[Sca-cooks] Helva gatherings was Thirteenth Century Turkish

[emilio szabo]

One of the articles that is quoted in the book "Sufi cuisine" (p. 119) we discussed a few minutes ago is:

Irene Melikoff: Le Rituel du Helva. Recherches sur une coutume des corporations de metiers dans la Turquie medievale. 
Islam 39 (1964) 180-191. [all accents left out]

It quotes several old sources mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th century (including Jelaleddin Rumi, Ibn Batuta, literary sources and others like "'Futuvvetname", collections of regulations among guilds of craftsmen, if I am not mistaken) which show that Helva gatherings were an old ritual mainly of initiation, e.g. among craftsmen. Some of the descriptions include the ingredients of preparing helva, the stages of preparation, the roles of the people involved and so forth. 

The article is written in French.

E.