English translation of al-Warraq's tenth-century cookbook from Baghdad

What is it about?

Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens is an English translation (and the only one in any foreign language) of an Arabic cookbook hailing from medieval Baghdad in the golden era of Islam during the Abbasid rule. Written nearly a thousand years ago, Ibn Sayyār al-Warraq’s cookbook Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh is the most comprehensive work of its kind, with more than 600 recipes from the luxurious cuisine of medieval Islam. It is the earliest known culinary document from medieval times worldwide. It showcases a complex text, well written, and well-organized. It abounds with illustrative poems and anecdotes, most of which are nowhere else preserved. Introducing this elegant translation, accurate and readable, is a thorough survey of the period and its food culture. It addresses aspects that are of interest to the modern reader as it places al-Warrāq and his work in the era’s cultural and historical context. It includes an extensive glossary, in Arabic and English, of the ingredients and dishes mentioned in the book. An extensive Appendix introduces the historical figures cited by al-Warrāq, in addition to more than 30 color illustrations. All these provide the necessary reference tools for this work and help animate a world a thousand years apart. Making this key resource available in English for the first time to scholars and the general reader fills a gap in the material cultural history of medieval Islam.

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Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary on Unsplash

Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary on Unsplash