SC - Book on Mongol Foods, Islamic Medicine (long)

[Wanda Pease]

Dr. Paul Buell wrote the information below for the e-mail list MEDIEV-L.
This is a scholarly list that I lurk on.  Since the book sounds as though it
might be of interest to several people I'm forwarding it with his permission
along with this second post regarding it's price (yike!) and where it can be
obtained.

Book can be obtained in the USA from
Columbia University Press or directly from Kegan Paul:

http://www.demon.co.uk/keganpaul/mainframe.html

Amazon.com has it listed too. Just do a search on my name or A Soup for the
Qan.
Alas, the price is 75 pounds, about $127.00 at the most recent conversion
rate.
Now for that you do get a fat book. But this may not entirely be a good
thing
(more to carry around).

Dr. Buell said:

Participants in this list (MEDIEV-L) may recall that when previously a
regular
poster I often posted on food history topics as part of a long-continued

project to translate, explain, and introduce the Mongol-era (1330)
dietary manual Yin-shan cheng-yao, "Proper and Essential Things for the
Emperor's Food and Drink," a work which is not only a most important
Chinese medical classic but which also documents Mongol court foodways
and therewith the interactions of the Mongols with a broad Eurasian
culture, from Iraq to Manchuria, from Siberia on south to Kashmir
(represented by a
superb stew eaten with a fennel pita). Well the long task, begun with
too much enthusiasm about 1980, is now finally complete and about two
weeks ago our rather too large book was finally published in London by
Kegan Paul International, an old established British publisher of
primarily academic books which has been around for more than a century
and a quarter, as they like to remind me. Since the book was very much
written with the interests of non-Sinologists in mind, comparative
Medievalists in particular, I not only call the attentions of those on
the list so inclined to the book, but also actively solicit your
suggestions and criticisms since, as well be made, clear below, the
project continues. Anyone associated with general Medieval journals who
would like review copies should contact me too and I will pass the
information on to the publisher (or contact them directly at the address

given as CC above). At the end of this posting is the publisher's
official summary of the book if I miss anything here.

The book announced, I come to my second reason for this posting. I and
my team (in this case Buell, Eugene N. Anderson, a young 4 star cook
named Olav Hekala, and Fr. Sabban, the dean of French food historians,
if we can talk her into it) will continue with food research, this time
an annotated and fully introduced translation of the recipes section
from a
circa 1369 north Chinese popular encyclopedia. This book not only
contains what seems to be the earliest recognizable Baklava (a
Turkicized derivative from Mongolian Bakhlakh, "to wrap in layers," by
the way)  recipe, but a true food diversity, everything from Islamic
sharbats (called that) to south Chinese leaven recipes. This project,
however, will be only a short-term action as we (the we in this case is
myself, food historian Eugene Anderson, medical historian Paul Unschuld,

medic and medical anthropologist Chris Muench, and science historian
Lisa Raphals) get into an even larger project that I think will truly be

of interest to any and all Western Medievalists. This will be a full
translation and annotation of the four surviving chapters (our of 34
originally, a veritable encyclopedia since the surviving chapters are
some 450 pages) of the Hui-hui yao-fang, "Muslim Medicinal Recipes," a
text associated with Islamic medicine as practiced under the Mongols.

What is interesting about this text is the fact that, although in
Chinese, it is unvarnished Arabic traditional medicine, even with
Arabic-script entries for medicinals and terms otherwise transliterated
into Chinese. Although others have claimed that this work is an
adaptation of Ibn Sina's Canon, our research so far has shown that the
work is, in fact, from one or more Persian language sources and that the
work has a very much practical medical application with little that is
theoretical about it (in contrast to Ibn Sina). Much of the content is,
in fact, not only not theoretical but far in advance of any then
contemporary medicine anywhere in the world. The text's discussion of
burns, for example, is unparalleled and could provide guidance even
today. It is living proof, moreover, that Islamic medicine circa 1300
was not as moribund a tradition as some would have us believe.

One of the things that impresses me the most about this text is the
similarity of much of its content to early Medieval translations from
Arabic texts into Latin and other Spanish languages except that the
Hui-hui yao-fang is a far better translation of its sources and is far
more usable, judging by criticisms I have read of the first Arabic
translations in the West. Which brings me to the purpose of these
jottings and my (brief) reappearance on this list. I am very interested
in establishing contact with any one working in Arabic medicine, in
particular Arabic medicine as transmitted to the West for purposes of
exchanges of information. Please direct any inquiries to the email
addresses below. If you are interested in our book also direct inquires
to the same source and I will tell you where you can get it or find out
more information. Thanks in advance and for reading his long post.

Below, FYI, the publishers summary of our book. The full title is: Paul
D. Buell, Eugene N. Anderson, and Charles Perry, A Soup for the Qan:
Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Szu-hui's
Yin-shan Cheng-yao, London, Kegan Paul International, 2000


Paul D. Buell, Seattle, Washington (email as above or
pbuell at titan.cc.wwu.edu)


To be Published March 2000: A Soup for the Qan (ISBN 0 7103
0583 4) by Paul D. Buell, Eugene N. Anderson and Charles Perry

In the tradition of Edward Schafer and Berthold Laufer, this is an
elegant and scholarly study of a remarkable text which brings to
life a long vanished civilization, and adds to our understanding of
practices and concerns which are still of fundamental importance
to us today.  In 1330, the Mongol Emperor Tugh-temur of China - a
descendant of Qubilai-qan - was presented with a dietary manual,
the Yin-shan Cheng-yao, or "Proper and Essential Things for the
Emperor's Food and Drink," written by the imperial dietary
physician Hu Szu-hui.  Since Hu's primary interest and charge was
the medical aspect of nutrition, always a central focus in the
Chinese world, much of the book is an account of the medical
values of foods and recipes, in terms of medieval Chinese
nutritional therapy.

Containing both prescriptions for life and health and instructions for
the preparation of court delicacies, it describes the cuisine of the
era in great detail, disclosing the long-term Chinese assimilation of
foreign foods and foodways, and the effects on China of conquest
and rule by foreigners with only limited interest in Chinese culture.
Food and foodways are sensitive barometers of material and social
conditions, revealing change in process and cultural interactions in
unique ways.

This edition includes a reproduction of the compete
text of the Yin-shan Cheng-yao based primarily upon the 1456
Ming edition but also including surviving fragments from the Yuan
Dynasty original.  For the first time, it is presented here in full
English translation, and also in facsimile Chinese, along with the
text's many woodcut illustrations. A full background and analysis
are provided from the textual, anthropological and culinary points
of view, giving the historical and cultural context, and a detailed
study of the text with sections on Turko-Islamic Influences,
including Islamic materia dietica and medica, and The Chinese
Framework, including the social context of Yin-shan Cheng-yao
foodways.  A special feature is a section on how the recipes
in the book can be adapted for cooking today.  Whether it
is read as a work of history or of anthropology, a translation, a
culinary resource or medical manual, this is an exceptional work,
one that makes a highly important contribution to many fields.