The author of the thirteenth-century Arabic cookbook Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh
proposed that food was among the foremost pleasures in life.
Scheherazade's Feasts invites adventurous cooks to test this
hypothesis.
From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, the influence and power of
the medieval Islamic world stretched from the Middle East to the Iberian
Peninsula, and this Golden Age gave rise to great innovation in
gastronomy no less than in science, philosophy, and literature. The
medieval Arab culinary empire was vast and varied: with trade and
conquest came riches, abundance, new ingredients, and new ideas. The
emergence of a luxurious cuisine in this period inspired an extensive
body of literature: poets penned lyrics to the beauty of asparagus or
the aroma of crushed almonds; nobles documented the dining customs
obliged by etiquette and opulence; manuals prescribed meal plans to
deepen the pleasure of eating and curtail digestive distress.
Drawn from this wealth of medieval Arabic writing, Scheherazade's
Feasts presents more than a hundred recipes for the foods and beverages
of a sophisticated and cosmopolitan empire. The recipes are translated
from medieval sources and adapted for the modern cook, with replacements
suggested for rare ingredients such as the first buds of the date tree
or the fat rendered from the tail of a sheep. With the guidance of
prolific cookbook writer Habeeb Salloum and his daughters, historians
Leila and Muna, these recipes are easy to follow and deliciously
appealing. The dishes are framed with verse inspired by them, culinary
tips, and tales of the caliphs and kings whose courts demanded their
royal preparation. To contextualize these selections, a richly
researched introduction details the foodscape of the medieval Islamic
world.
