Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 190

ety of domestic preparations. A represen-
tative selection of recipes may be found in
the anonymous Kanz al-fawāid , probably
of Mamlūk Egyptian origin.
In substantial dishes containing meat,
often together with one or more vegeta-
bles, saffron was used to lend colour, a
purpose sometimes explicitly stated in the
recipe. For example, in a sweet-sour dish
of Persian origin, zirbā , chicken is tinted
with saffron before vinegar is added to the
cooking pot. However, in other cases, saf-
fron is used to add flavour. One of the
stages of preparation for abāhia calls for
a combination of saffron with honey, nuts,
corn starch, pepper and various spices
mixed together and added to the pot.
The complement of the distinctive aroma
of saffron was likely intended when, in a
meatless recipe, it was sprinkled with sugar
and rosewater on top of the finished dish;
indeed, saffron is often found in combi-
nation with aromatic rose water. A mus-
tard sauce, ardal , containing saffron and
other dried spices, was mixed with brown
vinegar, the preparation being used to
prevent the “transformation” of fish.
Other, less known, domestic uses for saf-
fron were its frequent appearance, among
many other ingredients, in preparations
for “home remedies” such as stomachics
( awāri ), one such being said to sweeten
the breath and prevent snoring. Finally,
mā zafarān , a clear liquid distilled from
saffron, was used to scent clothing without
leaving a trace of its colour.

medicinal herb. In mediaeval Islamic lit-
erature it appears under various names:
zafarān (the most common), rayhaān,
ādī, āī and isān . Dāwūd al-Anākī
thought that the Syriac name of this herb
was kurkum , but this term in fact denotes
the curcuma, often mixed up with saffron
on account of the similarity in colour. Saf-
fron was cultivated in many parts of the
Islamic world, but was also imported. Ibn
al-Awwām gives a precise description of
the plant's cultivation in al-Andalus, near
to Seville ( K. al-Filāa , i, 116-18). There
were various varieties known in the classi-
cal period: the Maribī and the Edessan
( ruhāwī ), but also the Frankish or Genoese
( ifranī, anawī ). Al-Bīrūnī mentions Per-
sian varieties ( ibahānī, rāzī and urāsānī)
and Syrian ( āmī ) ones. The products of
the Sūs, in southern Morocco, were espe-
cially appreciated, as stated by al-Anākī
and the anonymous Tufat al-albāb ; con-
temporary Moroccan herbalists further
mention the zafarān zebbūdī (cultivated by
the Zebbūd of the Sūs).
Saffron was considered to be a stimulant
for the nervous system, but also an aphro-
disiac, a tonic for the heart and a cordial
( mufarri ). It was used in the composition
of collyria, as indicated by Ibn Sīnā and
al-Anākī, since the powers of dissolving
white specks in the eye and strengthening
the eyesight were attributed to it. Finally,
it was used as an emmenagogic, a diuretic
and a lithotriptic, but also, on the fringes
of magic, in amulets for helping with
labour in parturition. At the present time,
folk medicine uses the “ink” of saffron in
the making of amulets bearing cabbalistic
inscriptions aimed at combatting the evil
eye. Another usage, fairly current in the
medical treatises, is as a calming remedy
for pains and inflammations of the ear.
Since saffron was a precious and expen-
sive product, fraudulent substitutes of all
kinds were current, to the degree that

2. As a medicament
As well as being used in food prepara-
tion, saffron is one of the simple medica-
ments, abundantly cited in Arabic medical
treatises. At the present time, it is used in
traditional medicine of the Arab-Muslim
domain ( ibb arabī, ibb yūnānī ). It has been
used since Antiquity (cited in the Iliad , xiv.
348) as an aromatic, colourant and simple