[Sca-cooks] Nuskha-e-Shajahani

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Greetings:

I've posted about this book here before - at least 10 years ago, tho, and maybe longer, so not very recently. It is from the 2nd quarter of the 17th c. For anyone studying SCA-period Persian cuisine, this is a useful to compare the rice pilaos of Shah Jahan with those from 1594 of chef to Safavid Shah Abbas I, published as "Dining at the Safavid Court: 16th Century Royal Persian Recipes" by M. R. Ghanoonparvar, Mazda Pub. (2017).

"the original text is not given, neither in transcription" - the original text was written in Persian. We rarely get the original text of Arabic-language recipes and i rarely hear people asking for them. An exception is Perry's most recent work, which *does* have the Arabic on pages facing the English translation. I suspect even fewer of us can read late 16th/early 17th c. Farsi.

When i first received it, i thought the recipes had been modernized. Then i got onto some Indian message boards where the book was being discussed. And it appeared that the recipes had not been extensively modernized, since there were so many comments about not understanding the measurements given and some of the procedures.

I, too, wish the whole cookbook was translated.

Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya


-----Original Message-----
> Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2018 19:58:52 -0500
> From: Sam Wallace <guillaumedep at gmail.com>
>
> Nuskha-e-Shajahani - Pulaos from the Royals Kitchen of Shah Jahan
> Salma Husain, trans.
>
> The original comes from a time a bit after the SCA's period of interest and
> from what is today modern India. This modern rendition contains only the
> pulao recipes from the original. Further, they have been rendered in a
> modern format, though they retain many of the original cookery terms and
> measurements. There is a glossary toward the beginning of the work giving
> explanations of each, though the section on measurements is inconsistent.
> Having said that, the explanation of cooking techniques was well done.
> Unfortunately, the original text is not given, neither in transcription or
> translation. I would very much like to have a translation of the whole
> work, but this at least provides some access to it. My overall impression
> of the wok is that it could have used some good editing. Besides the issue
> with the measurements, there were things like the names of similar recipes
> being given in the form of "Recipe Name ~1" followed by "Recipe Name-II".
>
> This is very much a specialist book with a very definite focus. I recommend
> it for those who are interested in Mughal or historical Indian cooking and
> for those who are really into rice dishes.