[Sca-cooks] Medieval Beans, was Delights From The Garden of Eden

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Fri Apr 26 13:51:41 PDT 2013


Madhavi wrote:
> Lobia are cow peas, which are old-world... I'm pretty sure they're from
> India. Wikipedia says they're originally from Africa. There are all-black
> cow peas- I have grown them myself, they are immediate relatives of the
> black-eyed pea. There's a wide variety of cow peas, I bet these are all Arab
> varieties of cow peas.

Cow peas are in the genus Vigna, species unguiculata, of which there are four chief varieties. However, Vigna includes around 2 dozen varieties of Old World beans, with and without black eyes :-) Many species of Vigna are known in India as "gram". Other species of Vigna are originally native to Africa.

Lubya is a somewhat generic Arabic word for beans, especially Old World beans and other pulses. Nasrallah lists quite a few varieties, most, but not all, Vigna species. Those she lists are not necessarily mentioned in Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's compendium, but appear in other works. Other species of Vigna are not classified as "lubya" but have individual names, such as the Arabic "mast", which is the mung bean, known in India as green gram or moong dal, which is Vigna radiata. Confusingly, the Vigna mungo is not the mung bean, but urad dal, which has a black skin and is white inside.

As i mentioned, in her expansive glossary Nasrallah includes white beans (lubya bayda), black beans (lubya sawda), red beans (lubya hamra). The problem with what Nasrallah writes is that she does not seem to differentiate between Old World beans - such as black beans in genus Vigna - and New World beans - such as black turtle beans in genus Phaseolus, which she lists as equivalent to lubya sawda.

Just for fun, here is the list of beans / peas in genus Vigna published in wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigna
and this list is not all-inclusive(!!).

Vigna aconitifolia — Moth Bean, Mat Bean, Turkish Gram
Vigna angularis — Azuki Bean, Red Bean
Vigna caracalla — Snail Bean, Corkscrew Vine, Snail Vine
Vigna debilis Fourc.
Vigna dinteri Harms
Vigna lanceolata — Pencil Yam, merne arlatyeye (Arrernte)
-- Vigna lanceolata var. filiformis
-- Vigna lanceolata var. lanceolata
-- Vigna lanceolata var. latifolia
Vigna luteola
Vigna marina (Burm.f.) Merr. — beach pea, mohihihi, nanea (Hawaiian)
Vigna maritima
Vigna mungo — Urad Bean, Black Matpe Bean, Black Gram, White Lentil, "black lentil"
Vigna o-wahuensis Vogel — Hawaii Wild Bean
Vigna parkeri
Vigna radiata — Mung Bean, Green Gram, Golden Gram, Mash Bean, Green Soy
Vigna speciosa (Kunth) Verdc. — Wondering Cowpea
Vigna subterranea — Bambara Groundnut, Jugo Bean, njugumawe (Swahili)
Vigna trilobata (L.) Verdc. — Jungle Mat Bean, African Gram, Three-lobe-leaved Cowpea
Vigna umbellata — Ricebean, "red bean"
Vigna unguiculata — Cowpea, Crowder Pea, Southern Pea, Southern Field Pea
-- Vigna unguiculata ssp. cylindrica — Katjang
-- Vigna unguiculata ssp. dekindtiana — Wild Cowpea, African Cowpea, Ethiopian Cowpea
-- Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis — Yardlong Bean, Long-podded Cowpea, Asparagus Bean, Snake Bean, Chinese Long Bean
-- Vigna unguiculata ssp. unguiculata — Black-eyed Pea, Black-eyed Bean
Vigna vexillata (L.) A.Rich. — Zombi Pea
-- Vigna vexillata var. angustifolia
-- Vigna vexillata var. youngiana

--- End List ---

On the other hand, i really really really enjoy reading / studying Nasrallah's glossary, despite its potential problems, since in it she draws information not just from Ibn Sayyar's compendium, but also from a wide range of other medieval writers in Arabic on agriculture, medicine, and trade, as well as cuisine; and many of these books are not available in English or other Western European languages.

I'm currently on a quest for the books that have been translated into French and Spanish, so i can read them. I studied Arabic for about half a year and will probably go back to study some more. I now own a copy of the 13th c. "Kanz al-fawa'id fi tanwi' al-mawa'id", in Arabic transcribed and annotated by David Waines and Manuela Marin, but the pages haven't been cut and i am shy to start slashing them open. Paulina B. Lewicka, in her book "Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes" which i'm currently reading, frequently refers to recipes in the Kanz, but it hasn't been translated. So once i get over my fear of biblio-abuse, i want to translate some recipes. There appear to be some very tasty cheese recipes in it...

More languages, more better!

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita



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