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

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>David Friedman wrote:
>> In her translation of al-Warraq, she identifies one of the kinds of 
>> beans mentioned as kidney beans, which according to other sources I have 
>> seen are New World. So I am a little concerned that she may be too 
>> willing to assume that knowledge of current practice can be projected 
>> back to period practice.

I replied:
> Yeah, i've been meaning to write her about that. The original Arabic says, literally, "red 
> beans", and, IIRC, elsewhere in the book she mentions adzuki beans, which like kidney 
> beans are red and unlike kidney beans are Old World (i don't have the book with me at the 
> moment, so i can't find the page #), so i wonder if she may have confused them.
SNIP

So i looked through the glossary last night. I misremembered several things.

First, on page 798 Nasrallah discusses lubya, "beans". In the generic heading, she equate them to kidney beans (New World Phaseolus) and black-eyed peas (Old World Vigna). She mentions that the Arabic word "fasulya" was used in medieval times, although rarely. In modern times, phaseolus is the New World bean genus. This may be where some of her confusion comes. However, the genus Vigna, which is Old World, includes a large number of different beans, some of which were formerly included in the genus Phaseolus. And Nasrallah does go on to mention some of them.

When discussing "lubya bayda", p. 798, literally "white beans", Nasrallah equates them to haricot or kidney beans. Then she quotes another medieval Arabic author, Ibn Baytar, comparing these particular beans to kidneys and saying some may be tinged with black or red. It seems to me that these WHITE beans are not our modern red kidney beans, which Nasrallah does not make clear.

As far as my adzuki bean comment, i could not find them mentioned in the glossary of "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens". However, on p. 799 Nasrallah lists "lubya hamra", literally "red beans", and she says they are like Hindu red chori. Red chori ARE adzuki beans, although Nasrallah doesn't say so. These are, for a change, actually Old World beans.

Also on p. 799, she lists "lubya sawda", literally "black beans", which Nasrallah equates with turtle or black beans. Obviously the medieval bean was black, given its name. However, modern black turtle beans are Phaseolus, so what this was in Ibn Sayyar's time she does not make clear.

And to add to the problems she lists "lubya Yamaniyya", "Yemenite beans", which Nasrallah says are white soy beans. I am skeptical that they are soy, although at least soy are Old World. Again, there are many spp. of Vigna, so rather than soy these may be one of them.

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