Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 134

great breeders of camels and dromedar-
ies, and it is often to their milk that these
terms apply. Muslim civilisation was
familiar with the milk of all kinds of beasts
and geographical literature refers to it at
times. Ibn utayba knew that it was pos-
sible to ferment these milks, e.g. that of
the camel, although it was the milk of
the mare which was more popularly used
for fermentation a few centuries later
(koumiss was often produced from fer-
mented mare's milk, as was kefir , generally
less potent; some varieties still exist today
which are even given to children to drink).
This came about through the influence
of the peoples of Central Asia and those
from the native lands of the Mamlūks; the
latter also drank koumiss, in spite of the
hot climate of Egypt. As has already been
mentioned, curdling, or even salting, were
effective means of preserving lactic drinks,
in a period when refrigeration was still
unknown, and in relatively hot regions.
It is thus that a land may be renowned
beyond its geographical borders for the
quality of its lactic products (the Syro-
Palestinian region, for example, is praised
for its yoghourts, etc.). Moreover, it is thus
that certain of these drinks are still known
today, for example laban (originally laban
means nothing more than “milk”, but in
certain dialects the distinction has arisen
of alīb = milk, laban = fully or partially
curdled milk), ayran , among the Turks,
and there is an Iranian equivalent, dū ,
sometimes a little more salted. Some
ancient texts describe yoghourts ( yourt )
and give the recipes with instructions on
how to dilute it with water, producing a
drink which would resemble the above-
mentioned ayran .

“Water is the mother of all drinks”, or
“the master of all drinks”.
Water was an element of prime impor-
tance in the life of the ancient Arabs, espe-
cially those who lived in desert regions.
The literature of medical traditions speaks
of the importance of this element as a
drink, and gives detailed accounts of its
properties and different varieties. In fact,
geographical and topographical condi-
tions made it necessary for each region to
be content with a given, and often unal-
terable, quality of water: water from wells
( ābār ), from canals, rivers, etc., a subject
of frequent interest to Arab geographers
(in particular the so-called “classical” ones
of the 4th/10th century; al-Muaddasī,
in his Asan al-taāsim , often adds at the
end of each description of a region a
sub-chapter which contains, among other
things, information concerning the differ-
ent waters of the region, their qualities,
etc.). Similarly, culinary literature also
devotes special chapters to water, in its
capacity as a drink. Well-organised sys-
tems of provision of water were rare, but
not unknown in the mediaeval period.
The water of certain rivers was often nei-
ther pure nor clean. The quality of drink-
ing water often depended on the social
condition of the consumer, in particular
the money available to him to pay the
water-bearer ( saā ), but there were also
receptacles, or even special constructions
( sabīl , pl. subul , testifying to the generos-
ity of the benefactors who built them)
designed for the use of the general public.
By such means, water was distributed to
travellers or to the visitors of markets.

v . Water mixed with snow
The wealthy were not satisfied with ordi-
nary water; they were not only prepared
to pay more highly for water of good qual-
ity but they sought also to refrigerate it.
In addition to porous jugs (which had the

iv. Water as a drink
In spite of the preference for milk over
other drinks on the part of the Prophet,
he is also credited with such remarks as