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An Anonymous Al-Andalus Cookbook from the 13th Century |
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Download the PDF copy of this book for free, from this site
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You may be wondering what this book has to do with Italophiles. Well... Much of what is unique about Sicilian cuisine comes from the early Arab-Moor colonizers of the island who brought with them new agricultural techniques, new plants and spices, and new cooking traditions. I have another page on this site that looks at the links between the Al Andalus (the same family ruled in Sicily) cuisine, well described in this ancient cookbook, and today's Sicilian cuisine and Italian cooking, and Sicily's Arabo-Sicula cuisine. This page is an separate introduction to this wonderful book, with a link to the free version I have created as a PDF book, that anyone can download from this site. I have other ancient cookbooks on this site, too, if you are interested. My Preface to the BookThis English text is a translation by Charles Perry, working from the original Arabic, a printed copy of the Arabic and its translation into Spanish, and assisted by an English translation by various persons translating collaboratively the text from Spanish to English. I have altered the English translation by:
I have made this document into a PDF. The free Adobe PDF Reader allows for simple movement between recipes and chapters, and to search easily by any word, any ingredient. You can also easily print out the book or sections of the book. This book’s original title was: Kitab al tabij fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu'allif mayhul. Or Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi `asr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu'allif majhul. It means: The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads, by an unknown author. It is commonly known in English today as:The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook. The book was complied by a scribe in the 1400s, whose name appeared on the first page of the text, but the first page has not survived the ages. His work contains recipes copied from a number of works from the 1200s, some surviving and some not surviving independently to today. The major part of the English translation is by Charles Perry, a scholar, food historian, and writer of a food column for the L.A. Times. Additional notes are by various other writers, including myself. Like all ancient cookbooks, this one is made up of pieces of other cookbooks. Think of it as a recipe notebook from a busy estate kitchen. The reigning cook added to his recipe collection by:
Periodically, these cooks published their recipe collections for the honor of their patron, or for their own honor. Then scribes would copy the books for a client, or for the book’s owner to give to friends, or as a gift, or even just for posterity. This cookbook borrows directly from several well-known cookbooks, all from roughly the same period.
The Andalucía, or Al-Andalus, of the 1200s was not today’s southern region of Andalucía in Spain. It was the name used for all of the territory controlled in Spain by Arab Muslims, originally from North Africa. The major part of Spain, excluding only it’s Northern regions, was under Arab rule between 711 and 1492. The Kingdom of Granada was the last area to fall to the Spanish-Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in what Spain calls a ‘re-conquest’ of their territory. The defeated Muslims call a barbarous tragedy. Some Moroccan families still retain, in a prominent place in their Moroccan homes, the key to their ancestors’ family home that was taken from them in Al-Andalus during that period. Al-Andalus was renowned for it’s centers of learning, beautiful architecture, and religious tolerance. You’ll note several Jewish recipes in this cookbook because there was a large Jewish population in Al-Andalus. The persecution of this minority group began only under Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic monarchs who fought for the expulsion, or mass-conversions, or murder of those of Muslim and Jewish faiths. There are also recipes from other regions that were under Muslim control, such as Sicily. The oldest cuisine in the world (a cuisine being a documented cooking of a settled people) is the Persian cuisine, which like the Persian Empire, stretches back to nearly 1000 BC. Many elements of Persian cuisine appear throughout the Near East and North Africa, and they appear in this cookbook as well. And many elements of the Persian and the Al-Andalus cuisines appear in the early European cookbooks. European cuisine only began to change when:
Today, many of the dishes reported in this 13th century Al-Andalus cookbook, are enjoyed by families in Andalucía, Sicily, Sardinia, and all the territories that formerly belonged to the Moorish monarchs, especially in Morocco. The recipes for bread, actually, are common throughout Asia. The sausages and meat patties are common throughout these areas and beyond, but in this predominantly Muslim cookbook, none are made with pork, as is more common in today’s non-Muslim regions. But you will find goat, lamb and mutton recipes, along with lots of chicken, egg, eggplant and fish recipes that are very similar to recipes still used throughout Southern Europe, as well as Italian frittatas, fresh and dried pasta, and the calzone.
The most recipes in any one category were for sweets, which isn’t surprising when you consider that 3 of the 7 prescribed courses in a meal are sweets. I have divided the sweets recipes into sub-categories of:
Many of the recipes are similar to sweets that are enjoyed today by people all over the world, showing how far and wide the Persian and Moorish recipes have been embraced. In the West, these dishes are usually filtered through Italian, Spanish, Greek and French cuisines. For example, this book with recipes from the 1200s (and earlier), you can find recipes for:
The recipes reported here are mainly of historical interest, but there will be some hardy hobbyists who will try to follow them. For you, here is a tip: some of the Moors of Al-Andalus managed to leave, most going across the straights of Gibraltar to North Africa, to Morocco. So, most of the dishes in this cookbook are still made today in Morocco. Just search for the corresponding Moroccan recipe, and you’ll find precise measurements of modern ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions. A few more words of warning if you are going to attempt to cook any of these recipes:
My thanks to all who worked on translating this book, and for putting it free on the Internet. That was very generous of you. I, too, offer this PDF version of the book that I have edited and rearranged, free to all who wish to download it. I hope you enjoy a taste of the Mediterranean’s past, and if you are brave enough (or foolish enough, perhaps?) to try to cook these dishes, I hope they come out well. Candida Martinelli Visit my Ancient Cookbooks page
Some Great LinksDavid Friedman's site with the original translation A spice analysis of the book
The Miscellany, a self-published book by that includes several hundred period recipes, original and worked out versions, a fair number of which are from the Islamic and Italian sources.
Moroccan recipes from Recipe Zaar.
Al-Bab.com's links to recipes and much more about Moroccan food.
Over 300 Astray's Moroccan recipes. |
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Here are some more of the wonderful images of The Alhambra, Generalife, in Granada, Spain, courtesy of Allposters.com. Just click on an image to find out how to buy it.
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