[Sca-cooks] SCA-period Persian Cookbooks

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I've been corresponding with Charles Perry, translator of the 13th C. 
Andalusian Cookbook and the NEW translation of the 13th C. Kitab 
al-Tabikh by al-Baghdadi (which arrived yesterday, whoo-hoo!). He has 
been very open and helpful.

Among other things, i asked him about Persian cookbooks, because i 
keep reading about one or two, but the authors never mention names, 
locations, or any details.

He sent me the following:
>There are two manuscripts from the Safaid period
>"Karnameh dar Bab-e Tebakhi ve-Son'at-e An"
>and
>"Maddetol-Hayat -- Resale dar 'Elm-e Tebakhi."
>They were edited and published together by Iraj Afshar in AH 1360 (1941)

Afshar was a well regarded scholar of Persian history.

Perry also suggested that there was a later edition, but i don't know details.

I'm going to try to track this down. Ooo, ooo, another project. I'm 
hoping that my friend 'A'isha, who has studied a bit of Persian, will 
help. But there's no reason that someone else shouldn't also.

My understanding it that the books are rather different. The earlier 
one is recipes with weights and measures. The later one is a bid more 
florid, but gives good info, if less specific and concise.

If anyone finds them before i do, please let me know.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita