[Sca-cooks] Book Question

[Johnna Holloway]

It's not bad, although at one time it was much cheaper to start with.  
We described it on the list back in June 2007 as

Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174
Recipes *by Lilia Zaouali **Publication Date:* October, 2007 *University
of California Press ****ISBN:* 0-520-24783-3 *ISBN13:*
978-0-520-24783-3 ** Trade Cloth *Pages:* 242 *Price:* $24.95 (USD)
Retail (Publisher)

Vinegar and sugar, dried fruit, rose water, spices from India and China,
sweet wine made from raisins and dates--these are the flavors of the
golden age of Arab cuisine. This book, a delightful culinary adventure
that is part history and part cookery, surveys the gastronomical art
that developed at the Caliph's sumptuous palaces in ninth- and
tenth-century Baghdad, drew inspiration from Persian, Greco-Roman, and
Turkish cooking, and rapidly spread across the Mediterranean. In a
charming narrative, Lilia Zaouali introduces the great medieval cooks
and cookbooks, discusses the origins of dietary obsessions and
prohibitions, tells of Arab merchants who traveled to China to obtain
sugar, coconuts, and spices four centuries before Marco Polo, considers
the food of Ramadan, and much more as she brings to life Islam's vibrant
culinary heritage. The second half of the book gathers an extensive
selection of original recipes drawn from medieval culinary sources along
with thirty contemporary recipes that evoke the flavors of the Middle
Ages.

Urtatim noted that "Charles Perry was not thrilled about this book. He  
said it rather
jumps from al-Baghdadi to the 20th century without covering much in
between. And the author didn't seem to understand that the history of
what was in between was also significant."

Later in Jan. 2008 she wrote upon seeing it-- "The book begins with a  
brief but informative Foreward by Charles Perry.
The primary text is divided into three sections:
Part One: Cultural Background and Culinary Context
Part Two: The Medieval Tradition
Part Three: Contemporary North African Cuisine

The first sixty pages is divided into two parts, "Crossroads of the
World's Cuisines" and "Materials, Techniques, and Terminology". These
include, among other things, a brief overview of known Arabic
language culinary texts, ingredients, and cooking techniques, and
includes some useful photos of extant cookware and serving dishes,
although only a rather limited number.

Part Two consists of 143 recipes from four sources, three not yet
available in English, one only recently available - "Annals of the
Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar Al-warraq's Tenth-century Baghdadi
Cookbook" (Islamic History and Civilization) by Nawal Nasrallah.
Zaouali includes 24 recipes from this vast source, which i assume she
translated herself.
While not the masterwork of scholarship that "Annals of the Caliphs'
Kitchens" is, Zaouali's book also does not cost $195, but merely
$24.95. And it is definitely useful for the SCAdian cook, especially
since it includes recipes not in any other book."

Johnnae
-- 
On Apr 26, 2011, at 10:48 AM, Meisterin Katarina Helene wrote:

> Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174  
> Recipes