fd-Persia-msg - 5/4/19

Food of medieval Persia. References.

NOTE: See also the files: fd-Byzantine-msg, fd-Mid-East-msg, fd-Turkey-msg, cookbooks-msg, books-food-msg, cookbooks-bib, merch-cookbks-msg, rice-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 23:57:52 +0100
From: TG <gloning at Mailer.Uni-Marburg.DE>
Subject: Re: SC - Persian cooking

<< But, would they have used much rice at all in period? >>

Adam Olearius who travelled from Germany to Persia in 1635-39 in a
diplomatic mission reports about many dinners and banquets. Rice seems
to have played a very important role:

"Die Sch¸sseln waren alle mit auffgewalletem Reifl angef¸llet/ vnd oben
mit gesottenem Schafffleisch/ gebratenen H¸nern/ Eyerkuchen/ gekochten
Spinat ... beleget ... Neben solchen gedachten quotlibet Speisen/ wurden
auch absonderliche Sch¸sseln mit Reifl von mancherley Farben gesetzet"
(ed. 1656, p. 511).
Upshot: the dishes were filled with rice with the other stuff on top of
it; in addition there were separate dishes with rice in different
colors.

In his short chapter on Persian food and drink he says among other
things:
"Jhr principal Gericht/ so sie jhnen allezeit zuerst vortragen lassen/
ist schlechter auffgewalleter Reifl/ welchen sie Plau nennen/ worauff in
gemein gekocht Schafffleisch lieget. Sie richten auch den Reifl auff
vnterschiedliche art zu/ vermischen jhn mit Corinthen/ Mandelen/ f‰rben
jhn mit Safft von Granaten/ oder Kirschen/ Jtem mit Saffran/ ... Sie
belegen auch den Reifl mit gebratenen H¸nern vnd Fischen/ ... Sie essen
zwar den Reifl an statt des Brodts/ aber haben gleichwol auch
vnterschiedliche arten von Brodt/ so von Weitzen gebacken: ..." (p. 594f.)
Upshot: their main dish (_plau_) is based on rice; there are many other
ways to prepare rice ...; they use rice instead of bread, however, they
have also different kinds of bread ...

Other information includes: the use of wine, coffee, tea, fruits,
eggplants ("Noch eine vns Deutschen vnbekante Frucht haben sie/
Padintzan genandt/ ... Es wird nicht roh gegessen/ weil sie etwas
bitter/ aber gekocht/ vnd in Butter gebraten sol ein delicat essen
seyn"; p. 576 'In addition they have a fruit that is unknown in Germany
(!!) called Padintzan [=Badinjan, eggplant], the fruit is not eaten
uncooked, because it is somewhat bitter, rather the fruit is cooked and
fried in butter, and it is said to be a quite delicat dish') and so
forth...

There are earlier travelogues of this kind.

Th.


From: "Jim and Andi" <icbhod at home.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] black sugar
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 01:38:41 -0600

stefan at texas.net writes:
> They fed the unrefined sugar to horses? Or the sugar cane? Or really
> just what remained after crushing the sugar cane?

Nope, it says in _Food and Drinks in Mughal India_ "The jagre was available
in such abundance that it was given even to horses" pg 40, under "Sugar" and
the reference is from Manrique, 1629.

Madhavi


Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 09:15:57 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Rumi, was FW: Turkish Recipe
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Rumi's dates are given as 1207-1273, that's thirteenth century,
despite a reviewer's confusion.

He was actually Persian and wrote his poetry in Persian, primarily,
and Arabic, secondarily, not in Turkish, as far as i can tell. It's
hard to find his personal name, it may have been Muhammed. Jalal
al-Din, sometimes written Jalaladin or Jalaluddin, was his Sufi
title, and the name by which he was usually known.

His family lived in Balkh when he was young. That's now in
Afghanistan, but it was a major cultural center in the eastern
Persian Empire throughout SCA period. His father, Muhammad ibn
Hussain Khatibi, whose Sufi title was Baha' al-Din Walad, was a well
regarded Sufi at the time. The family moved westward in Persia to
Nishapour when Rumi was around 12, possibly due to pressure from
invaders, and eventually moved to Baghdad, where the primary spoken
and literary language was Arabic. The family went on the hajj
(pilgrimage to Mecca), then moved to the city of Konya in
south-central Anatolia, at the request of the ruler who wanted Rumi's
father as a teacher.

"Rumi" was Arabic for "Roman". Byzantium was called "Rum", meaning
"Rome", which the Byzantines considered themselves to be the
continuation of. Konya is in an area that had been part of the
Byzantine Empire. Konya had earlier been part of Byzantium, then had
been incorporated into the Seljuk Turkish Empire. By the time of
Rumi's life, it was an independent "kingdom", after the Seljuk Empire
came apart at the end of the 12th century, known as Rum. "Rumi" means
"of Rum" or "from Rum" and was added to his name
   He became popularly known as Rumi in the 19th century.

As for being best-selling poet in America, this is the case in the
past decade or so. Here in NoCal, there are frequent nights of Rumi,
either readings or readings with music, and lectures by various
translators and re-workers of his writings, such as Coleman Barks or
Shahram Shiva, are packed to the rafters.

I haven't been able to find any information about a dietary manual,
although i have found a site that lists the foods he mentions in his
poems. I don't know if this is accurate, as far as Rumi's poetry
goes, but the food list is pretty accurate for the 9th-15th century
Arabic language recipes i have, some of which are of Persian origin.
http://www.superluminal.com/cookbook/essay_rumi_food.html
-- 
Urtatim, formerly Anahita


Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:59:51 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Question & Artemisian Iron Chef
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Jeanne P / Casamira <jeannecas at gmail.com>
> I need some good period sources for Chinese / Persian cooking that
> show which ingredients were used in period.
> Was Coconut milk ever used?  Can it be documented?
> I know it's not part of Mediterianian, French or English medieval 
> fare.

Well, i haven't run across Chinese Persian cooking :-)

But i have found information about Persian cooking in two books.

One is the inestimable "Medieval Arab Cookery". While none of the
cookbooks therein are Persian, Charles Perry has footnoted
extensively, pointing out the Persian linguistic and cultural roots
of many of the recipes. There are also quite a few essays by Perry
discussing specific styles or ingredients, and many of them touch on
Persian cooking. I find this book to be invaluable.

The other is a recently published Indian cookbook with Persian
content, The Ni'matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu: The
Sultan's Book of Delights, translated by Norah M. Titley.
RoutledgeCurzon, 2005.

So while neither is purely Persian, "Medieval Arab Cookery" shows the
confluence of Arab and Persian, and the Ni'matnama shows the
confluence of Persian and Indian.

I have heard of surviving Persian cookbooks, but to the best of my
understanding one or two exist, but have never been translated into
English.

Was coconut milk used? By whom? Obviously it was used in the tropical
regions where the coconut palm grows... but i don't recall any
European recipes using it, nor any Arab recipes. It does show up in
the Perso-Indian cookbook...
--  
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 17:25:32 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Question & Artemisian Iron Chef
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Jeanne P / Casamira <jeannecas at gmail.com>
> I need some good period sources for Chinese / Persian cooking that
> show which ingredients were used in period.
> Was Coconut milk ever used?  Can it be documented?
> I know it's not part of Mediterianian, French or English medieval  
> fare.

You might also look at "A Soup for the Khan", which is mostly Mongol
recipes, but some have Persian influences.  It's frightfully expensive,
but you may be able to find it in a larger library...or get it on
inter-Library loan.

Kiri


Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 16:47:00 -0600
From: "caointiarn" <caointiarn1 at juno.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Persian cooking texts
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>,
	<jeannecas at gmail.com>

Baroness Casamira asked:
>I need some good period sources for Chinese / Persian cooking that show
which ingredients were used in period.<

     My first guess would be to check with Jaelle's bibliography (it's  
in the Flori-thingy)  for texts.

  I found a couple with Devra (?)  -- and one I bought is  _The Legendary
Cuisine of Persia_ by Margaret Shaida.   I haven't had a chance to read it
yet, as it was intended for a gift.

Caointiarn


Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 13:22:47 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Moghul Food
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> I was recently told about some controversy in my Kingdom in which a
> Laurel recognized for her work in Persian studies announced in
> connection with some local cook's modern Middle Eastern cooking that
> modern ME cooking is fine for SCA use since Persian cooking has not
> changed materially for 1000 years, and her correspondents in modern
> Iran confirm this.

Aargh! Aargh! Aargh! (sound of hair being torn out).

I'm on quite a few Near and Middle Eastern oriented SCA e-lists. This
was the sort of thing i heard about garb back in the dark ages when i
joined up (7 years ago :-) People complained that it was too
difficult and too expensive to make period Near/Middle Eastern garb.
And besides, things hadn't changed (insert Carl Sagan voice) in
*thousands* of years (end Carl Sagan voice).

(and i found his intonation especially annoying when i was in labor
in the maternity ward and he was on TV. I switched to the World
Series. Much better)

> The guy who told me about all this is another Laurel who has
> extensively studied the Persian culture in our period, but hasn't
> done much of a study on food, and merely suspected that this claim
> was utter sheepdip, without any hard evidence of same.

Wow! Someone else who says "sheepdip" instead of a shorter word!

Well, this guy is absolutely correct. Yeah, yeah, i don't know of an
SCA period Persian cookbook, but looking through "period" Andalusi,
Egyptian, 'Abbasid, and Ottoman cookbooks and comparing the cuisine
to modern recipes, it's easy to see that are significant differences.
How'd this female get a Laurel?!? (don't answer. I know, i'm not
displaying "peer like qualities")

> I got out a modern Persian cookbook and showed him an approximate
> percentage of dishes prominently featuring ingredients the Persians
> almost certainly could not have had access to 1000 years ago. I
> pointed out that I couldn't be sure of the extent to which cooking
> methods and styles had changed, but that the likelihood was that some
> ancient, traditional methods had survived, and some had probably
> changed per the same cultural and social forces that caused available
> foodstuffs to change. Looking at Kitab al-Tabikh, which may not be
> completely identifiable with the Persian cookery of its time, but
> which appears to be Persian-influenced, at least, we find some pretty
> significant differences in techniques and styles.

Oh, yeah. So many of the dishes have Persian derived names and are
supposedly based on Persian recipes. This is also true of that
handful of 15th C. Ottoman recipes recently published - lots of
Persian influence.

Related, but tangential... when Ibn Battuta visited with Turkic
people in the 14th century, they eschewed sweet dishes. By the 16th
century, with the rise to power of the Ottomans, the Turks in
Istanbul had developed an enormous sweet tooth. And that's in less
than 200 years!

According to Yerasimos who translated those 15th c. Ottoman recipes,
the Ottomans didn't adopt tomatoes and bell peppers until the 18th
century, and yet they are such an integral part of modern Turkish
cuisine.

So how could Persian cuisine stay the same until the 21st century,
especially when there were in the midst of so many trade routes and
and so many wars?
-----
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:17:02 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] SCA-period Persian Cookbooks
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

I've been corresponding with Charles Perry, translator of the 13th C.
Andalusian Cookbook and the NEW translation of the 13th C. Kitab
al-Tabikh by al-Baghdadi (which arrived yesterday, whoo-hoo!). He has
been very open and helpful.

Among other things, i asked him about Persian cookbooks, because i
keep reading about one or two, but the authors never mention names,
locations, or any details.

He sent me the following:
> There are two manuscripts from the Safaid period
> "Karnameh dar Bab-e Tebakhi ve-Son'at-e An"
> and
> "Maddetol-Hayat -- Resale dar 'Elm-e Tebakhi."
> They were edited and published together by Iraj Afshar in AH 1360  
> (1941)

Afshar was a well regarded scholar of Persian history.

Perry also suggested that there was a later edition, but i don't know  
details.

I'm going to try to track this down. Ooo, ooo, another project. I'm
hoping that my friend 'A'isha, who has studied a bit of Persian, will
help. But there's no reason that someone else shouldn't also.

My understanding it that the books are rather different. The earlier
one is recipes with weights and measures. The later one is a bid more
florid, but gives good info, if less specific and concise.

If anyone finds them before i do, please let me know.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 10:47:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] recipes from Iran around 1600

There is an article about 'research on culinary culture of Iran', published in German:
Bert G. Fragner: "Zur Erforschung der kulinarischen  Kultur Irans", in: Die Welt des Islams 23-24 (1984), pp. 320-360.

The authors mention two old cookery books, one of Ba'urci Bagdadi (1521), the other one from one Master Nurollah. The latter was written down between 1594 and 1618, as far as I can see from page 326.

The author publishes 18 pages of recipes on different rice dishes from Nurollah's book in German translation. These also include a few of Nurollah's notes on food preferences, e.g. of Schah Esma'il (1576-78).

On page 326 in footnote 18, the author mentions the edition he based his translation on.

The article is available in the jstor database.

E.


Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2010 10:41:59 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cuskynoles

Katherine wrote:
<<< How interesting that the way to cut out the dough was as small circles.  I
think she is telling us parenthetically that the word 'nan' implies a
circular shape.  Modernly does nan/naan mean this?  Or could it be also
translated as loaf? >>>

Then and now "nan" is Persian for "bread" - the word is used in 
cognate languages, and was borrowed by other unrelated South and 
Central Asian languages. In Persian it is written with an alif, which 
is a strong "a", so is pronounced almost like "non". Nan bread does 
not come in loaves. It comes in breads: one nan, two nan (whatever 
the plural is, nan-i (?)), three nan, etc.

Nan can be cooked slapped onto the sides of a tannur (the original 
Arabic word; So. Asian word "tandoor" comes from "tundur", the Turkic 
pronunciation of tannur), on the floor of a tannur on a tray of hot 
pebbles, on a pan on a charcoal fire, etc.

I haven't heard of an historical humpy lumpy Persian loaf cooked in an oven.

Now, the Arabic khubz (means "bread") can be flat and cooked on the 
walls of a tannur, or in a tray on the floor of a tannur, or on a 
convex iron pan on a charcoal fire, or in some other type of pan on a 
charcoal fire, AND it CAN be humpy lumpy and cooked in a more 
European style oven, "furn", in which case it is rounded, somewhat 
like a French boule, but quite unlike it in texture and flavor. This 
Arabic word goes back to Medieval times in al-Andalus, borrowed from 
the Spanish or Catalan for oven.

Historically nan and most forms of khubz are flatbreads and I just 
don't think of flatbreads like ruqaq (which is like lavash) or nan 
(some of which are can be 3 feet long but about 3/4 inch high) as 
"loaves".

BTW, in kushknanaj/kushkananaj, the stress is on the syllable "-nan".
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Wed, 11 May 2011 19:14:58 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] 16th c. Persian Safavid cookbooks

Today while searching for a completely trivial cosmetic product, i 
turned up my photocopy of the book published in Tehran in the late 
20th c. containing transcriptions of the two 16th c. Safavid 
cookbooks. Huzzah! As i do not read Persian (although i have a hefty 
modern Persian dictionary to play with), i cannot tell if they are in 
16th c. Persian, modern Persian, or both.

Thanks to the 1984 scholarly article by Bert Fragner i translated 
from German, coupled with my slight knowledge of Arabic numerals from 
my studies of the Arabic language, i know which pages each of the two 
books is on.

More than one person on this list has offered to attempt a bit of 
translation - at the very least through co-workers Iranian in origin. 
Thank you for your past offers of help! If those people would contact 
me off list, i will see about scanning some test pages and sending 
them to you.

And here's looking forward to some recipes beyond the 66 mostly meaty 
rice polaw recipes i translated from German into English, as tasty as 
the ones i have cooked have been. I want some vegetables, dammit!  :-)
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:02:02 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: SCA-Cooks <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] 16th c. Persian Lime Quince Polaw Preview

I'm still working over the web page, and it is subject to some changes, but here is the recipe for Beh Limu Polaw (Lime and Quince Polaw) i and my intrepid students cooked at the West Coast Culinary Symposium, in the San Francisco Bay Area, on 11 February 2012.
http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/LimeQuincePolaw.html

This makes a massive amount - i was asked to cook two steam table tray's worth, and that's about what this makes - it is, after all, a main course main dish. However, there was so much delicious food cooked in other classes and shared at dinner that there was enough polaw for two more meals.

I will try to figure out a smaller amount for more ordinary home cooking.

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 15:12:59 -0600
From: Ursula Whitcher <ursula at tutelaries.net>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] rice cooked in yogurt?

<<< I will begin by pointing out that I know very little about Middle Eastern
cuisine modern or otherwise, so forgive me if this is way off the mark. I
have a recipe floating around somewhere for a supposedly Persian dish of
rice and lentils (it's in a modern cookbook with no pretensions to being an
ancient recipe, just 'traditional'). The rice and lentils are partially
cooked, then some of the rice is removed and mixed with yoghurt and placed
in the bottom of the saucepan. The rest then goes on top and the whole lot
is steamed (the instructions say to wrap the lid in a wet teatowel before
replacing it firmly on the saucepan) for another thirty minutes, with the
idea that the rice and yoghurt form a crunchy crust on the bottom. This
crust is supposedly called a 'tahdeeg'. Perhaps this kind of thing is
intended by this recipe?

I did try making this once, and it was nice, but the end result was not
exactly crunchy (I expect there's a bit of a knack to it). >>>

Yes, this is a classic Persian technique, and the crust is very good.
One way to get a crunchy tah dig is to heat the oil quite hot and
leave the heat up as you pile the rice & yoghurt and then the rest of
the parboiled rice on top.  Only then do you turn the heat down and
steam.  (My sister's ex is Persian, and the whole family learned some
of the recipes.)

But I don't know of any evidence that tah dig is a medieval feature of
Persian cooking.

Ursula Georges.


Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 12:58:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] New blog on Persian food history

Can't speak to its quality.

A history of Persian Food through the ages aashpaz.com, a site  dedicated to Persian food, its history and influence on the cuisine of the  surrounding regions
http://www.aashpaz.com/newwordpress/

Jim  Chevallier


From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Persian
Date: May 2, 2014 3:27:57 PM CDT
To: Cooks List SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Gwen Cat wrote:
<<< looking for resources for Period Persian. Most specifically, I have been told there are standard(ish) spice blends... like the  Persian versions of poudre douce and poudre forte; one primarily for sweet, one for savory. >>>

I am always looking for SCA-period food references, so i'm wondering where this information came from? 

There are references to food in SCA-period Persian literature of various sorts over many centuries, such as the Shah-nameh, numerous poems, the 14th c. "Gorby and the Rats" which is political satire, and the 15th c. works of Bushaq - but he's a satirist, so i wonder if some of the foods he mentions might not be parodic.

There are only two cookbooks known from SCA-period, both from 16th c. Safavid, one dated 1521 for a Persian prince, the other from 1594 for Shah 'Abbas I. Neither has been fully translated into any other language. Austrian scholar Bert Fragner translated parts of the later one into German, for rice polavs: 37 simple, 17 sour, and 10 sweet (some of which contain meat). I translated them into English and i have cooked several of these recipes in classes i have taught at Pennsic and at several of the West Coast Culinary Symposia, where they were served at dinner. There are no such spice blends mentioned among those recipes. The earlier cookbook is twice as large as the later one and according to Fragner gives more detailed recipes, so maybe they are mentioned there.

I have a photocopy of the transcription of the two Persian cookbooks by Iraj Afshar in 1941, and reprinted in  Iran in the early 1980s. Once i get done with my translation of Shirvani's Ottoman recipes from the 2nd quarter of the 15th c., i plan to work on translating the Persian. I showed them to an Iranian of my acquaintance and she said she could read most of it, although some words were archaic, so i have my hopes up that it's doable.

There are modern somewhat standardized spice blends. Perhaps someone assumed that Persian cuisine hasn't changed much in 500 years, a topic Fragner addresses in several of his essays on Iranian food - in which he points out important and wide-ranging changes.

Urtatim


From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Persian
Date: May 3, 2014 8:03:25 PM CDT
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Gwen Cat wrote:
<<< looking for resources for Period Persian. Most specifically, I have been told there are standard(ish) spice blends... like the  Persian versions of poudre douce and poudre forte; one primarily for sweet, one for savory.>>>

Stefan posted a link to messages with Persian food content in his Florilegium.
<<< fd-Persia-msg (20K) 8/17/10 Food of medieval Persia. References.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BY-REGION/fd-Persia-msg.html >>>

I value the Florilegium highly. But, of course, one must not take it as the absolute truth. There is speculation as well as misinformation, however well intentioned, in some sections, larded with bits of good solid info.

I'm reading it over and i'd like to make a few comments.

The Legendary Cuisine of Persia by Margaret Shaida was recommended by someone. It is not a reliable source for SCA-period food. Not mentioned is Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking by Najmieh Batmanglij. It is not a reliable source for SCA-period food, either, but IIRC (i have it at home) there are bits here and there that are derived from period sources. If you like to cook modern Persian food, i recommend it - and then you can scour it for any potential period info.

A Soup for the Khan was recommended by someone. It is now available in a new and slightly less expensive edition. It is a mix of Turkic and Mongol recipes and foodways, with some influences from Baghdad. Persian influences, if any, are not abundant. It's a great book, but not particularly useful in reconstructing Persian food, better for the history of pre-Ottoman Turkic food.

As i suggested in a previous message, I would recommend reading the 14th c. satire "Gorby and the Rats" - there are a couple different translations of the banquet scene on the internet - a group of rats put on a banquet for a cat because he didn't eat them... cannot possibly come to a good end ;-) - as well as tracking down translations of the works of 15th c. satiric author  Abu Ishaq Shirazi, known as Bushaq At'imah, the Gastronomer. I only have a little Bushaq myself, so i can't make any particular recommendations.

I know some foods are mentioned in the Shah-nameh, but it is a huge work. I own a highly abridged version which features the paintings, and not so much of the text. It is a long poem that consists of about 50,000 verses composed by Ferdowsi between 977-1010 CE. It's the national epic of Iran (Persia), telling the mythic and legendary history of the Persian empire, from the creation of the world up to the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th c. I figure i should read it sometime in the not too distant future.

Also, i notice i am quoted there in the Florilegium, blathering on a great deal, often with embarrassing typos.

Urtatim


Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 18:05:40 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mughal Feast

Sara wrote:
<<< Madhavi, do you have any recommended references for the late period Persian
stuff you refer to, please? >>>

I'm not Madhavi, obviously, and I don't know what sources she used.

Many dishes in other cookbooks have Persian names. There is very limited information, however, about actual Persian food. There two 16th c. Safavid Persian cookbooks - one from 1521 written Ba'urchi Bavarchi, chef to a high noble; the other from 1594, written by Nu?r-Alla?h (also written Nurollah), chef to Shah Abbas I - neither of which has been translated fully.

Austrian scholar Bert Fragner, in a lengthy article about Iranian food, translated 2 sections of the 1594 cookbook, and i translated his translation, so i have 66 recipes, all for rice dishes. They are, as so many SCA-period recipes, quite scant in their directions and vague in quantities.

I've cooked several of them and taught them at both the West Coast Culinary Symposium and at Pennsic and they dishes were delicious.

Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya


Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 21:26:14 -0500
From: Nazirah Garrison <nazirah.garrison at gmail.com>
To: lilinah at earthlink.net, 	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mughal Feast

Thank you, Urtatim!  If I can find Fragner's original article, I certainly
don't mind translating (unless you would be willing to share your
translations?).  I do see that a translation of the Nurollah book is
forthcoming:
http://www.mazdapublishers.com/book/Dining%20at%20the%20Safavid%20Court 
but not due till next year -- such a tease!

Sara

Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2016 09:05:57 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mughal Feast

Try these

"Articles mentioning medieval Persian cookery books:

Fragner, Bert G. ?Zur Erforschung Der Kulinarischen Kultur Irans.? Die Welt des Islams. 23:1, pp. 320 ? 360. Available through Jstor and Brill Online. Includes material on pulaos.

Ghanoonparvar, Mohammad R. ?Cookbooks.? Encyclopaedia Iranica. 1993. Vol. VI, Fasc. 3, pp. 243-244 http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/cookbooks-classical-in-persian "

FROM AN ENTRY IN MY BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Johnnae


From the fb "Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)" group:

Sata Prescott
4/1/19 at 10:14 AM
Good day, friends! Today the Library of Congress launched an incredible resource for Persian materials (which will contain a wealth of info throughout the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa) from over a thousand years:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/persian-language-rare-materials/about-this-collection


From the fb "SCA.Library.of.Alexandria/" group:
Teri Centner
March 22 at 7:46 PM
Rare Persian Language Collection Now Online: This week the Library of Congress rolled out a new digital collection online of rare Persian language manuscripts, lithographic books and early imprints, as well as printed books, housed in the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. 

https://www.loc.gov/…/persian-langua…/about-this-collection/
A number of these items are exquisitely illuminated anthologies of poetry by classic and lesser known poets, written in fine calligraphic styles, and illustrated with miniatures. Many also have beautiful bindings. A number of the illuminated books are multilingual works, which include Arabic and Turkish passages in addition to Persian.
Note: Only 16 items in the collection are period. You can filter by century here 
>> https://www.loc.gov/collec…/persian-language-rare-materials/
Note: I hope that HeloRising guy on Reddit finds them. ;-)


Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 12:58:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] New blog on Persian food history

Can't speak to its quality.

A history of Persian Food through the ages
aashpaz.com, a site  dedicated to Persian food, its history and influence on the cuisine of the  surrounding regions
http://www.aashpaz.com/newwordpress/

Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

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