[Sca-cooks] Sultan's Book of Delights-- late 15th century

[Bill Fisher]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 20:29:09 -0500, Johnna Holloway
<johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> wrote:
> Here's a new one from Routledge.
> 
> Johnnae llyn Lewis
> 
> The NI'Matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu: The Sultan's Book of
> Delights
> 
> # 576 pages (February 2005)
> # Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon
> # ISBN: 041535059X
> 
> 115 US dollars
> 
> Routledge says:
> 
> The Ni'matnama is a late fifteenth-century book of recipes written for
> the Sultan of Mandu, in what is now Madhya Pradesh, India. It contains
> recipes for cooking a variety of delicacies and epicurean delights, as
> well as providing remedies and aphrodisiacs for Nasir ad-Din Shah of
> Mandu and his court. The text provides a unique account of courtly life
> in a fifteenth century Indian Sultanate and documents a fascinating
> stage in the history of Indian cookery.
> 
> There is only one copy of The Sultan's Book of Delights in existence,
> held in the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library
> (BL-Persian 149). The book manuscript is illustrated with fifty elegant
> miniature paintings, most of which show showing the Sultan observing the
> women of his court as they prepare and serve him various dishes. These
> illustrations are important historical art documents in their own right.
> Painted in a distinctive Shirazi (Southern Iranian) style, they are also
> stylistically influenced by indigenous styles of book painting found in
> Central and Western India, and are the earliest known example of
> miniature painting in an Islamic Deccani style.
> 
> For the first time, a facsimile of the original text is reproduced for a
> scholarly audience. Norah Titley, formerly assistant keeper, Oriental
> Collections at the British Library, has masterfully translated this
> unique book.
> 
> Contents:
> 1. Preface 2. Introduction 3. List and description of the manuscript's
> illustrations 4. Facsimile of the manuscript including colour inserts
> for illustrations 5. Translation of the manuscript 6. Bibliography 7.
> Glossary 8. Index
> 
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> 

I neeeeeeeed this book.  I've been reading on indian cuisine for weeks
now.  (yeah, I know I should be studyin for work, but all work and no 
play makes Cadoc a raving lunatic, no, wait, a worse one). I'm geting
ready to pick up some Indian and persian cuisine books from B&N
here locally then torture my roomate with the recipes. (or if there
are any other local volunteers who want to play with it, it would have
to be at your place, my hood isn't safe unless they know you).

I have visions of an indian feast :-)

Cadoc
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