[Sca-cooks] Food of the Arabian Nights was Odd Question

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

And yet the essay itself - freely available here - is far more  nuanced:
 
_http://books.google.com/books?id=H0iEWo-WJ40C&lpg=PA134&ots=_N06FivTwm&dq=%
22charles%20perry%22%20burton%20Arab&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q&f=false_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=H0iEWo-WJ40C&lpg=PA134&ots=_N06FivTwm&dq="charles%2
0perry"%20burton%20Arab&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q&f=false) 
 
He highlights ONE out and out (and curious) error made by both Burton and  
Dawood. As previously noted, he approves of Burton's explanation of "meat  
pudding" (and makes no negative comment about the term itself). For the most  
part, he simply points out where he is not sure what Burton meant and 
offers  alternate interpretations or expands on each term. 
 
Nowhere does he suggest that either Burton or Dawood "made things up" nor  
is he in the least dismissive of their translations overall. To the 
contrary, he  examines them in a meticulous and respectful way. He is offering 
additional  insight into them, not in any sense demolishing them.
 
I have no doubt that if one prowls the Internet looking for bogus  
translations, one will find them. This is why I typically do searches on Google  
Books - that is, on a corpus of scans of edited and published works - rather  
than beginning with general Web searches. But the sources I originally passed 
on  - the ones which began this whole discussion - clearly represent 
serious efforts  by dedicated individuals working within the limits of their time.
 
We owe these scholars of an earlier time the same respect paid them by  
Charles Perry himself. A respect one can hope will be granted to Perry when  
future researchers with access to sources as yet unknown to any of us cast new 
 light on his own work.
 
Jim  Chevallier
_www.chezjim.com_ (http://www.chezjim.com/) 

Beyond Apicius (2):  recipes from other Roman sources
_http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/05/beyond-apicius-2-recipes-from-other.ht
ml_ 
(http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/04/beyond-wine-water-and-beer-what-else.html) 







In a message dated 5/13/2014 4:38:40 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
johnnae at mac.com writes:

Here he  says, "Moreover, most translations of the 'Nights' were done 
before the  medieval Arabic cookery manuscripts were known, so their 
characterization of  the foods is often maddeningly vague, when not simply wrong." 

All in  the first paragraph!