Eat Like A Sultan

One of the emblematic spices used in Abbasid cuisine, sumac (Rhus coriaria) was already used in cooking by the ancient Greeks, who imported it from Syria. In mediaeval Arab cuisine, dried sumac berries (as well as husks), were used pounded, or macerated, and strained to make sumac juice, which was used as a marinade for meat, as a cooking liquid, souring ingredient (chicken and lamb stews), or to dye dishes red. The juice of sumac berries was also sometimes boiled down to produce a more condensed mixture, known as sumac dibs, which could be used for souring dishes. Its taste is perhaps best described as a mixture of lemon and vinegar. Scholars distinguished between two kinds of sumac, Khorasani and Syrian, the latter of which is smaller and red like lentil. In Islamic medicine, sumac was said to be useful against bleeding, tooth-ache, nausea, and the spread of ulcers. The extract can be used to colour the hair black. Physcians warned that it causes constipation, and thus dishes containing sumac were recommended for those suffering from diarrhoea. Apparently, the caliph Harun al-Rashid was very partial to the taste, particularly in savoury sumac stews (summāqiyya).

The usual Arabic word for fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), rāziyānaj, is a borrowing from Persian (where it is also appears as rāzyām and rāziyāna). Its other names include shamar (another Persian borrowing) and, in the Maghrib, nāfiʿ (نافع) and basbās (بسباس). it is native to the Near East, but was already used in cooking in classical Antiquity. In mediaeval Arab cuisine it was particularly popular in Andalusian and North African cuisines, which used its seeds, stalks or leaves in a number of recipes, ranging from stews and condiments to drinks, or pickled. Medically, wild fennel was recommended in the treatment of blockages, to strengthen the eye- sight, and against nausea and heartburn. It was also considered a diuretic and emmenagogue. At the same time, it is slow to digest (its root causes constipation) and not very nutritious. Today, it is still used in pharmacology for its antioxidant, antitumor, hypoglycemic, and oestrogenic properties.

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This most precious of spices is known in Arabic as za’farān (زعفران), which is the origin of our English word.
In cooking it was used as an aromatic and, more frequently, to colour dishes, in which case it tended to be added at the end of the cooking process. It is also found in incense recipes and perfumes. The 13th-century anonyous Andalusian treatise recommends using saffron in pickled dishes and those with poultry that include vinegar and murrī.
It was also commonly referred to as kurkum, which actually denotes turmeric (Curcuma longa, a plant from the ginger family). The confusion between the two may also explain why kurkum does not appear in the cookery books. Then as now, there were complaints about unscrupulous market vendors adulterating saffron with turmeric, which, itself, was also often corrupted by mixing in ground pomegranate skins! According to some scholars, kurkum was the root of saffron. Medicinally, it was thought to strengthen the stomach, heart, liver, and complexion. However, physicians warned that it could also cause headaches, and the fact that it is poisonous — even lethal — at large doses. According to the pharmacologist al-Samarqandī (d. 1222), saffron enhances digestion, but cuts appetite and is harmful to the brain. It was also said to be an anaesthetic and diuretic. Because of its aphrodisiacal properties, the Prophet is said to have forbidden the wearing of clothes dyed with saffron for pilgrims who were in a state of ritual purity, and thus debarred from sexual activity.