Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 170

Sikbā is an Arabicised word deriving
from the Persian sik , meaning “vinegar”,
and bāhā (or bā) meaning “type”, i.e. of
meat. The preparation of sikbā has gen-
erated the verb sakbaa and prompted the
writing of at least two works, both lost,
praising its virtues: the K. Faāil al-sikbā
of Ubayd Allāh b. Amad b. Abī and
that of the great wit, aa.
The proverbs ilā kam al-sikbā ! “What!
Sikbā again!”, and Yā bārid kam sikbā !
loosely, “You blockhead! How much more
sikbā ?”, are explained by al-ālaānī as
proverbs to be used when one has had
enough of something. Indeed, it seems
from the anecdotal literature that, satiri-
cally or otherwise, people either had
enough, or could not get enough, of
sikbā.

such a wealth of details that the invited
person, overwhelmed, takes to flight. Pur-
sued by street urchins, he hurls a stone
which wounds one of these last grievously,
and spends two years in prison. Hence he
has vowed never more to eat maīra , thus
explaining why, at the beginning of the
maāma , he refused a dish of it.

(Ed.)

Couscous

Couscous (Ar. kuskusū ) a word prob-
ably of Berber origin meaning couscous,
a culinary preparation containing semo-
lina which is the national dish of the
peoples of North Africa. It appears with
the article and with a final nūn in an anec-
dote depicting an Oriental being advised
by the Prophet, in a dream, to treat with
al-kuskusūn a sick Maribī; this anec-
dote is very well known and is probably
responsible for leading Moroccan schol-
ars to adopt the form attributed to the
Prophet. Couscous was known in Spain,
and the word kuskusū is provided with the
article in the Kitāb al-abī published by
A. Huici Miranda (Madrid 1965, 181),
but this is a case of an arabisation which
is not found in vernacular Arabic, where
the word never takes the article; sekso,
ksēkso, kuskus, kusksi , etc., which betrays its
non-Arabic origin. The equivalent term
among the majority of the Bedouin tribes
of Algeria and at Tlemcen is ām used
alone, elsewhere it is ay, mā , or noma ,
all of which illustrate the importance of
couscous in the minds of the people, espe-
cially those in rural areas, who make it the
invariable staple of their evening meal.
The quality and the weight of the grains
as well as the presentation of the dishes
offer a considerable diversity, which is cov-
ered by the generic terms cited above but

(Shawkat M. Toorawa)

Maīra

Maīra is the Arabic name of a dish
of meat cooked in sour milk, sometimes
with fresh milk added, and with spices
thrown in to enhance the flavour. This
dish, which Abū Hurayra is said to have
particularly appreciated, must have been
quite well sought-after in mediaeval times.
Its principal claim to fame comes from
al-Hamaānī's al-Maāma al-maīriyya ,
in which Īsā b. Hiām records solely
at the beginning of the maāma an occur-
rence which he witnessed and then tells
the story, it goes without saying, in the
mouth of Abu 'l-Fat al-Iskandarī, of an
adventure which had happened previously
to this last. In effect, this story is the satiri-
cal portrait of a nouveau riche who invites
Abu 'l-Fat to his house in order to try
some maīra , but goes on at such length
about his skill in acquiring the house and
other objects, whose praises he sings with