Description

This very prestigious book had been long-awaited before it was finally published in 2001. It was initiated decades ago by Alan Davidson and grew substantially through the delays, making it all the more valuable as a collection of brilliant scholarship and translation. It makes available in English numerous Arab recipes from various sources dating back as far as the 10th century, while at the same time illuminating the development of Arab cuisines against a historical and sociological background. Western study of medieval Arab cuisine was first encouraged by A.J. Arberry's translation of the 13th-century cookery book Kitab al-Tabikh, published in 1939 in the periodical Islamic Culture. Certainly since then more and more non-Arab diners - not to mention scholars - have become aware of the continuities in Middle Eastern cookery and have been tantalized by the influence of Islamic cooking on the medieval West. The volume includes Arberry's pathbreaking translation along with works by French scholar, Maxime Rodinson and Charles Perry and is introduced with any essay by Claudia Roden.