Review: The Sultan’s Feast: A Fifteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook, by Ibn Mubārak Shāh; edited, translated, and introduced by Daniel L. Newman

Abstract

If you ever wondered what tastes and flavors characterized a medieval Middle Eastern meal, Daniel L. Newman, Chair of Arabic Studies at the University of Durham, and a specialist in the Arabic language and culture, will guide you well through Ibn Mubārak Shāh’s cookery book, in both the book’s original language, Arabic, and in its fluent, vivid translation into English.This ambitious endeavor undertaken by Newman contributes to a growing interest in historical Arabic cookery in recent years. This manual is one of nine titles written in Arabic between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. Until now, it was the last one not translated into a European language; it was edited previously by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥman al-Shāghūl (2007), who did not provide a translation, so the text remained inaccessible to non-Arabic readers.Written in fifteenth-century Egypt, this cookbook’s edition and translation by Newman are based on the unique manuscript existing today, conserved at the Gotha Research Library at the University of Erfurt, Germany (MS Orient A. 1344), which is in fact a copy of the original text, seemingly now lost. The Book of Flowers in the Garden of Elegant Foods (Kitāb Zahr al-ḥadīqa fī al-aṭʿima al-anīqa), this cookery book’s original title copied the lion’s share of its recipes from another cookbook dated to the fourteenth century, Kanz al-fawāʾid fī tanwīʿ al-mawāʾid, recently translated by Nawal Nasrallah (2018) under the title Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook. Zahr al-ḥadīqa is in fact an abridged version of Kanz al-fawāʾid. With great care, Newman proposes a detailed table comparing both texts, Kanz versus Zahr, chapter by chapter (xlviii–xlix).In his introduction, Newman portrays the main traits of the medieval Arabic culinary tradition. He first outlines the nine cookery books written in Arabic from both the eastern and the western parts of the medieval Islamic world. During his work, he found a further tenth cookery manual, which is undergoing a study and edition by Newman; its discovery is of great importance to the study of Arabic cookbooks and its future publication is keenly awaited. Trying to capture the essence of the Arab medieval cuisine in a short introduction is not an easy task. Nevertheless, Newman’s presentation of the topic, using various relevant sources, is comprehensive and full of valuable information.The core of the book, comprised of two parts, features Newman’s efforts to both translate and edit the original text. Newman’s fluent and meticulous translation is directing the interested reader to find equivalents in other cookbooks or sources, and mainly in Kanz. His editing of the text in Arabic, included on the verso pages, was anticipated because the text’s first edition contained some misreading of words and terms. The original text did not enumerate the recipes, and Newman’s choice to number them in this edition certainly eases navigation.The Book of Flowers is divided into 19 chapters, though not all originally enumerated. The author, Ibn Mubārak Shāh, an Egyptian scholar, chose recipes for the dishes he most preferred and organized them in a similar way to that of the anonymous Kanz: bread making, various ragout-style dishes, omelets, fish dishes, sweets, counterfeit (vegetarian) dishes, condiments, sauces, dairy dishes, pickles, and cold dishes. In addition to these, he found it appropriate to include, in the fashion of his times, cooking tips important for the cook to know—tricks for storing fruit, instructions on the preparation of toothpicks, formulas for perfumes, recipes for pills to sweeten the breath—in a total of 332 culinary and nonculinary recipes.This book is an essential primary source in Arabic cookery studies, thus Newman’s excellent publication contributes enormously to the field. Although it is a historic cookbook, and often its recipes do not include measures and quantities, amateur cooks and historical cooking enthusiasts could also enjoy testing and concocting this book’s dishes. It is a long-awaited addition to the field, and as the author himself promises (xvi, j), it nearly completes the mission of editing and translating the cookery literature existing today in Arabic.