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

[JP Coane]

When is the feast?

Christopher

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elaine Koogler" <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sultan's Book of Delights-- late 15th century


> Johnna Holloway 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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>>
>>
> Thanks, Johnnae...since Christopher found the less expensive one at 
> Bigger Books, I went ahead and ordered a copy.  I'm working on doing a 
> Middle Eastern feast...it's about a year away, but I'm collecting stuff 
> early, and this sounded right in line with what I want to do!
> 
> Elaine
> 
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