[Sca-cooks] 15th C. Ottoman Recipes

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Phlip wrote:
>On 6/30/06, lilinah at earthlink.net <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>  Now, frankly, i don't expect the publisher to offer me any money, but
>>  what the heck. However, if i ask for #1, i am concerned that i may no
>  > longer be eligible for #2.
>
>Asked Paul, and he said that a translation is considered an entirely
>new work, but it's still a courtesy to ask the publisher of the work
>translated. However, he said he also thinks that Perry translated all
>of these recipes (he's not absolutely sure), and sees no point in a
>translation going from Arabic to French to English, since that tends
>to multiply errors.

As i said before, these do not exist in Arabic.

These are, as i said, Ottoman Turkish.

And they have not yet been published in English.

I suppose i can write Charles Perry and ask if he has translated 
Chirvani's additions to his Ottoman Turkish translation of 
al-Baghdadi. I know he knows a lot of languages, but i don't know if 
he knows 14th & 15th c. Turkish, which i gather is rather different 
from Modern Turkish.

Now, i completely agree that a translation from the original language 
is better than a translation of a translation.

My issue is that i would like to make these recipes available to 
people, such as SCAdians, who want to use them, even if in 
translation from the French. After all, Actes Sud/Sindbad/Orient 
Gourmand published David Waines' "In a Caliph's Kitchen" in French, 
so it's not a stretch to publish a translation of Stephane 
Yerasimos's "At the Sultan's Table" in English. Other than in 
Yerasimos's book, there are NO SCA-period Ottoman Turkish recipes 
available. I think a flawed translation is better than no translation 
as far as SCAdians go - if only as a stop gap until an 
English-speaking genuine scholar goes to Istanbul to work on that 
manuscript again.

What i really want are all 82 recipes that Chirvani added during his 
translation, not just the selected 35 or so in Yerasimo's 
translation. The book i translated has excellent introductory matter, 
and commentary with each recipe, although it has only a selection of 
recipes from Chirvani's added recipes, which are in NO OTHER book 
except that single handwritten copy in Istanbul.

Johnnae mentioned a book to me that may have them transcribed into 
the Roman alphabet, which i want to get my hands on. If that is the 
case, or even if they are translated into Modern Turkish, it's closer 
to the original than Yerasimos's French is.

Guess it's time for me to write Charles Perry again.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita