Cookery Books
Ibn Mubārak Shāh, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad: Zahr al-ḥadīqa fi ’l-aṭʿima al-anīqa. MS., Gotha Ms. orient. A 1344.. Editions: Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥman al-Shāghūl, Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya li-l-Turāth, 2007; [with English translation] Daniel Newman, The Sultan’s Feast, London: Saqi Books, 2020.
al-Baghdādī, Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥasan al-Kātib: Kitāb al-ṭabīkh. MSS., Istanbul, Süleymaniye, MS Ayasofya 3710; British Library MS Or5099). Editions: Dāwūd al-Jalabī, Kitāb al ṭabīkh, Mosul: Maṭbaʿat Umm al-Rabīʿayn, 1934; Fakhrī al-Bārūdī, Kitāb al ṭabīkh wa dhayl ʿalayhi al-ma’ākil al-Dimashqiyya, Damascus: Dār al-Kitāb al-Jadīd, 1964; Qāsim al-Sāmarrā’ī, Kitāb al ṭabīkh, Beirut: Dār al-Warrāq li ‘l-Nashr, 2014. Translations: Arthur Arberry, “A Baghdad cookery book”, Islamic Culture, 1939, No. 13, pp. 21-47, 184-214 [= Maxime Rodinson, A. J. Arberry & C. Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery, Totnes: Prospect Books, 2001, pp. 19-90]; Charles Perry, A Baghdad Cookery, Totnes: Prospect Books, 2005; Mario Casari, Il cuoco di Bagdad. Un antichissimo ricettario arabo, Milan: Guido Tommasi Editore, 2004.
Anonymous [Andalusian]: Kitāb al ṭabīkh. MS., Bibiliothèque nationale de France, mss. Ar7009. Editions: A. Huici Miranda, “Kitab al tabij fi-l-Magrib wa-l-Andalus fi ʿasr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu’allif mayhul (Un libro anónimo de la Cocina hispano-magribí, de la época almohade”, Revista del Instituto de estudios islámicos, IX/X (1961-62) 15-256 [= La cocina hispano-magrebí en la época almohade según un manuscritto anónimo. Edición critica. Madrid: Impr. del Instituto de estudios islamicos 1965]. Translations: A. Huici Miranda, Traducción española de un manuscrito anónimo del siglo XIII sobre la cocina hispano-magribi, Madrid: Maestre, 1966 ( 2nd ed. La cocina, hispano-magrebí durante la época almohade, 2005, Madrid: Trea); C. Perry, An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th century; Jean-Michel Laurent, Traité de Cuisine arabo-andalouse dit Anonyme andalou, Les éditions du Net, 2016; Catherine Guillaumond, Cuisine et diététique dans l’Occident arabe médiéval d’après un Traité anonyme du XIIIe siècle, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2017.
Anonymous: Kitāb Waṣf al-aṭʿima al-muʿtāda. MSS., Istanbul, Topkapi Saray Library, 62 Ṭibb 1992 [= Cairo, Ṣināʿa 51]; Ṭibb 22/74, 2004 [= Cairo, Ṣināʿa 52]. Translation: Charles Perry, “The description of familiar foods”, in Maxime Rodinson, A. J. Arberry & C. Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery, Totnes: Prospect Books, 2001, pp. 273-466.
Anonymous: al-Wuṣla ilā ’l-ḥabīb fī Waṣf al-ṭayyibāt wa ’l-ṭībal-Wuṣla ilā ’l-ḥabīb fī Waṣf al-ṭayyibāt wa ’l-ṭīb. Editions: Sulaymān Maḥjūb and Durriyat al-Khaṭīb, Aleppo: Maʿhad al-Turāth al-ʿIlmī al-ʿArabī, 2 vols, 1986; [with English translation] Charles Perry, Scents and flavors. A Syrian cookbook, New York: New York University Press, 2017.
Ibn al-Mibrad (al-Mubarrad), Jamāl al-Dīn Yūsuf Ibn Ḥasan Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Ṣāliḥī: Kitāb al-ṭibākha. Edition: Ḥabīb al-Zayyāt, al-Mashriq, vol. 35, 1937, pp. 370-376. Translation: C. Perry, “Kitāb al-ṭibākha: a fifteenth-century cookbook”, in Maxime Rodinson, A. J. Arberry & C. Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery, Totnes: Prospect Books, 2001, pp. 467-476 (= Petits Propos culinaires, 21, pp. 17:22).
al-Tujībī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Razīn: Fuḍālat al-khiwān fī ṭayyibāt al-ṭaʿām wa ’l-alwān. MSS., Berlin Staatsbibliothek, Wetzstein 1207; Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, de Gayangos XVI; British Library, BL Or5927. Edition: M. I. ʿA. Ibn Shaqrūn, Rabat, 1981 & Beirut, Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1984 (repr. 2012). Translations: Daniel L. Newman, The Exile’s Cookbook: Gastronomic Treasures from al-Andalus & North Africa, London: Saqi Books, 2023; M. Marín, Relieves de las mesas, acerca de las delicias de la comida y los diferentes platos, Madrid: Trea, 2007; M. Mezzine & L. Benkirane: Fudalat al-Khiwan d’ibn Razin Tujibi, Fes: Publications Association Fès Saïss, 1997.
al-Warrāq, Abū Muḥammad al-Muẓaffar Ibn Naṣr Ibn Sayyār: Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh. Editions: K. Öhrnberg & S. Mroueh, Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society, 1987; I. D. al-Shāmīrī, M. ʿA al-Qadaḥāt & I. Shabbūḥ, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir li ’l- Ṭibāʿa wa ’l-Nashr, 2012. Translation: Nawal Nasrallah, Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens: Ibn Sayyâr al-Warrâq’s Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook, Leiden: Brill, 2007.
Other gastronomic writings
In addition to the rich cookery book tradition, food and gastronomy figure prominently in other types of writing as well, ranging from literature to medical treatises. The latter genre, in particular, contains numerous references to food, due the links between food and health within the humoral theory that underpinned medicine in the period.