A Baghdad Cookery Book: The Book of Dishes (Muhammad b. al-Hasan, Muhammad b. al-Karim)

Al-Baghdadi's Kitab al-Tabikh was for long the only medieval Arabic Cookery book known to the English-speaking world, thanks to A.J Arberry's path-breaking 1939 translation as 'A Baghdad Cookery Book' which was re-issued by Prospect Books in 2001 in Medieval Arab Cookery.

For centuries, it has been the favourite Arab cookery book of the Turks. The original manuscript is still in Istanbul, and at some point a Turkish sultan commissioned a very handsome copy which can still be seen in The British Library in London.

In the twentieth century the Iraqi scholar Daoud Chelebi, produced a modern transcription which served as the basis for Arberry's translation. Charles Perry has re-visited the manuscript and discovered many possible errors and amendments that affect the interpretation of these essential recipes for the understanding of medieval Arab cookery. He has produced a new Enlish translation incorporating these amendments and fully annotating his variations with the 'authorised' version. Scholars will now have a definitive text on which to work. They will also have this text in an inexpensive and handy format, just the thing for a learned lady's handbag.

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Translated by Charles Perry