Journal Article

Pietanze in versi: Umanesimo islamico in un banchetto califfale a Baghdad nel X secolo

Casari, Mario

2004

Overview

Organic studies about the history of Arab-Islamic gastronomy began during the 30s, and continued at very little steps until two decades ago. Those studies were dedicated exclusively to the collection and the translation of ancient and important recipe books; but only recently the interest has shifted towards the literary representations of cooking and other food-related activities. According to the author, culinary poetry should find, with time, its adequate place in literary history, since by revolving around the universal language of food, it represents the philosophy of life that classic Islam has been able to elaborate and offer to Eurasian Medieval and modern culture. An exemplary representation of this role can be found in a work by al-Mas’ūdī, which features conversations “on different types of food and on what has been written on them”. The essay proposes a sample of this text. The article then compares this 'cuisine' with the one of previous epochs and cultures, identifying in the moment in which Baghdad became the capital city, the time in which the ‘gastronomic revolution’ took place, a change that would sign both the Islamic and the European culture. This revolution brought to new texts and compositions, some of which are mentioned in the article. The \"ṭa ‘āmiyya\", the Arab culinary poetry, became thus the sublime expression of the cultural approach to the banquet.

• Publisher: EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
• Subject: Cultural identity / Literary history / Poetry