Was looking up the history of soju, learned the process of making it came to Korea because of the Mongols and it was called the Levantine distillation process. This lead me to learn that both the root word for alcohol and the process of making the hard stuff came from the Arabs.
All I can say is thank you Arabic science for making my new years that much better!
fun thing the wiki page says is that it was invented during the time islam was quite firmly set into their culture. Ibn Hayyan said he didn't see any use for it beyond the scientific, but apparently when it got out to the common folk they fucking loved it. Arak's attributed to being the first liquor made through the Levantine distillation process, and is still drunk to this day in the arabian peninsula.
My dad had a bottle of arak growing up, its good stuff!
if it's anything like oozou, I bet it is!
Similar flavor profiles, I think. Been a long, long time.