The Sultan’s Feast by Daniel L. Newman: Book Review
THE SULTAN’S FEAST
A Fifteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook
Ibn Mubārak Shāh
Edited, Translated and Introduced by Daniel L. Newman
Saqi Books
ISBN: 9780863561566
October 2020
Paperback 352pp*This book was kindly given by the publicity department at Saqi books for a review.*
(Note: Arabic transliteration has been copied from the translated text directly.)
Cookbooks are not just collections of recipes but living histories of the people involved in culinary traditions. Studying the history of food gives an insight into cross-cultural exchanges of culinary techniques, ingredients, and a broad linguistic map of words related to food. With such a background in mind, the author presents us with an English translation of the last known medieval Arabic culinary text, titled entitled Zahr al-ḥadīqa fi ’ l-aṭima al-anīqa (Flowers in the Garden of Elegant Foods) by Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad Ibn Mubārak Shāh (1403–1458) along with the original Arabic text.
The Arabic culinary tradition took roots during the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Islam under the auspices of the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258 CE). Cookbooks were being written from the 10th through the 13th centuries predating the earliest European counterparts. Spanning a geographical area including Egypt, Baghdad, Aleppo, al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), and Tunisia, cookery manuals not only included recipes but sometimes prose, poems, and anecdotes too. Certain books contained dietetic information and medicinal recipes. This was a time when medieval Islamic medicine inspired by Greek predecessors was based on a holistic approach to health. Galen and Hippocrates had already established ‘humorism’ as the framework for medical practices. Thus, ingredients and dishes were also served as medicines in several cases. The translation offers a peek into medieval Arab societies. Cities like Tunis, Cairo, Aleppo, and Damascus were the centers of culture and ambition. Wealthy patrons and cultured elites sponsored the transcription of such books. But rather than individual authors, these books were written by compilers who extracted information from royal cooks, caliphs, physicians, and recipe inventors.
The book presents a detailed account of the influence of other cultures on Arab cuisine. Trade routes between the Arab world and China, India, Greece, and North Africa left their footprints in culinary traditions and practices. Not only other cultures but different religious sects like the Nestorian Christians and the Jewish communities had their impact on the Muslim Arab cuisine. It brings a lively cosmopolitan facet of medieval Arabic society from the lens of how ingredients were used say in a broth or a pilaf recipe.
Ibn Mubārak Shāh (1403–1458 CE) lived in Cairo during a tumultuous political time when the Mamluks were threatened by the Mongols and the Ottomans were knocking at their doorstep. Sources describe him as a poet and a scholar. As mentioned in the book,
“The historical context in which the culinary treatise was written may shed some light on why someone like Ibn Mubārak Shāh, who was not a chef, should have committed these recipes to paper. These were not the times of opulent banquets and courts requiring elaborate recipes to impress diners. In light of the highly eclectic selection of dishes, he was one of those ‘obscure scholars[and] part-time epicures’, as Rodinson put it, compiling a private recipe book for dishes to be prepared in the household. Then again, one may draw a parallel with his interest in preserving poetry, and imagine his conceiving of the book as an anthology of sorts, recorded for posterity.”
Calligraphy enthusiasts like me will find pleasure in reproductions of the folio pages of the extant manuscript (currently at Gotha Libray in Erfurt). It is written in the Naskh script, one of the first Islamic calligraphy scripts used extensively in administrative documents and transcription of books.
Here is a list of Arabic culinary words and their origins/adaptations from the book that was interesting to my Asian culinary senses:
Dārṣīnī- The Arabic name for ‘cassia’, goes back to the Persian dārchīnī, meaning ‘Chinese wood, or bark’. Darchini is the vernacular Bengali word for ‘cinnamon’ and Dalchini is the Hindi counterpart.
Nārjīl- From Sanskrit narikela, ‘coconut’, also known in Arabic as jawz Hindī, ‘Indian walnut’).
Kurkum- From Sanskrit kuṅkuma, ‘saffron, turmeric’.
Bahaṭṭa- Arabic name for a rice dish from the Hindi bhat, ‘boiled rice’. Bengali word for ‘rice’ is bhaat.
Tannūr- The tannūr was the typical dome-shaped bread oven
in ancient Babylonia, and was known in Akkadian as tinūrū(m), which gave rise to the Persian tanūr, ‘clay oven’. Tandoori chicken is a delicacy in Indian cuisine.Tūt- ‘Black mulberry’ (Morus nigra). Juice of mulberries was often added to stews. ‘White mulberry’ trees are common in India. The fruits are called shahtoot in Hindi. This connection with the root word tut is my analysis and not mentioned in the book. As kids, we used to eat shahtoot berries which are sometimes black or lavender in color. The color of the fruit does not identify the mulberry species.
Sanbūsak- The origin of the word samosa. From Persian sambõsag which can be traced to the Pahlavi se, ‘three’ and ambos, ‘bread’. It also appears as
sanbūsaj or sanbūsaka.Zalābiyya- Fried fritters in various shapes (fingers, rings), sometimes added with honey and almonds, or with milk and clarified butter poured on. Often sold at markets by dedicated zulābiyya makers, known as zulbāniyyūn. Very popular still today all over the Middle East and South Asia. Origin of the Hindi word jalebi. Spiral fritters often golden to orange colored dipped in sugar syrup. Sometimes served with thick sweetened milk dessert called rabri in certain parts of North India.
The medieval recipes in the translated text include the use of unusual ingredients like ambergris, musk, rue, mastic, or spikenard. Once coveted for their exotic nature and pharmaceutical properties, these ingredients are now rarely used. Moreover, our modern palates no longer appreciate the sourness or sweetness that accompanies medieval meat dishes. A common flavor combination can be found in a chicken stew with sweetness from the use of cassia, sugar, pistachios, rose syrup, almonds, and sourness from vinegar or juice of sour grapes. There are certain dishes that still have remnants of these flavor profiles such as the Latin American ceviche.
Newman’s translation asserts the importance of cookery books in the broad scope of literature. Food brings not only culinary knowledge but geographical and social aspects of a particular culture too. Although the book is quite vivid and informative, let’s not forget that it does not reflect the lifestyle of the common people but only a glimpse of life led by privileged classes during the sumptuous Golden Age of Islam.
