[Sca-cooks] The Adventures of Ibn Battula

[Johnna Holloway]

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