A Baghdad Cookery Book: Tthe Book of Dishes (Kitaab Al-oTabaikh): 79 (Petits Propos Culinaires) - Softcover

Al-Baghdadi, Muhammad Ibn Al-H

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903018420 ISBN 13: 9781903018422

Publisher: Prospect Books, 2005

Synopsis

For centuries, it had been the favourite Arabic cookery book of the Turks. The original manuscript, formerly held in the library of the Aya Sofya Mosque, is still in Istanbul; it is now MS Ayasofya 3710 in the Süleymaniye Library. At some point a Turkish sultan commissioned very a handsome copy, now MS Oriental 5099 in the British Library in London. At a still later time, a total of about 260 recipes were added to Kitāb al Tabīkh's original 160 and the expanded edition was retitled Kitāb Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada (my translation of it also appears in Medieval Arab Cookery); three currently known copies of K.Wasf survive, all in Turkey - two of them in the library of the Topkapi Palace, showing the Turks' high regard for this book. Finally, in the late fifteenth century Sirvāni made a Turkish translation of Kitāb al Tabīkh, to which he added some recipes current in his own day, the first Turkish cookery book.

About this title

Synopsis

Al-Baghdadi's "Kitab al-Tabikh" was for long the only medieval Arabic cookery book known to the English-speaking world, thanks to A. J. Arberry's path-breaking 1939 translation as "A Baghdad Cookery Book", which was re-issued by Prospect Books in 2001 as "Medieval Arab Cookery". For centuries, it had been the favourite Arab cookery book of the Turks. The original manuscript is still in Istanbul, and at some point a Turkish sultan commissioned a very handsome copy, which can still be seen in The British Library in London. In the twentieth century the Iraqi scholar, Daoud Chelebi, produced a modern transcription which served as the basis for Arberry's translation. Charles Perry has re-visited the manuscript and discovered many possible errors and amendments that affect the interpretation of these essential recipes for the understanding of medieval Arab cookery. He has produced a new English translation incorporating these amendments and fully annotating his variations with the 'authorised' version. Scholars will now have a definitive text on which to work. They will also have this text in an inexpensive and handy format, just the thing for a learned lady's handbag.

About the Author

Kitāb al Tabīkh, composed by a thirteenth-century scribe we usually call al-Baghdadi, was long the only medieval Arabic cookery book known to the English-speaking world, thanks to A.J.Arberry's path-breaking 1939 translation as 'A Baghdad Cookery Book' (reissued by Prospect Books in 2001 in Medieval Arab Cookery).

About this edition

• Publisher: Prospect Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1903018420
• ISBN 13: 9781903018422
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128