wafted toward him like a perfumed breeze. This scent, which stemmed from her association with the centifolia rose, was interpreted as the scent of the soul itself, a notion supported by her reply when asked about her identity: "I am none other than you yourself...your own daēnā, who has been made beautiful by your own nature."

(2007)  Page(s) 14.  
 
The Irshad al-zirā‘a ("Guidance on Agriculture"), an exhaustive treatise compiled in eastern Iran in 1521, lists besides the many varities of red rose (gul-i-surkh), roses named "the five-petalled" (panj barg), "the two-colored" or "two-faced" (dau rang, dau rū), "the musk rose" (mushkĩn), "the dappled rose" (abrash), and "the Baghdad rose" (baghdādĩ), among others.