Early Arab food history

Relections of Arabian geography and diverse lifestyles

Within the early Arab food tradition, what did the Arabs of the 7th century eat in the early days of Islam?

Well, there is no one answer as the diverse geography of the Arabian region allowed for different kinds of cooking lifestyles.

There were many tribes of Arabs, nomads and city dwellers, Arabs of the north and of the south, Arabs of the south, Arabs of Gulf and the Red Sea, and those scattered throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Each had their own Arab food traditions. Their way of life is known to us through accounts of the life of the prophet Muhammad, born at Mecca in Hijaz. Hijaz extends hundreds of miles along the coast of the Red Sea...

It consists of high desert plateaus where rainfall is rare and unpredictable; however it is not all barren for city of Medina cultivated date palms and vineyards and Asir to the south, the best-irrigated region, produces wheat, apricots, peaches, bananas, grapes, pomegranate, and almonds, all part of early Arab food ...

Sedentary farmers in villages and oasis grew barley and vegetables (tomato, melon, squash, beans, and root vegetables) in small garden plots and tended their date groves, adding to the diversity of Arab food. Semi-nomadic Arabs provide meant and cheese from their flock of sheep and goats. Nomadic Bedouin herders provided camel meat. Fresh fish was stable on the coasts. In addition, tea, spices and rice were imported in bulk by camel caravans or by sea to ports, thus adding to the richness of early Arab food traditions.

Because of the mass expanses of the dessert, the nomadic Bedouin way of life was most pervasive, but simple and plain. The Arabs remained faithful to their way of life based on principle and necessity, but also out of love of independence. These values are reflected in the simple Arab food habits of the time...

However, they also knew about the influences of neighbouring civilizations and traveled the length and breadth of the peninsula disseminating information. Although strongly clinging to their culture, the Arabs did adopt recipes from Sasanid courts (in Persia). This included pastries like faludhaj, a cake prepared with starch and honey...

Mecca served as the spiritual center of the pre-Islamic Arabs. Mecca was also the center of the caravan trade for merchants coming from the south (Yemen) and bound for Syria and Egypt. The spices and incense would come from the far ends to sea ports of Yemen from where they would head north crossing Mecca. Its central place in this trade meant that Meccans must have also adopted the culinary spices in their diets. This meant that early Arab food included influences from many other surrounding regions.

Early Islamic food history

With the arrival of Islam came standard of behaviour and norms derived from the Qur’anic prescription and sunna, thus adding to earlier Arab food traditions. Sunna basically meant tradition of prophet Muhammad and his way of life, which was adopted by his companions and early caliphs (or rulers). To eat like the prophet – like Arab style, seated on the ground, with the right hand – and to eat what Prophet ate became an act of faith...

Except for the month of Ramadan, a month for purification, during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, Muslim are free to eat anything they desire within the limits of the law. There are no meatless Fridays or any Sabbath meal, nor any other special regime.

According to basic Islamic laws, all foods are permitted except for the blood and flesh of the pig. Acording to the Qur’an, [Prophet], say, ‘In all that has been revealed to me, I find nothing forbidden for the people to eat, except carrion, flowing blood, pig’s meat – it is loathsome – or a sinful offering over which any name other than God’s has been invoked.

There are also proscriptions associated with consumption of alcohol, but they do not constitute a prohibition as categorical as those that apply to pork and spilled blood. Pertaining to alcohol, Qur’an says the following, They ask you [,Prophet] about intoxicants and gambling: say, ‘There is great sin in both, and some benefit for people: the sin is greater than the benefit.’

Interpretation of this vary but a general reading seems to suggest that it is above all the abuse of alcoholic beverages that the Qur’an condemns and not moderate consumption. Moreover, it is not “impure” in that pork or blood is.

Because of the Prophet’s sunna and way of life as a model life, some of these Arab food dishes during this time became popular in the rest of the world. For example, tharid (meat or vegetables cooked in broth with crumbled flat bread added just before serving), which was the Prophet’s favourite meal. There was also masliya, mutton and kid cooked in whey (masl) and sometimes sprinkled with dry cheese. Then there was another early Arab food, madira, in which meat was cooked in curdled milk.

The Arabs cooked fat both from the tail of the sheep and clarified butter (samn), other part of the Islamic regions like the Mediterranean used vegetable oils like olive and sesame oil.

Bread in the early Arab food diet was cooked beneath coals or red-hot stones, ideally ones that had been used to roast the meat so some of the fat becomes saturated with the meat fat stuck to the stones.

A dish called hays, made with dates and milk, was an Arab specialty that Abu Hind, the Prophet’s barber had made for him and his companions to celebrate victory.

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