CULINARY BIOGRAPHIES: Ziryab

The cuisine of medieval Arab Spain and eventually of Europe as a whole was
profoundly influenced by one of the great musicians of the time, a man known as Ziryab
or Blackbird.
So named because of his dark complexion and beautiful singing voice, Ziryab
performed and taught music in Cordoba under the patronage of the Umayyad emir of alAndalus, Abdul Rahman II. The musician became widely known as an arbiter of style;
historians have compared him to Beau Brummel and Petronius. He introduced
revolutionary changes in music, dining, fashion, grooming, hairstyles, cosmetics and
other aspects of courtly life. Many of his innovations spread to other social classes and
communities, and eventually throughout Western Europe. In the ninth century, Cordoba
was the capital of the civilized West, just as Baghdad was the cultural center of the Arab
East. Cordobas fads, fashions and creations were widely emulated. Ziryabs innovations
were more than fads, and a number of them survive in the West to this day, as enduring
parts of our everyday life.
Ziryabs real name was Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Nafi. He was born in
Mesopotamia, probably near Baghdad, in about 789 AD. Details of his early years are
sketchy. He was most likely a freed slave, or the son of slaves, in the service of the
Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi. Some Arab historians say he was of African ancestry; others
claim he was Persian or Kurdish. As a member of the caliphs court, Ziryab was well
schooled in poetry, astronomy, geography, physics and other fields. Music was his first
love. He studied under a living legend, court musician Ishaq al-Mawsili. Eventually
forced to flee Baghdad because of the hostile jealousy of his teacher, Ziryab traveled to
Kairouan in North Africa and then to Arab Spain, where he was invited to the Umayyad
emirs court at Cordoba in 822. He opened the countrys first musical conservatory, as
well as an academy of beauty and cosmetology.
Ziryabs impact on Spanish society was swift and powerful. As music historian
Julian Ribera (1929) observed, Ziryab knew all branches of literature, his social contacts
were most delicate and courteous, his conversation very agreeable, and his urbanity

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exquisite, thus combining all the qualities needed for a gentleman of the court. Many
were his musical contributions, including new song styles and a fifth course of strings for
the Arabian lute or ud. Thanks to Ziryab, Spaniards became acquainted with such social
innovations as toothpaste, the shaving of beards, short hair styles with bangs and the
concept of seasonal clothing.
Ziryab was also celebrated as a gourmet, possessing detailed knowledge of the
sophisticated cuisine of Baghdad. With the emirs blessing, he took charge of the
kitchens of the Cordoba court and revolutionized the arts of the table in ways that survive
to this day. Before Ziryabs influence, Spanish dining was a somewhat crude affair,
inherited from the Visigoths, Romans and local custom. Platters of assorted foods were
piled together on wooden tables sometimes covered with rough cloth, sometimes not. .
Ziryab taught the palace cooks how to prepare Spains delectable ingredients
meats, fish and fowl, vegetables, cheeses, soups, nuts and fruits - in imaginative recipes
inspired by Baghdads haute cuisine. He delighted courtly diners by elevating a humble
spring weed called asparagus into a succulent dinner vegetable. One of his popular
dishes, meatballs and small triangular pieces of dough fried in coriander oil, came to be
called taqliyat Ziryab, or Ziryabs Fried Dish. Another, an asado or roast of seasoned
broad beans, survived into modern times as a Cordoba classic called ziriab. A 13thcentury Andalusian cookbook preserves a dish named baqliyyat Ziryab (Vegetables
Ziryab), a casserole of lamb chunks, cabbage, onion and spices, topped with a crispy
crust of ground meat, eggs, almonds and breadcrumbs.
Ziryab arranged for palace dinners to be served in courses one after another,
beginning with soup, continuing with meat entrees alternating with fowl dishes, and
ending with sweet desserts which, in the words of one historian, included cakes of
walnuts, almonds and honey, or fruit pats, flavored with vanilla and stuffed with
pistachios and hazelnuts.
This orderly presentation style unheard of even in Baghdad steadily gained
popularity, spreading through the upper and merchant classes, then among Christians and
Jews, and even the peasantry. In time, the custom became the rule throughout Europe.
Our expression from soup to nuts, indicating a lavish meal of successive courses, can
be traced back to Ziryabs innovations at the Andalusian table.

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Dressing up the plain dinner table, Ziryab instructed local craftsmen how to
produce tooled and fitted leather table coverings. He replaced the bulky gold and silver
drinking goblets of the aristocracy a holdover from the Goths and Romans with
delicate, hand-cut crystal ware. He redesigned the wooden soup spoon, substituting a
trimmer, lighter-weight model. Ziryabs dining innovations made his social evenings the
talk of al-Andalus.
Ziryab died in about 857, at the age of 68. He had several wives and concubines;
most of their names are unknown. Ziryab was survived by eight sons and two daughters,
all of whom pursued musical careers. His son Abdul Rahman took over management of
the music school. His daughter Hamduna, a famous singer, married a vizier and helped
publish a collection of her fathers music, Kitab Maruf fi Aghani Ziryab (The Book of
Ziryabs Known Songs).
As the centuries passed, popular memory of Ziryab faded, but his innovations
remained deeply entrenched in Western custom.

RWL

[NOTE: This article was contributed to Culinary Biographies: A Dictionary of the

World's Great Historic Chefs, Cookbook Authors and Collectors, Farmers, Gourmets,
Home Economists, Nutritionists, Restaurateurs, Philosophers, Physicians, Scientists,
Writers, and Others Who Influenced the Way We Eat Today by Alice Arndt (Editor), Yes
Press, 2006.]