Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 141

specimens still exist in certain monasteries
in the Lebanon). A poet of the 4th/10th
century, describes the maara as a sea of
red flames in which the labourer stands,
the lower half of his body soaked with
the grape-juice. From the 7th/13th cen-
tury onwards, miniatures provide the best
illustrations of the process; here labourers
are seen carrying the grapes, others press
them by treading them in a vat, hanging
on straps in order to jump more easily;
in the vat there is an aperture, allowing
the juice to flow out into a receptacle;
against a wall stand the amphorae ( dann ,
pl. dinān ) with tapered bases, in which the
fermentation takes place (in vaults, seldom
in the open), and the maturation. These
various stages are described in works of
literature, while religious treatises aimed
at prohibiting the consumption of certain
drinks, concern themselves at some length
with the various types of vessel used for
fermentation.
The mediaeval anthologies and the
treatises of fih list various ingredients
for the manufacture of alcoholic bever-
ages; fruits: dates, figs, apricots, cherries,
mulberries, and various berries; cereals:
wheat, barley, maize, millet; honey
(hydromel is called bit ); sugar cane; milk
(Ibn utayba speaks of the making of
alcoholic drinks from different kinds of
milk), especially mares' milk (for making
kūmis , introduced at an early stage by the
Turks, and attested from the 5th/11th
century onwards, which was to become
the favourite drink of the Mamlūks.

or from spelt, faī (from different kinds
of dates). These ingredients were steeped
in water until they were fermented, and
the result of this procedure was a slightly
intoxicating drink. There were also com-
binations of raisins, dates and honey to be
found. Nabī was sometimes consumed
mixed with strong intoxicating ingredients
like St. John's wort or different kinds of
cannabis, so that it had strong intoxicat-
ing and hallucinogenic effects. Later on,
in some countries of the Islamic world,
there has been a change of meaning. In
today's Syria, for example, nbīd is used for
any kind of intoxicating drinks, while in
Egypt amr and nibīd are used with the
same meaning.
Side-by-side with milk and honey,
nabīdh was also a beverage that was
offered to the pilgrims in Mecca. The
institution of al-siāya (also the name of
the building, close to Zamzam, where the
distribution took place), was an office held
by the Abbāsī family. The descriptions
by Ibn Sad (d. 230/845) and al-Azrakī
(d. 244/858) give the impression of refer-
ring to the present state of things; in the
time of al-Muaddasī (d. ca. 1000 A.D.)
the institution had already passed into
desuetude.
There was a lively discussion among
the fuahā as to whether the consuming of
this kind of beverage is allowed or forbid-
den. One argument in favour of nabī was
put forward, for example, by the Mutazilī
al-ubbāī, who argues that God has cre-
ated things which resemble those things
which were allowed in Paradise but are
forbidden on earth. Among them is nabī ,
which is allowed for the believers so that
they can guess what amr will be like in
the hereafter.
Nabī , like amr , was used to dis-
credit certain individuals or groups. Thus
the calligrapher Ibn al-Waīd (647-
711/1249-50 to 1312) was suspected of
putting wine or nabī in the ink which he

( J. Sadan)

Intoxicating drink

Nabīdh (Ar.) is a comprehensive designa-
tion for intoxicating drinks, several kinds
of which were produced in early Arabia,
such as mizr (from barley), bit (from honey)