What is "qamsar"

Qamsar (, also Qamşar, Ghamsar and Kamsār) is a village in central Iran. It is the administrative centre of the Qamsar District, which forms part of Kashan County in the Province of Isfahan. In the 2006 census the population was 3,566, in 1,048 families.

From the 13th century and possibly considerably earlier, cobalt was mined near Qamsar. The metal oxide was exported all over the Muslim world for use as the cobalt blue pigment in the decoration of pottery. It is possible that the cobalt ore was also exported to China. In 1301 Abū'l-Qāsim, who came from a family of tilemakers based in Kashan, wrote a treatise on the manufacture of fritware ceramics in which he mentions the village as a source of cobalt ore. Albert Houtum-Schindler visited the village at the end of the 19th century when Qamsar was "a large and flourishing village of about three hundred houses with extensive gardens with fine roses used for the manufacture of rosewater." He described the processing and marketing of the cobalt containing ore.

Qamsar is the biggest center in the Middle East in production of rose water. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by Qamsar rose water.