[Sca-cooks] West African Food in the Middle Ages

[Johnna Holloway]

West African Food in the Middle Ages: According to Arabic Sources by 
Tadeusz Lewicki
There is now a paperback edition of this title. The 1974 hardback has 
long been OP.
Published by Cambridge University Press on March 5, 2009.
ISBN-10:0521102022 ISBN-13:978-0521102025
"It is important for historians studying West Africa before the sixteenth
century, particularly social and economic historians, to know what the
basic foods were before the arrival of crops from the Americas such as
maize, cassava, ground nuts, red peppers and tomatoes. Medieval Arabic
historians and geographers recorded a great deal of information about
social and economic life in Africa during the period and this is a
full-scale attempt to make use of the material related to foodstuffs and
the preparation of the food. The references collected from the Arabic
texts are interpreted in the light of the work of modern ethnographers
and the descriptions given by travellers in more recent times."
Contents: 1. Arabic sources for the history of the foodstuffs used by 
West African peoples; 2. Vegetable foodstuffs; 3. Meat and fish; 4. 
Other foodstuffs; 5. Utensils.

Johnnae