8vo. 42 pp., English text, 44 pp., Arabic text, publisher’s original wrappers, copy in mint condition, Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, Lecture Series No. 6, London, 2004.

Synopsis

It is probably difficult to encompass the entire sphere of cookery and cuisine throughout the history of Islamic civilisation. The landscape is vast, the actors are countless and their tastes endlessly varied; the nature of the land is uneven and its bounty uncertain and irregular, with abundance and scarcity locked in perpetual rivalry. This relatively brief talk will not even attempt a rough outline of the subject of food, cookery and dining in the Muslim world; this paper is to present a preliminary framework for a research project that would deal with all elements related, directly and indirectly, to the culture of food. Arab-Islamic civilisation has bequeathed many a document on the subject. The research should embrace broader and more remote topics such as agriculture, the source of food provided by the land, the organised trade that brought rare spices from eastern Asia to the Arab world along established land and sea routes, tableware and its manufacture from different kinds of wood, copper and pottery and the identification of the properties of individual plants and spices used in medicine and food.