Product Description

Vinegar and sugar, dried fruit, rose water, spices from India and China, sweet wine made from raisins and dates--these are the flavors of the golden age of Arab cuisine. This book, a delightful culinary adventure that is part history and part cookbook, surveys the gastronomical art that developed at the Caliph's sumptuous palaces in ninth-and tenth-century Baghdad, drew inspiration from Persian, Greco-Roman, and Turkish cooking, and rapidly spread across the Mediterranean. In a charming narrative, Lilia Zaouali brings to life Islam's vibrant culinary heritage.
The second half of the book gathers an extensive selection of original recipes drawn from medieval culinary sources along with thirty-one contemporary recipes that evoke the flavors of the Middle Ages. Featuring dishes such as Chicken with Walnuts and Pomegranate, Beef with Pistachios, Bazergan Couscous, Lamb Stew with Fresh Apricots, Tuna and Eggplant Purée with Vinegar and Caraway, and Stuffed Dates, the book also discusses topics such as cookware, utensils, aromatic substances, and condiments, making it both an entertaining read and an informative resource for anyone who enjoys the fine art of cooking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #635504 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 266 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780520247833
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Review
"Provide(s) enough historical context for the reader to fully appreciate the important role that Islamic culinary history has."--Choice

About the Author
Lilia Zaouali was born in Tunisia and earned a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University Sorbonne-Paris. She has taught at the University of Jussieu Paris-7 and the Sarah Lawrence American Academy. The author of numerous essays and scientific articles, Zaouali is a contributor to SLOW, among other journals.

Customer Reviews

"Bang the casserole against the ground," an instruction from one of the recipes in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World (p.135)
"Bang the casserole against the ground," an instruction from one of the recipes in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World (p.135). (Kids, do not do this at home!)

The book was written in French, translated to Italian, and from the Italian into English, that is a long journey to take for a text dealing with medieval Islamic cookery written originally in Arabic. The book, nevertheless, generally makes a smooth read, with the exception of some instances where the reader is left puzzled whether the translation, the writer or the original Arabic texts and recipes are indeed to blame. Some things did get lost in translation, all right.

There are places where ingredients are wrongly identified and sentences not accurately construed. For instance, according to a recipe, the dish is presented by stacking chicken pieces on top of each other (p.64), whereas in reality, the recipe asks the cook to arrange the pieces (tunadhdhad) on the platter. A medieval pot called dast is inaccurately translated as a `jar.' Jam, once again, is rendered as a jar (196), whereas, in the medieval culinary lingo it is actually a platter. Pickled lemons kept in brine (musayyar), the signature condiment of the North African cuisine then and now, is erroneously rendered as `candied lemon' (p.67), or `lemon coated with salt' (p. 138). The flavor of one of the dishes in a recipe is described as "sweet and sour flavor that influences the mood of the person who eats it (p. 81)," whereas the original recipe simply suggests that the sweetness and sourness of the dish is to be determined by the eater's mizaj temperament, in modern terms, "adjust to taste." The green seeds in one of the recipes are not cardamom as rendered (p. 130), but terebinth berries. The quince and onions that have been "chopped but not cut up into pieces," (p. 139) - does not make sense at all, are in fact to be "slashed into sections, but not all the way down" as the original Arabic recipe instructs. Some of the statements sound rather funny, a condiment recipe, for instance calls for "locusts that have returned from hunting" (p. 140), which should be "locusts that have just been caught," 140). Or, the recipe instructs the cook to "bang the casserole against the ground" (135)- sounds like the medieval cook was under a lot of stress! In fact, the cook is asked to put the pot on the ground away from the fire, and beat the cooking dessert vigorously. There are also some inaccurate generalizations, such as fish was mostly consumed dried in the eastern medieval Islamic world.

The best part in the book is the first, dealing with background of the medieval Arab cuisine. It is well researched, although I find it strange that there is no bibliography. It would have been nice to see the sources that contributed to the research put together at one place, as I do not think the inclusion of a bibliography would have made the book less appetizing to the `general reader.' In the third part, which entirely focuses on modern North African dishes, the writer's own cuisine, I felt the need, especially when in a lazy mood, for a brief note telling me where in the second part (dealing with the original medieval recipes) a given modern recipe has its counterpart. Besides, medieval weights are not explained, neither are we given the modern equivalents, except for the pound, which is mentioned alongside the dirham and uqiyya, which does not help much.

I also find it odd that the back flap of the dust jacket, while it includes a brief description of the writer and the forwarder, the translator, who, besides working on the text and has, in his own words, "made a great many changes to the organization of the Italian edition while also adding a good deal of material to the text, glossary and notes" was left out. As a reader, I am entitled to know something about him, as well.

All things considered, the book after all is what it claims to be, a concise history. It is smartly packaged and priced, visually appealing with some color medieval illustrations. So, all in all, it can be a fair deal.

Missing Culinary Links
This is not a deep scholarly work. It is however, quite useful for the historical cook and those interested in the development of Middle Eastern cuisine. It begins with a brief but informative forward by Charles Perry. Then the primary text is divided into three sections.

Part One is called "Cultural Background and Culinary Context". It is a series of connected essays divided into two parts, "Crossroads of the World's Cuisines" and "Materials, Techniques, and Terminology". These cover, among other things, a brief overview of known Arabic-language culinary texts, ingredients, and cooking techniques, and includes some useful photos of extant cookware and serving dishes, although only a rather limited number. There is little new here for the reader already familiar with Prospect Books' excellent _Medieval Arab Cookery_ or David Waines' _In A Caliphs Kitchen_, long out of print.

Part Two, "The Medieval Tradition" consists of 143 recipes from four sources, three not yet fully translated into English, one only relatively recently available: _Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar Al-warraq's Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook_ (Islamic History and Civilization) by Nawal Nasrallah. Zaouali includes 24 recipes from this vast source, which I assume she translated herself.

The second through fourth are from the 13th century. The _Kitab Fadalat al-khiwan fi tayyibat al-ta'am w'al-alwan_ is by Ibn Razin al-Tujibi from al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), from which there are 53 recipes. The third is the _Wusla ila'l-habib fi wasf al-tayyabat wa'l-tib_ from Syria. Maxime Rodinson listed all its recipes (in _Medieval Arab Cookery_, Prospect Books), but only a few have been available in translation -- now we have 29 of them. And the fourth manuscript is the Egyptian _Kanz al-fawa'id fi tanwi' al-mawa'id_, which is the source of 37 recipes.

The recipes are arranged into 14 sections by type. Among them is "Bread and Broth", which actually covers Tharids, a classic dish of the medieval Arabic-speaking world. There is also a section on "Pasta" with directions for making several different kinds. And a section on "Couscous" includes five recipes and a description of a medieval pot for cooking it, which is rather like the modern couscousière. In "Pastries and Jams" is a recipe for Quince Sikanjubin (from the _Kanz_) which is the only medieval sikanjubin recipe I've seen that includes ingredients other than water, vinegar, and honey or sugar.

All the recipes are given in translation only, which we would expect. Unfortunately, however, the author often substitutes her own titles, without including a transliteration of the original name, which I want to see. Most recipes are introduced by a brief paragraph which may include history, discussion of techniques or ingredients, or mention of a modern recipe that is related. The recipes are not modernized, and so are just waiting for us to get our "redaction" chops on them, that is, working on them so we can cook them ourselves. I love working out a historical recipe: it's like solving a mystery, one that is edible and nearly always delicious, and if it isn't tasty, reworking it until I get it right.

However, the source books are from four different cultures and two widely separated centuries, yet there is little analysis of them. Thus we get no deep understanding of the changes in the cuisine of the Arabic-speaking medieval world over time and geography. Second, there's only a little discussion of the differences between Eastern and Western Arabic cuisine, that is, the cuisines of the Middle East (Southwest Asia) versus those of al-Maghrib (western North Africa) and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), far from the center of the Muslim world. These are but two failings of this book.

Part Three, "Contemporary North African Cuisine", comprises 31 modern North African recipes, chosen because Zaouali thinks each is similar to a medieval recipe elsewhere in the book. Zaouali should have provided more analysis and comparison so we can better understand why she thinks these recipes developed from the medieval ones she included. Still, some of them are for interesting dishes I don't recall seeing in any of my other North African cookbooks, so I get some value from this section.

Ziryab, in his review of January 3, 2008, wonders about the translator. In fact, many of the additions, glossary, and notes he added were made in consultation with Charles Perry, who ultimately contributed more to the value of this book than just the forward.

While not the masterwork of scholarship that Nasrallah's _Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens_ is, Zaouali's book is far less expensive, and it includes recipes not in any other book. So for those interested in historical cookery, but not demanding much in the way of scholarship, this is a book worth adding to one's library.

adventures in food
Fascinating history of Islamic cookery from Persia to Spain, recipes are translated exactly but clearly. A glossary of untranslated terms is provided but could have been improved by a simple table of equivalent measures. The reader is left mostly to his own devices when finding modern substitutes for medieval seasonings though there is some discussion of what they would have tasted like. (trust me, you don't want to make kamakh, but thinning bleu cheese with milk should come close enough)