[Sca-cooks] MEDIEVAL Near Eastern Food

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
>I don't know.  Do I?  Were the foods adopted that quickly?
>Is there a good solid source for pre-1600 Ottoman Empire cuisine?
>I can't accept "tradition" as documentation, I want book-larnin'!
>
>Selene

I cannot speak directly for Greece, but i know a bit about the
Levant, a part of the Ottoman Empire for only about 50 years less
than Greece, and which had significant non-Muslim communities.

After the Ottoman conquest, there were small garrisons of Janissaries
at first who had little effect on the local cultures. But by the end
of the 16th c. or beginning of the 17th, there were imported Ottoman
governors and their families, after the Mamluk governors, who
supervised the Levant and Egypt, revolted against the Ottomans.
Ottoman culture still had little influence on local populations at
first.

The early adopters were primarily urban upper classes, those who
either had frequent business dealings with their Ottoman rulers or
had aspirations to rise in the government. Many people from the upper
classes were wearing Ottoman-influenced clothing by the mid-17th
century, but people from lower classes in the cities were not. The
penetration of these styles to the lower classes in the cities was
gradual.

While they eventually made their way to rural people, this process
took several centuries. Outside the cities in the Levant, both
clothing and food were not adopted early, but rather only about 200
years ago or even more recently. Although men began to adopt
Ottoman-style garments in the late 19th and early 20th c. rural women
continued to wear their local clothing - some women still do today.

I would assume - without strong proof, but from my undergraduate and
graduate school background in anthropology - that if it took that
long to adopt Ottoman clothing, then it would take longer to adopt
Ottoman food in the countryside. Again, the early adopters would be
urban. In the cities i would make the educated guess that the
adoption of food and clothing were related - although in the family
in private they may have continued eating previous traditional foods.

Does this apply to Greeks? I don't know for certain. I know modern
Greek food shows a great deal of Ottoman influence, but i've no idea
when it was adopted.

If only there were a known 16th century Ottoman cookbook! (that's
pre-1601; 1600 is the last year of the 16th century) It's possible
some are lurking somewhere but, alas, they haven't been made public,
perhaps aren't even really known by their owners...

I'm certainly frustrated by lack of access to an SCA-period Ottoman cookbook.

Many of us Americans take to foreign food and unusual clothing very
quickly, particularly in urban areas with many immigrants. Or because
we are enthusiastic foodies. But there are still many Americans who
are not interested in eating foods they didn't grow up with. This is
an issue that SCA feast cooks know about.

I see no reason to think that the populace of the Ottoman Empire
outside the primarily Turkish areas would adopt alien food more
quickly.

Naturally, i know that this isn't the proof you're looking for. It's
purely my speculation based on undergraduate and graduate studies in
anthropology, especially looking at areas that were colonized, and
not just by Europeans, but by Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims.

In urban areas, those who wanted to do business with their conquerors
took on their superficial trappings - by changing to their religion
(often a political move, not a spiritual one) and wearing some
version of their clothing. But in the privacy of their homes local
people tend to hold onto their previous culture - especially foods -
far longer. Eventually some aspects penetrate to the towns, villages
and the rural areas, but what is adopted and what is not can be
rather variable and idiosyncratic.

Additionally, in earlier times, in the areas ruled by the Mamluks,
who were also primarily of Turkic origin, the ruling classes and
those who associated closely with them wore the Turkic-style clothing
of the Mamluks. Most of the population, however, wore indigenous
style clothing, which reflected a blend of Greco-Roman and Arabic
influences. The Mamluks ruled Egypt and the Levant from 1250 until
1516 in the Levant, and 1517 in Egypt. However, they were left as
subject governors by the Ottomans until the they proved intractable.
So in the over 250 years prior to the Ottoman takeover, the general
populace of Egypt and the Levant did not adopt Mamluk Turkic
clothing. And it appears they were in no great hurry after the
Ottoman conquest to adopt Osmanli Turkic styles.

Anahita