[Sca-cooks] Period Tomatoes

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

I've run into a character on another list who insists that the Turks were
using tomatoes for thousands of years before the rest of Europe.
<snip>
My friend with the tomato problem ...

Pat Griffin
Lady Anne du Bosc
known as Mordonna the Cook


Ok, so you're the one that got this guy started.  I wondered where this
thread came from, did it morph out of the Ice Cream one?  (I was deleting
that).  I sent some comments back to try and steer him out of his delusions,
including a very well-written description of various author's takes on the
subject that Urtatim wrote back when she was still Anahita, quoting The
Oxford Companion to Food and other sources.  It did not specifically address
his statement that the absence of proof for tomatoes not being in the Middle
East in period was proof that they were, and so he said it proved his point.
(The circular logic boggles the mind.)  So, since I've wandered into the
fray all unknowning and all, I would like to be able to send back one more
attempt, this time with something showing the first known use of tomatoes in
a Middle Eastern source.  Anyone know where we can find that?
He doesn't know me, obviously, based on some of his comments, and I don't
know him (I thought it was a woman's name anyway - Mordonna are you sure
it's a guy?), so I'd like to smack him with something really convincing
before I leave it alone.  I don't have that much on Middle Eastern food,
anyone here have something that will do?  I almost said "that will convince
him", but I'm not sure that's possible.  I do want to put it to rest for
others that are reading along and buying his line of reasoning.

In perusing the Florilegium on this topic, I just found this comment, which
sounds a lot like the argument our tomato-lover is espousing:

Subject: Re: New World foods in period (Was: Feast Formats)
Date: 9 Nov 1993 19:14:44 GMT
Organization: The Rialto

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.
<snip>
However: the word in Persian for "tomato" is pre-Columban, and refers to
something that was used in the same recipes without remark as the later
tomato. There are paintings showing them, and they look like, well,
tomatos. I don't know what they were, and haven't been interested enough
in Middle Eastern cuisine to chase them down.

So, we may have the basis here for the argument, and if this is possible, I
would love to know about it as well.
Anyone with more resources to M.E. food that can comment?
Christianna