The Culinary Crescent A History of

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Falafel, hummus and doner kebabs; couscous, stuffed vine leaves and
marzipan – the delicacies of the Middle East have long since found
their way onto menus in the West, while spices such as cloves,
cardamom, saffron and cinnamon that were once beyond most
people’s means are today familiar ingredients in every well-
appointed kitchen. But how much do we really know about Middle
Eastern cuisine?
In this book, the renowned Islamic scholar Peter Heine explains,
among other things, why Muslims never eat pork, but are not
infrequently partial to a glass of red wine. He goes on to describe the
kinds of dishes that were prepared in the Thousand and One
Saucepans of the Ummayads, Abbasids, Ottomans, Safavids and
Mughals and how almsgiving came to be considered part of good
etiquette at table. The author recounts tales of the great Middle
Eastern chefs and cooks, both male and female, of the distribution of
different vegetables and fruit across the region and the routes by
which they were brought to Europe, and of how the supply of halal
produce worldwide has now become a multi-million pound
industry.
Since Heine is also an avid gourmet, this unique cultural history is
garnished with over a hundred recipes, including everyday dishes for
the modern kitchen, classic preparations from the annals of Mughal
and Abbasid cookery, and lavish confections that conjure up the
culinary delights of Paradise.
 Peter Heine
THE CULINARY
CRESCENT
A History of
Middle Eastern Cuisine

Translated by Peter Lewis

First published in English in 2018 by Gingko Library
4 Molasses Row
London SW11 3UX

First published in German as Köstlicher Orient by Peter

Heine, © 2016 Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin

English language translation copyright © Peter Lewis 2018

Cover illustration: Julie August from a photo of an Uzbek

mosaic © Konstantin Kalishko / depositphotos

The rights of the author has been asserted in accordance

with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotation in a review,

no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information
storage and retrieval systems, without written permission
from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for the book is available from the

British Library.

ISBN 978–1–909942–25–7
eISBN978–1–909942–26–4

Layout by Denise Sterr

Typeset by Mitchell Onuorah in Minion Pro and Gill Sans

Printed in Spain

www.gingko.org.uk
@gingkolibrary
Prologue

No Pork, no Alcohol
Why no pork?
Ritual slaughter
The proscription against alcohol
Blood
Yet more rules
Preferred dishes
The culinary promises of Paradise
Rules for fasting and meals for religious festivals
Secular festivals
Religious minorities in Islamic societies

A Thousand and One Saucepans – Cooking Among the

High and Mighty
Hospitality
The Umayyads
The Abbasids
The Ottomans
The Safavids
The Mughal emperors

Cookbooks and Kitchen Practices

 Professional chefs
Modern professional chefs
Amateur cooks
Cookbooks
Arab cuisine
Ottoman cuisine
Persian cuisine
Mughal cuisine
Modern cookbooks

Itinerant Ingredients – The Flow of Commodities to and

from the East
From the Far East and the West to the Islamic world
Grains
Sugar cane
Citrus fruits
Bananas
Water melons
Spinach
Aubergines
From the Middle East to Europe
Alcohol
Apricots
Coffee
Marzipan
Saffron
 Sorbets

Tomatoes and Peppers – Western Influences on

Middle Eastern Cooking
Shifts in international trade
American plants in the cuisines of the East
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Peppers/chillies
Maize (Sweetcorn)
Jerusalem artichokes
Cacao
Tea

Doner Kebabs and Falafels – Middle Eastern Cuisine in

Europe
Doners and falafels
Poultry
Blancmange
Rosewater
Traces of Middle Eastern cuisine in British food
The growth in popularity of Middle Eastern food in
Britain
Sweets
Old and New – Modern Middle Eastern Cuisine
Practical and technical innovations in households large
and small
Eating at table
Modern preservation techniques
Changes in gastronomy
First restaurants
Modern restaurants

Your Food – Our Food:

The Role of Politics and Economics
Politics and economics
Culinary identities
Dolma in Iraq
The dispute over hummus and falafel
Chefs for Peace
Other conflicts over the origins of foods
New forms of gardening
Halāl as an economic factor
New halāl concepts
Foodstuffs among strictly conservative Muslims in the
diaspora

Conclusion
Index of Recipes and Metric Conversions
Glossary of Ingredients
Timeline
Bibliography
Prologue
The German scholar Adam Mez, who founded the School of Islamic Studies
at Basel University in Switzerland, is thought to have been the first person to
produce an intensive study of the role played by eating and drinking in
Islamic societies. All he had at his disposal were literary and historical
sources. Accordingly, the end result was a somewhat skewed picture of
medieval Oriental cuisine – by which he meant principally Arab cuisine.
The first medieval Arab cookbook to come to light, which was only edited as
late as 1934 by the Iraqi scholar Daoud Chelebi, was translated into English
five years later by the British Arabist Arthur John Arberry. In 1949, research
into the culinary history of the Islamic world took a great leap forward with
the completion of a doctoral dissertation by the French orientalist Maxime
Rodinson (1915–2004) entitled Recherches sur les documents arabes rélatifs à
la cuisine (‘A study of Arab documents on the subject of cookery and food’).
This was the first account of Arab/Islamic cuisine to proceed from the basis
of a cookbook. In addition, Rodinson, who was influenced by the
contemporary ‘Annales School’ of French historiography, focused primarily
on the social and political significance of the art of cooking in his research
and addressed the question of the influence of Arab cooking on European
cuisine. There followed studies of Arab cookbooks from al-Andalus
(Moorish Spain) and a variety of Islamic cuisines ranging from Morocco to
Indonesia, all of which have substantially enhanced our knowledge of food
and drink in Muslim societies.
The great boom which has taken place in the publication of cookbooks
over the last two decades or so has not passed by Eastern cuisines. Thanks to
her encyclopaedic knowledge of the culinary traditions and cuisines of the
Near and Middle East, the most important author in this regard has been
Claudia Roden (b. 1936), who since the late 1960s has produced numerous
volumes containing recipes she has collected and notes on the cultural
history of food, along with anecdotes and autobiographical observations.
The majority of cookbooks on individual countries of the Islamic world
are devoted to the cuisine of Morocco; the doyenne of this particular field is
the French author Zette Guinaudeau-Franc. One of the first writers to
introduce an English-speaking audience to the real cuisine of the Middle
East was Elizabeth David (1913–1992). Her celebrated first work, A Book of
Mediterranean Food (1950), included recipes and ingredients that harked
back to the time she had spent in Cairo and Alexandria in British-occupied
Egypt during the Second World War.
Further references to cookbooks and works on the cultural history of food
and drink in the Islamic world can be found in the Bibliography section.
No Pork, no Alcohol
‘O you who believe! – Eat of the good things which We have provided for
you and be grateful to Allah if it is Him that you worship.’ Thus declares
Surah 2, verse 172 of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. Whereas other
religions tend to treat eating and drinking as mere necessities for the
maintenance of life, Islam also regards these functions as manifestations of
the perfection of the divine creation. The Qur’an exhorts people to delight in
eating and drinking. The Prophet Muhammad, who in the view of Muslim
believers had the deepest, most complete knowledge of the Qur’an, called
the ‘uncreated word of Allah’ a banquet (ma‘duba) to which everyone was
invited. For everyone who read it, the Prophet further elucidated, it offered
the greatest diversity of dishes – piquant, sweet or sour. On the other hand,
the Qur’an admonished the faithful not to indulge in gluttony; ‘Eat and
drink, but not to excess. For He [Allah] does not love the intemperate’
(Surah 7:31).
Of course, in common with all other religions, Islam is not without its
precepts and proscriptions. However, in comparison to the dietary
requirements in Judaism, these are positively simple. In Islam, there are
rules relating to eating and fasting. Prior to eating, a person must wash their
hands and invoke the name of God before partaking of their first mouthful.
It is equally important to eat only with one’s right hand. As far as fasting is
concerned, there are certain days and periods during which people are
enjoined to refrain entirely from taking food and drink, others on which
fasting is allowed, and finally yet others on which fasting is forbidden.
Hence, fasting is prohibited on the feast days of Eid al-Adha (‘The Feast of
the Sacrifice’) and on Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan,
the Islamic holy month of fasting, as well as on every Friday except those
which fall in Ramadan. Dietary taboos, on the other hand, relate almost
exclusively to the consumption of pork and alcoholic beverages. To the
devout Muslim, pork in any form is harām – that is, strictly forbidden.
For instance, Surah 2:173 clearly states: ‘He has only forbidden you what
dies of its own accord, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been
dedicated to other than Allah.’
Why no pork?

Muslim exegetes and commentators of the Qur’an, as well as Jewish scholars

who have pronounced on the comparable proscription in the Old Testament
(Leviticus 11:7), and finally Western cultural studies academics have put
forward numerous theories as to how the ban on pork first arose. Medical
arguments are frequently cited. Trichinae (parasitic roundworms) in pork
can cause serious illnesses. When these pathogens were first discovered in
the 19th century, Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians alike regarded it
as being proof of the wisdom and truth of their holy scriptures. However,
the real reason for the proscription should rather be sought in theological
thinking. In the ancient Middle East, pigs were sacrificial animals
slaughtered in honour of heathen gods and goddesses. The ban on the
consumption of pork was intended therefore to set Jews and Muslims clearly
apart from the devotees of the deities of the ancient East and classical
antiquity even where everyday practices were concerned.
Muslims have a deep aversion, even disgust, towards pork. Even if they
have inwardly distanced themselves to an extreme degree from their
religion, they still forego consumption of this meat. It can easily happen that
a Communist of Arab descent, who is by no means averse to a glass of
whisky, will criticise an Egyptian Muslim female colleague for eating ham.
Likewise, the Tatars of Central Asia often have no problem with drinking
alcohol, but only very rarely eat pork. In spite of the long period of anti-
religious propaganda in the Soviet Union, their intense dislike of pork has
remained.
Moreover, the taboo relates not only to the consumption of pork but also
to the use of pigskin and pig’s bristles.
In addition, Muslims avoid gelatine, even when used in the manufacture
of medicines. Contemporary Muslim scholars of Sharia law disapprove of
coreligionists working as waiters in restaurants where dishes containing
pork are served; their advice is to only take such jobs when no other
employment is available.
According to the ahadīth, the body of reported words and actions of the
Prophet Muhammad that have been handed down and which along with the
Qur’an are counted among the authoritative texts of Islam, Muslims should
also refrain from eating predators or raptors. In general, they should avoid
all foods that are commonly regarded as repellent. This derives from the fact
that, generally speaking, everything which is seen as unpleasant also counts
as unclean. A person becomes unclean through contact with unclean things.
As a consequence, all of his or her spiritual observances, such as the
fulfilment of religious duties, are rendered null and void and have to be
repeated in a state of ritual purity.

Ritual slaughter

When the Qur’an, in the aforementioned Surah 2:173, speaks of ‘what dies
of its own accord’ (in other translations, simply rendered as ‘carrion’), it
means the meat of mammals or birds that have not been ritually slaughtered.
This rule therefore does not apply to fish or other aquatic animals. Special
regulations exist for ritual slaughter. As far as possible, the animal must be
turned to face in the direction of Mecca. Then the phrase ‘In the name of
God’ (bi-smi-llah) must be uttered before the animal is put under the knife, a
procedure that involves severing the carotid arteries and allowing the beast
to bleed to death. This practice is not only employed for the acts of ritual
slaughter on Eid al-Adha, the principal feast day of the Muslim calendar, but
also at other times. In traditional Muslim societies, in which slaughtermen
and butchers are entrusted with this practice, Muslims are certain of
obtaining ritually clean (halāl) meat.
In the light of the globally expanding food-processing industry and the
international distribution of its products, as early as the 1970s there ensued
drinks for them to partake of. Black-eyed virgins of Paradise and beautiful
youths wait on the blessed men and women. The meat that they eat is
chicken (Surah 56: 21).
Apart from that descriptions of food in Paradise are all of a rather general
kind. There is talk of fruit, and specifically of bananas. Palms are mentioned,
leading us to assume that dates are eaten. Beyond this, we learn of
pomegranates (see the extensive description of Paradise in Surah 55: 46–78).
On the other hand, there is a wider range of accounts of the drinks that are
served there. In Paradise, people are allowed to drink from gold and silver
vessels. Four different types of drink are to be had there, as outlined in Surah
47: 15: ‘Here is the parable of Paradise which the God-fearing have been
promised: it has rivers of unpolluted water, rivers of milk unchanging in
taste, rivers of wine that is delicious to those who drink it, and rivers of
strained honey.’
Furthermore, these drinks are perfumed with various expensive spices
such as ginger, camphor and musk. Even though these descriptions have
been seen by modern Islamic commentators as nothing but symbolic
signifiers of the extraordinary nature of Paradise, Muslims down the ages
have preferred to take them at face value, all the more so since they are
corroborated by a number of the extant ahadīth attributed to the Prophet.
These latter depictions overtrump the descriptions in the Qur’an: ‘When the
beloved worshipper of Allah has grazed on the fruits of Paradise and eaten
his fill, he feels an urge to eat a square meal. And so Allah commands that
such a spread should be laid out before him… Each dish contains 70,000
different kinds of foods; no fire has come too near to them, no chef has
cooked them, nor have they been boiled in a copper vessel or anything else
of the kind, but rather Allah commanded; “Let it be so!” and they transpired
without the slightest effort or difficulty… Then the faithful representative of
God was gripped by an urge to taste the flesh of birds, and at Allah’s
command, a dish of whatever kind he desired appeared on his table, ready
roasted, and he devours the meat to his heart’s content.’ Evidently, meat was
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Cairo to Kisumu
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
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Title: Cairo to Kisumu

Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya Colony

Author: Frank G. Carpenter

Release date: September 14, 2023 [eBook #71651]

Language: English

Original publication: Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company,

1923

Credits: Peter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading

Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAIRO TO

KISUMU ***
 CARPENTER’S
WORLD TRAVELS

Familiar Talks About Countries

and Peoples

WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND

THE READER IN HIS HOME, BASED
ON THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND
MILES OF TRAVEL
OVER THE GLOBE

CAIRO TO KISUMU
EGYPT—THE SUDAN—KENYA COLONY
 ON THE GREAT ASWAN DAM

“The dam serves also as a bridge over the Nile. I crossed on a car, my motive
power being two Arab boys who trotted behind.”

CARPENTER’S WORLD TRAVELS

CAIRO TO KISUMU
Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya
Colony

BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
LITT.D., F.R.G.S.

WITH 115 ILLUSTRATIONS

FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
AND TWO MAPS IN COLOUR

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1923
 COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
First Edition
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the publication of this book on Egypt, the Sudan, and Kenya
Colony, I wish to thank the Secretary of State for letters which have
given me the assistance of the official representatives of our
government in the countries visited. I thank also our Secretary of
Agriculture and our Secretary of Labour for appointing me an
Honorary Commissioner of their Departments in foreign lands. Their
credentials have been of the greatest value, making available
sources of information seldom open to the ordinary traveller. To the
British authorities in the regions covered by these travels I desire to
express my thanks for exceptional courtesies which have greatly
aided my investigations.
I would also thank Mr. Dudley Harmon, my editor, and Miss Ellen
McBryde Brown and Miss Josephine Lehmann for their assistance
and coöperation in the revision of the notes dictated or penned by
me on the ground.
While most of the illustrations are from my own negatives, these
have been supplemented by photographs from the Publishers’ Photo
Service and the American Geographic Society.
F. G. C.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Just a Word Before We Start 1
II. The Gateway to Egypt 3
III. King Cotton on the Nile 13
IV. Through Old Egypt to Cairo 22
V. Fellaheen on Their Farms 29
VI. The Prophet’s Birthday 41
VII. In the Bazaars of Cairo 49
VIII. Intimate Talks with Two Khedives 58
IX. El-Azhar and Its Ten Thousand Moslem
Students 70
X. Climbing the Great Pyramid 79
XI. The Pyramids Revisited 87
XII. Face to Face with the Pharaohs 96
XIII. The American College at Asyut 106
XIV. The Christian Copts 112
XV. Old Thebes and the Valley of the Kings 117
XVI. The Nile in Harness 128
XVII. Steaming through the Land of Cush 140
XVIII. From the Mediterranean to the Sudan 149
XIX. Across Africa by Air and Rail 160
XX. Khartum 167
XXI. Empire Building in the Sudan 175
XXII. Why General Gordon Had No Fear 181
XXIII. Omdurman, Stronghold of the Mahdi 187
XXIV. Gordon College and the Wellcome
Laboratories 200
XXV. Through the Suez Canal 208
XXVI. Down the Red Sea 218
 XXVII. Along the African Coast 224
XXVIII. Aden 229
XXIX. In Mombasa 236
XXX. The Uganda Railway 243
XXXI. The Capital of Kenya Colony 252
XXXII. John Bull in East Africa 261
XXXIII. With the Big-Game Hunters 269
XXXIV. Among the Kikuyus and the Nandi 277
XXXV. The Great Rift Valley and the Masai 285
XXXVI. Where Men Go Naked and Women Wear Tails 293
See the World with Carpenter 303
Bibliography 305
Index 309
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
On the great Aswan Dam Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
The bead sellers of Cairo 2
The veiled women 3
On the cotton docks of Alexandria 6
Nubian girls selling fruit 7
Woman making woollen yarn 14
Fresh-cut sugar cane 15
One of the mill bridges 18
The ancient sakieh 19
The native ox 19
Water peddlers at the river 22
Women burden bearers 23
Threshing wheat with norag 30
A corn field in the delta 30
The pigeon towers 31
In the sugar market 38
Flat roofs and mosque towers of Cairo 39
Tent of the sacred carpet 46
The Alabaster Mosque 47
“Buy my lemonade!” 54
A street in old Cairo 55
Gates of the Abdin Palace 62
The essential kavass 63
In the palace conservatory 66
The famous Shepheard’s Hotel 67
Learning the Koran 67
Approaching El-Azhar 70
In the porticos of El-Azhar 71
The Pyramids 78
Mr. Carpenter climbing the Pyramids 79
Standing on the Sphinx’s neck 82
Taking it easy at Helouan 83
View of the Pyramids 86
Uncovering tombs of ancient kings 87
The alabaster Sphinx 94
The great museum at Cairo 95
Students at Asyut College 102
American College at Asyut 103
Between classes at the college 103
In the bazaars 110
A native school in an illiterate land 111
The greatest egoist of Egypt 118
The temple tomb of Hatshepsut 119
Sacred lake before the temple 119
The avenue of sphinxes 126
The dam is over a mile long 127
Lifting water from level to level 134
Where the fellaheen live 135
A Nubian pilot guides our ship 142
Pharaoh’s Bed half submerged 143
An aged warrior of the Bisharin 150
A mud village on the Nile 151
Where the Bisharin live 151
A safe place for babies 158
Mother and child 159
A bad landing place for aviators 162
Over the native villages 162
The first king of free Egypt 163
Soldiers guard the mails 166
An American locomotive in the Sudan 167
Light railways still are used 167
Along the river in Khartum 174
Where the Blue and the White Nile meet 175
The modern city of Khartum 175
A white negro of the Sudan 178
Where worshippers stand barefooted for hours 179
Grain awaiting shipment down river 182
“Backsheesh!” is the cry of the children 182
Cotton culture in the Sudan 183
The Sirdar’s palace 183
The bride and her husband 190
Omdurman, city of mud 191
Huts of the natives 191
A Shilouk warrior 198
In Gordon College 199
Teaching the boys manual arts 206
View of Gordon College 207
On the docks at Port Said 207
Fresh water in the desert 210
The entrance to the Suez Canal 211
A street in dreary Suez 226
Ships passing in the canal 227
Pilgrims at Mecca 230
Camel market in Aden 231
Harbour of Mombasa 238
Where the Hindus sell cotton prints 239
The merchants are mostly East Indians 239
A Swahili beauty 242
Passengers on the Uganda Railroad 243
An American bridge in East Africa 246
Native workers on the railway 246
Why the natives steal telephone wire 247
In Nairobi 254
The hotel 255
Jinrikisha boys 255
A native servant 258
Naivasha 259
The court for white and black 259
Motor trucks are coming in 262
How the natives live 263
Native taste in dress goods 266
The Kikuyus 266
Wealth is measured in cattle 267
Zebras are frequently seen 270
Even the lions are protected 271
Giraffes are plentiful 271
Elephant tusks for the ivory market 278
How the mothers carry babies 279
Mr. Carpenter in the elephant grass 286
Nandi warriors 287
Woman wearing a tail 290
How they stretch their ears 291
The witch doctor 298
Home of an official 299
The mud huts of the Masai 299
MAPS
Africa 34
From Cairo to Kisumu 50
 CAIRO TO KISUMU
EGYPT—THE SUDAN—KENYA
COLONY
 CHAPTER I
JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START

This volume on Egypt, Nubia, the Sudan, and Kenya Colony is

based upon notes made during my several trips to this part of the
world. At times the notes are published just as they came hot from
my pen, taking you back, as it were, to the occasion on which they
were written. Again they are modified somewhat to accord with
present conditions.
For instance, I made my first visit to Egypt as a boy, when Arabi
Pasha was fomenting the rebellion that resulted in that country’s
being taken over by the British. I narrowly escaped being in the
bombardment of Alexandria and having a part in the wars of the
Mahdi, which came a short time thereafter. Again, I was in Egypt
when the British had brought order out of chaos, and put Tewfik
Pasha on the throne as Khedive. I had then the talk with Tewfik,
which I give from the notes I made when I returned from the palace,
and I follow it with a description of my audience with his son and
successor, Abbas Hilmi, sixteen years later. Now the British have
given Egypt a nominal independence, and the Khedive has the title
of King.
In the Sudan I learned much of the Mahdi through my interview
with Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, then the Governor General of the
Sudan and Sirdar of the British army at Khartum, and later gained an
insight into the relations of the British and the natives from Earl
Cromer, whom I met at Cairo. These talks enable one to understand
the Nationalist problems of the present and to appreciate some of
the changes now going on.
In Kenya Colony, which was known as British East Africa until after
the World War, I was given especial favours by the English officials,
and many of the plans that have since come to pass were spread out
before me. I then tramped over the ground where Theodore
Roosevelt made his hunting trips through the wilds, and went on into
Uganda and to the source of the Nile.
These travels have been made under all sorts of conditions, but
with pen and camera hourly in hand. The talks about the Pyramids
were written on the top and at the foot of old Cheops, those about
the Nile in harness on the great Aswan Dam, and those on the Suez
Canal either on that great waterway or on the Red Sea immediately
thereafter. The matter thus partakes of the old and the new, and of
the new based upon what I have seen of the old. If it be too personal
in character and at times seems egotistic, I can only beg pardon by
saying—the story is mine, and as such the speaker must hold his
place in the front of the stage.
 Beggars and street sellers alike believe that every foreigner visiting Egypt is not
only as rich as Crœsus but also a little touched in the head where spending is
concerned, and therefore fair game for their extravagant demands.
 Among the upper classes an ever-lighter face covering is being adopted. This is
indicative of the advance of the Egyptian woman toward greater freedom.