[Sca-cooks] The Adventures of Ibn Battula
Johnna Holloway
johnnae at mac.com
Sat Oct 2 05:52:32 PDT 2010
The adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the fourteenth
century by Ross E. Dunn. Google books has it up. The quote is on page
124.
The version The travels of Ibn Battuta: A.D. 1325 1354 by Ibn Batuta,
B. R. Sanguinetti doesn't contain the word "chilies."
The question would be--- do other versions use the word or are certain
versions using a modern word or term for Ibn Battuta's 14th century
peppers? (Numerous texts point out that the region now uses a very hot
chile pepper extensively. Was the modern pepper known as the African
devil chile thought to be the traditional pepper of centuries past?)
Running a search on Ibn Battuta and the word chilies through Google
Books leads to Ibn Battuta in Black Africa
By Ibn Batuta, Said Hamdun, Noël Quinton King.
A footnote in that book on page 78 reads
"The word translated 'chilies' is fulfil, compare Kiswahili pilipili."
Searching on pilipili
pilipili, pili-pili, piripiri n. from pilipili "pepper": red pepper,
capsicum, bird's-eye chili; red-pepper sauce [< Swahili < Persian]
I suspect that what Ibn Battula was served was a variety of black
pepper or even long pepper. Was it served fresh? Some of the texts
call it chopped. One would think that it should have been ground.
http://www.fiery-foods.com/pepper-profiles/152-baccatum-pubescens-and-frutescens-species/107-pepper-profile-african-birdseye
profiles the African Birdseye pepper (another new world in origin
capsicum pepper) and notes "pili-pili simply means "pepper-pepper" and
is a generic term for any African chile."
I think it's safe to say he was served a hot pepper of old world origin.
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200801/
where.the.pepper.grows.htm talks about Where the pepper grows in
relation to its use in Arab history.
Johnnae
On Oct 2, 2010, at 6:53 AM, Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps wrote:
> I'm rereading "The Adventures of Ibn Battula" by Ross E. Dunn and
> came across a description of a meal that might prove interesting.
> Ibn Battula was a Muslim traveler in the 14th century who is often
> referred to as "the Muslim Marco Polo". Dunn uses an account of his
> travels to recreate his itinerary. The meal, served in Mogadishu,
> is describes as follows:
>
> ... the party addressed themselves to a meal of local fare,
> compliments of the palace: a stew of chicken, meat, fish, and
> vegetables poured over rice cooked in ghee: unripe bananas in fresh
> milk: and a dish comprising of sour milk, green ginger, mangoes, and
> pickled lemons and chilies. The citizens of Mogadishu, Ibn Battula
> observed, did justice to such meals as these: "A singe citizen...
> eats as much as a whole company of us would eat, as a matter of
> habit, and they are corpulent and fat in the extreme."
>
> I am puzzled at the inclusion of chilies in this description as I
> understand them to have been introduced from the new world. Perhaps
> the translation from the original text is in error?
>
> Dan
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