[Sca-cooks] Ain-i Akbari

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> A month and a half ago i bought a nice
> paperback cookbook on Moghul 
> Cooking. The author frustratingly quotes books
> she has read with NO 
> reference to the source :-( She has good
> recipes...
> 
> Joyce Westrup. Moghul Cooking: India's Courtly
> Cuisine. Serif, London: 1997.
> 
> She does have a nice bibliography. In it is:
> Abul Fazl. _Ain-i Akbari_ (3 vols.). Trans. H.
> Beveridge. Calcutta, 1907.
> 
> Anyone have any info on this? Does it include
> the Ain-i Akbari 
> "cookbook"? The author of the Moghul cookbook
> calls the food part a 
> list of dishes and their ingredients. I know
> His Grace, Duke Cariadoc 
> has some of these on his website, but i'm want
> more, more, more!
> 
> Anahita

I don't know that particular edition.  Here is
what the Library of Congress has on their
website:

Ab¯u al-Fazl ibn Mub¯arak, 1551-1602. 
 The Ain I Akbari / by Abul Fazl 'Allami ;
translated from the original Persian by H.
Blochmann.  Calcutta : Asiatic Society of Bengal,
1873- 

Ab¯u al-Fazl ibn Mub¯arak, 1551-1602. 
The ¯A'¯in-i Akbar¯i / by Ab¯u 'l-Fazl 'All¯am¯i 
; [Vol. I] translated into English by H.
Blochmann. 2d ed. / edited by D. C. Phillott.
Calcutta : Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927
i.e. 1939. lix, 741 p., 17 leaves of plates : 
ill. ; 25 cm. 
Notes: Blochmann's translation, comprising the
first 2 of the 5 daftars of the complete work,
appeared as vol. 1 of the first ed., published by
the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 3 v., 1873-94.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 
Subjects: Akbar, Emperor of Hindustan, 1542-1605.

Mogul Empire. 

Ab¯u al-Fazl ibn Mub¯arak, 1551-1602. 
Ain i Akbari / Abul Fazl ; translated by H.
Blochmann. 
Lahore : Qausain, 1975. lix, 741 p., 17 leaves of
plates : ill. ; 25 cm. 
Notes: Reprint of the 2d ed. published in 1927 by
the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Includes t.p. of the original with imprint
Calcutta, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927.
"The ¯A`¯in-i Akbar¯i is the third volume of the
Akbarn¯ama, by Shay_k_h Ab¯u'l-Fazl."
Translation of ¯A'¯in-i Akbar¯i.
Includes index. 
Akbar, Emperor of Hindustan, 1542-1605. 
Mogul Empire.

According to K.T. Achaya in "Indian Food : a
Historical companion" [The book I showed you
when you came to visit last November] 'The
Ain-i-Akbari describes three classes of cooked
dishes.  In the first, called safiyana, consumed
on Akbar's days of abstinence, no meat was used,
and the dishes are those of made of rice
(zard-birinj, khushka, khichri and sheer-birinj),
wheat (chikhi, essentially the gluten of wheat
isolated by washing and then seasoned), dhals,
palaksag, halva, sherbets, etc.  The second class
comprised those in which both meat and rice were
employed (like palao, biriyani, shulla and
shurba), or meat and wheat (harisa, halim, kashk
and qutab "which the people of Hind call
sanbusa").  The third class was that in which
meat was cooked with ghee, spices, curd, eggs, 
etc. to give such dishes as yakhni, kabab,
dopiyaza, musamman, dampukht, qaliya and 
malghuba.  Bread was either thick, made from 
wheat flour and baked in an oven; or thin, and
baked on iron plates using dough of either wheat
or khuskha, the latter tasting "very well when
served hot".  [Unfortunately, I had to eliminate
the majority of the accents over the vowels.]

I am not sure whether or not the books in the
Library of Congress have translated the parts
where food is talked about and recipes given.
His Grace, Duke Cariadoc, once told me that
the recipe section had not been translated yet.

Basically, this is the history of Akbar's reign
with a significant section talking about the
foods that he ate and when he ate them.

Huette

=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

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