Baghdad Cookery Book

By (author) Muhammad bin al-Hasan al-Baghdadi Translated by Charles Perry

Book cover: Baghdad Cookery Book

Extent: 127 pages

Publisher: Prospect Books

Subjects: Food & Drink, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval Studies

Language: English

(Paperback) (Published)

(December 2005)

ISBN: 9781903018422

5.45 x 7.35 inches

Price: $20.00

In stock

This is a translation of the Kitâb al Tabîkh, composed by a thirteenth-century scribe we usually call al-Baghdadi. It was long the only medieval Arabic cookery book known to the English-speaking world.


This is a translation of the Kitab al Tabikh, composed by a thirteenth-century scribe we usually call al-Baghdadi. It was long the only medieval Arabic cookery book known to the English-speaking world, thanks to A.J.Arberry’s path-breaking 1939 translation as ‘A Baghdad Cookery Book’ (reissued by Prospect Books in 2001 in Medieval Arab Cookery). For centuries, it had been the favourite Arabic cookery book of the Turks. The original manuscript, formerly held in the library of the Aya Sofya Mosque, is still in Istanbul; it is now MS Ayasofya 3710 in the Suleymaniye Library. At some point a Turkish sultan commissioned very a handsome copy, now MS Oriental 5099 in the British Library in London. At a still later time, a total of about 260 recipes were added to Kitab al Tabikh’s original 160 and the expanded edition was retitled Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada (Charles Perry’s translation of it also appears in Medieval Arab Cookery); three currently known copies of K.Wasf survive, all in Turkey – two of them in the library of the Topkapi Palace, showing the Turks’ high regard for this book. Finally, in the late fifteenth century Sirvani made a Turkish translation of Kitab al Tabikh, to which he added some recipes current in his own day, making this the first Turkish-language cookery book.

Introduction by Charles Perry
The book of dishes
Introduction which needs to be known
On sour dishes and their varieties
On plain dishes according to [their variety]
Mentioning fried dishes, dry dishes and their kinds
On harīsa, tannūriyya and other dishes made that way
On muajjanāt, cold dishes, maqlūba, samosas [and what is analogous to them]
Mentioning fish and what is made from them
On pickles, relishes and condiments
Jūdhābs, puddings and what is analogous to them
Mentioning sweetmeats and their varieites of that (sort)
On making khushkanānaj, mutbaq, crepes and things mixed with flour that are analgous to those

 
 

  • By (author) Muhammad bin al-Hasan al-Baghdadi
  • Translated by Charles Perry