SC - Fat tailed sheep

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

<< I remember a few months ago, we had a thread in fat tailed sheep, and
a few questions have come up on another List I'm on. Anybody have any
references, whether to recipes, commentary, or other references? >>

Here are some gleanings:

- -- Grewe, R.: Hispano-Arabic cuisine in the twelfth century. In:
Lambert, C. (Dir.): Du manuscrit à la table. Montréal/ Paris 1992,
141-148.
„One of the most characteristic features of this cuisine is that olive
oil is the basic, and almost the only, cooking fat. (...) the fat of the
fat-tailed sheep, so common in the Near East, does not seem to have
taken root in Spain“ (p. 143).

- -- Heine, P.: Kulinarische Studien. Untersuchungen zur Kochkunst im
arabisch-islamischen Mittelalter. Mit Rezepten. Wiesbaden 1988.
[‘Culinary studies. Inquiries into the art of cookery of the
Arabic-Islamic Middle Ages. With recipes.]
He mentions alya, the fat of the fat-tailed sheep, on several pages (see
his „Index der arabischen Termini“ s.v. „alya“) and gives references to
al-Baghdadi, Wusla, and al-Warraq.

- -- Rodinson, M.: Recherches sur les documents arabes relatifs à la
cuisine. In: Revue des études islamiques 17 (1949) 95-165. [‘Studies
into the arabic sources pertaining to cooking’.]
Says among other things, that the use of alya was an element of the
„cuisine paysanne“ that entered into or was part of the cuisine of the
prince in the 12th/13th century. -- If I am not mistaken, there is still
no edition/translation of the Wusla, so his description of this cookbook
is still important. -- You find the pages on alya with his „Index arabe,
turc et persan“ (p. 159); there is also a literary source mentioned,
where the tail is the ambassador in a quarrel between King Sheep (or
Mutton) and King Honey.

The principal sources mentioned are:

Al-Baghdadi:
Chelebi, D. (ed.): Kitab al-Tabikh. Mosul (Umm al-rabi'ain Press) 1934.
[Engl. Übs.: Arberry, in: Islamic Culture, 13, 1939.]
Arberry, A.J.: A Baghdad cookery book. In: Islamic Culture 13 (1939)
21-47; 184-214.

The Wusla:
see the description in Rodinson

al-Warraq:
Öhrnberg, K./ Mroueh, S. (eds.): Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, Kitab al-Tabikh.
Helsinki 1987 (Studia Orientalia 60). [Arabic text; no translation;
short English introduction.]

Cheers,
Thomas

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