[Sca-cooks] Kitab al-Tabik vs Kitab al-Tabik?

[Terry Decker]

The original manuscript of Kitab al-tabikh is MS Ayasofya 3710 in the 
Süleymaniye Library.  A copy of the original produced on the orders of a 
Turkish sultan is MS Oriental 5099 in the British Library.  These texts have 
roughly 160 recipes each.

Later still, roughly 260 recipes were added to the original text and the 
work was retitled,  Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada.  Three copies of the 
Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada are known to exist, two in the Topkapi and the 
third apparently privately held in Turkey.  Arberry's translation is of this 
text.

In the late 15th Century, Muhammed ibn Mahmud Sirvani translated the Kitab 
into Turkish and added contemporary recipes.  I haven't been able to 
ascertain which version of the Kitab Sirvani translated or how many recipes 
were added.   With roughly 600 recipes, Nasrallah's translation is probably 
from Sirvani's text although I have no evidence to support this conclusion.

Bear

Can anyone explain in very small words what the difference is between the
Kitab al-Tabikh translated by Arberry and published in Medieval Arab Cookery
and the Kitab al-Tabikh translated by Nasrallah and published as Annals of
the Caliph's Kitchens? I've read the intros twice each and I still can't
parse it out. They're two different editions? Different manuscripts? I get
that there are three separate manuscripts and one of them is Turkish with
all the additions and that's not either of these, but then how are these two
different from each other? It's so confusing.



Madhavi

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