Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
country, in temporarily set up regional
markets, or in the towns, in markets
which were more or less permanent.
In the larger towns there were whole-
sale markets supplying the large markets
which served the whole of a large town
district and also the small local markets.
Private householders bought their pro-
visions from the two latter types. These
retail markets consisted of specialized little
shops: fruit and vegetable sellers, butch-
ers, dried fruit merchants, sellers of spices
(
aār
), grocers who sold various kinds of
fats (
baāl
in Morocco, elsewhere usually
zayyāt, sammān
, etc. with many variants).
There are found in the works on the cor-
porations extensive lists of these retailers.
As we have said, many variations are to
be found in the demarcation and naming
of specializations in the different regions.
In certain countries at certain times the
state played an important part at several
stages in the distribution of commodities.
Egyptian cuisine had a high reputation.
In Turkey, the cooks of Bolu were and
remain very famous. Cooks from places
which were renowned for their food
were employed in far distant regions.
Al-āhir brought to Badād a urāsānī
cook, and Egyptian women-cooks were
employed everywhere (even in the house-
hold of an orientalized Frankish knight
of Antioch). This specialization gave rise
to the numerous adjectives of geographi-
cal origin which accompany or represent
the names of many dishes:
e.g.
, there are
cakes called
amīmiyya, asyūiyya
, a sweet
called
alwā makkiyya
, etc. Regional foods
or dishes were made far from their place
of origin, the recipes being transmitted
orally or in writing. Thus as early as the
7th/13th century we find in the East reci-
pes for Maribī couscous. Food is today
one of the channels for patriotic fervour.
In literature and films, Egypt's national
food (
amiyya
, Egyptian beans—
fūl mudam-
mas mirī
, Jew's mallow or
mulūiyya
) is
contrasted with the cosmopolitan dishes
affected by snobs. A school textbook relates
how an Egyptian student is delighted
to find in Oxford an atmosphere of his
native country in a restaurant kept by an
Egyptian and serving
fūl mudammas
. Egyp-
tian emigrants returning home dream of
a good hot
amiyya
rissole.
When massive emigrations take place,
the emigrants introduce their traditional
dishes into their new habitat. Thus, the
great emigrations of Muslims from Spain
at the time of the Reconquista brought
many Andalusian recipes to the Marib,
for example the famous
bêla
(from Span.
pastel
) of Morocco.
Variations according to the different
religious groups are of more importance
ideologically. We shall deal later with the
development of the principles laid down
in the urān, and it is necessary to men-
tion here only that each group tended to
5.
Food consumption and its variations
In the sociological study of food, special
attention must be paid to how consump-
tion varies with different groups and cate-
gories of individuals. These variations are
due either to natural, geographical and
economic differences in the food resources
available to each group, or to cultural tra-
ditions of varying origins. Muslim civili-
zation provides many instances of this
phenomenon, which is worthy of more
detailed study; here we shall give only
some examples.
The geographical variations are obvi-
ously due to the variety of the resources
available, and thus to natural conditions.
But, at the sociological level, based on
these conditions and extending beyond
them, the establishment of cultural tra-
ditions regarding the choice and the
preparation of dishes has created regional
specialization. Thus, in the Middle Ages,
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