This recipe by the Cordoban physician Abu ‘l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (c. 936-1013), who has been called the Father of surgery, is for a dish of fried slices of meat, known as tabahija (طباهجة), also tabahaja and even tabahijiyya (طباهجية), which he prescribed for people suffering from dropsy (حبن, haban).
The word ultimately goes back to the Persian tabāhah (تباهه), which could denote “stewed meat; a light dish made of aubergine, sour milk and herbs; eggs, dressed with meat, vinegar, pepper, and pulse” (Steingass 1892: 278). The Persian tabahja (طباهجه) and tabahij (طباهیج), on the other hand, referred to an omelette or soft meat.
This recreation of a ‘tasty’ (طيبة, tayyiba) tabahija is very easy to make and involves thinly sliced meat being soaked in wine vinegar and some murri, after which it is fried with a sprinkling of caraway, cumin and pepper. When it is done, drizzle on a little cooked down aromatic wine, and add chopped fresh coriander, celery and rue.
The tabahija was very popular, as evidenced by its occurrence in a number of medieval Arabic culinary treatises, from Abbasid Iraq, Egypt and al-Andalus. One Abbasid culinary author traced it back to the Sasanid king Bahram whose retinue shot a deer and cut part of it in thin slices, which they proceeded to cook in fat. At first the king was shocked at what he considered the spoiling of the meat by slicing but after tasting it he greatly liked it. The same author contrasted tabāhijas with mutajjanat (مطجنات), which were cooked in a tajine (طاجن, from the Greek teganon, ‘pan’), usually made of copper; the former contain boneless and sliced meat, and the latter jointed chickens with the bones.
In the Arabic tradition, the tabahijas were considered varieties of stews (قلايا, qalaya), which contain a broth (مرق, maraq) and are cooked until they become dry. Sometimes a distinction was made between sour (حامض, hamid) and salty (مالح, malih) tabahijas.
In the medical literature, the tabahija was thought to strengthen the bowels, stimulate the appetite, and be particularly good for those who engage in physical exertion, but may cause nausea and abdominal pain, and be harmful to the joints.
