Teaching at a class day
February 2013

I volunteered to teach two classes for this past weekend. One on sanbūsaj, or meat-filled pastries, and the other on advanced t-tunic construction.

The sanbūsaj class fell flat.  Two people stopped in for handouts, and one person showed up for the class. When he tentatively asked if he was the only the one, I suggested he take a handout and head to another class (classes were stacked 10 deep per hour, so it was easy to have a second and third choice). Several people approached me before hand to say mine was their second choice class. Sigh. I felt loved with the pre-apologies, but I had been excited about the idea of working with others on redacting recipes and learning pastry tricks.

The t-tunic class was well attended, but I fear I was just low enough on spoons that people did not come away with as much knowledge as I had wanted to share [learn more about the Spoon Theory for people with auto-immune disorders at butyoudontlooksick.com]. People asked good questions, and I have my contact info on my handouts, which included measurements and sewing directions. It was suggested I do more with how the layout looks before cutting. Not a bad suggestion, but I hesitate to share my layout, which works for a luxury-sized 5’10” woman. There are many more people who don’t fit that description than do. I suppose I could give mine as examples. Cataloging all of the tricks I talked about may not hurt, too.

I also thought about making a small tunic with each of the different pattern pieces colored differently. And maybe serged pieces that can be played around with….

Sanbusaq Cairo Recipe: Food Item Fourteen: A&S 50 Challenge

Recipe of Sanbūsaq [samosa] 1373 Cairo
Food Item Fourteen: A&S 50 Challenge
Translation by Charles Perry
Redaction by Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
2/2/13

Take all lean meat, without fat, and remove the tendons, and boil it lightly. Then pound it in a mortar and dry it in the air. You mince four bunches of parsley, and you mince a bunch of green mint for it. You pound the weight of half an ounce {an ounce here is 33 grams} of pepper, half an ounce of caraway, three sticks of Ceylon cinnamon, a race of ginger and the weight of a mithqual {4.5 grams} of atraf tib {spice powder} of cardamom and cloves. Then you put the pounded meat in the pot and you put the minced parsley [sc. and mint] on it, and you put half the spices on it, and you fry it. You put the quantity of [the juice of] twelve lemons on it and leave it until it thirsts and dries out. Then put it in a bowl [zubdiyya] and throw half the spices on it and mix it well. You take kunafa [a fine pancake] and roll it up and stuff it with it and seal it with dough and fry them in a tagine until they float. It comes out good.

[“The Description of Familiar Foods: Kitāb Waṣf al-Aṭ’ima al-Mu’tāsa.” Translated by Charles Perry in Medieval Arab Cookery: Essays and Translations. Edited by Maxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry, and Charles Perry. Prospect Books: 2006. Pp 273-466.] al-Kaslaania’s notes in {}.

Mountain of Sanbusaj

Samosa recipe (reduced volume)


1 pound ground beef or lamb
1 bunch parsley
1 handful fresh mint
Tsp ground black pepper
Tsp ground caraway
2 tsp ground Ceylon cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
Dash ground Cardamom
Dash ground Cloves
Juice from one lemon
Flatbread pastry (a good recipe can be found here http://xawaash.com/?p=3412) or wonton wrappers
Oil for deep frying (pale sesame oil or safflower oil)

Mix ground spices together. Mince parsley and mint. [“Boiling lightly” was done to tenderize the meat for mincing, and to remove the unpleasant raw-meat smell before working with it. By starting with ground beef, I am skipping this step.]

Brown the ground beef, adding greens and half of the spice mixture about half way through (to make up for what would have been par-cooked meat). Remove from the heat and mix with lemon juice (in the middle ages, lemons were smaller than modern limes and full of seeds, so less is used then you might expect).

Allow to cool, then refrigerate (this is the “drying out” part).

liquids to "dry out"

While the meat is cooling, make the pastry dough. Wonton wrappers are good substitute (and a good idea to have as backup). Stuff the pastries, using a paste of flour and water to seal them. Aim for a “triangular” shape by first sealing two adjoining sides, then folding the remaining point down after stuffing. Be careful not to over-stuff them and break holes in the pastry.

Deep fry until the pastry is golden and crispy. Turn over each pastry once during cooking. Drain on paper towels to cool.

Serve warm or room temperature with mustard and other vinegary condiments. These were considered a “cold” dish that was pre-set on the table as diners were joining the table. Sanbūsaq, both sweet and savory, were also often used to adorn other dishes. Sanbūsaq were also a commonly seen street food in urban areas.

Both the mint and the parsley mellow with cooking. Many people frowned saying, “Is that mint?” but continued to eat them and praise them. I forgot to add the second half of the spices. While they were tasty meat pastries, they were slightly lacking in full flavor.

·    Pale sesame oil is untoasted and found in Middle Eastern grocery stores for much less money than standard US grocery stores. Safflower does not have a strong flavor and tolerates heat well.
·    Even if making your own pastry, keeping wonton wrappers on hand is not a bad idea. I was able to use four from my original batch of 24.
·    In humoral science, lamb is considered a better meat. Beef should be reserved for those who do physical labor.

Cotton during the Middle Ages in the Middle East?

Cotton during the Middle Ages in the Middle East?
Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
4/4/2011, revised 2/5/2013

 The short answer is: yes, cotton was used in the middle ages. It was not like cotton we use today, and it was used decoratively and in small quantities until the thirteenth century. Modern long-staple cotton has only been widely know in the last century.

According to S.D. Goitein in A Mediterranean Society, Vol 1, examinations of trade records reveal that cotton was available but it was quite rare. In Egypt in the 11th century, flax trade and linen production out paced every other commodity combined in trade. Wool production came in second among the textiles, and sericulture products (silk) were still made in measurably higher quantities than cotton.

Marianne Erickson notes "It was not until the 13th century that the cotton culture in Egypt actually reached a great level of importance, and it is only in the last century that the long-fibered type of cotton has been known, " in her book Textiles in Egypt 300-1500 AD. (Personally, I don't know that I could identify a short-staple cotton).

This is supported by Golombek and Gervers in their article "Tiraz Fabrics in the Royal Ontario Museum" where they note that until the about 12th century, the western Islamic world only used cotton as decorative threads (this would include Islamic Spain during this period, but I don't know about Christian Spain).

Cotton seems to be frequently mixed with other fibers in extant tiraz pieces (for example, held in the Royal Ontario Museum, The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo; and found in the Quseir al-Qadim excavations) and those pieces are relatively small.

Yedida Stillman, in her dissertation, indicated that many times the ma'raqa, a sweat cap worn by men and women, was made of cotton according to trousseau lists. I have not transcribed everything, but I have no other mention of cotton in period from this work (however, her study of Lane's travels during the 19th century mention cotton several times).

Works cited and links to museums coming shortly.

Chicken Salad with Almond Butter: Food Item Thirteen: A&S 50 Challenge

Chicken Salad with Almond Butter: Food Item Thirteen: A&S 50 Challenge
Bārida dish, Um al-Faḍl made for al-Mahdī
Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq’s Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook
Translation by Nawal Nasrallah
Redaction by Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
March 2012

English Translation from the chapter: “Cold Poultry Dishes”
    Grill pullets to succulence, disjoint them, slice the breasts, and arrange the pieces on a platter (jām).
    Thoroughly crush 20 skinned almonds. Crush with them ¼ raṭl (4 ounces) white sugar and the pulp of 2 khiyārs (small and smooth cucumbers). Pour on mixture ½ raṭl (1 cup) wine vinegar with 2 dirhams (6 grams) salt. Add to the mixture, 1 ūqiyya (2 tablespoons) olive oil and 1 ūqiyya (2 tablespoons) almond oil. Beat all these ingredients in a bowl (ghuḍāra) to mix them well.
    Pour sauce all over the chicken. When [after a while] sauce is absorbed, drizzle ½ ūqiyya (1 tablespoon) almond oil all over it and garnish with khiyārs, chopped fresh thyme, naʿnaʿ (cultivated mint) and basil (bādharūj).
As it appears in: Nasrallah, Nawal. Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens. Brill: Leiden, 2007.


One quarter recipe:
½ of a roasted chicken
1 Tbl almond butter
1 oz white cane sugar
½ cucumber
¼ c red wine vinegar
Pinch salt
½ Tbl green olive oil
½ Tbl almond oil

Garnish:
Splash almond oil
Thyme
Mint
Basil

Strip the meat off the chicken and reserve the carcass for another use. Peel the cucumber, slice lengthwise, and use a spoon to remove the pulp (the “jelly” with seeds in the middle). Slice and keep the cucumber for garnish when serving. In a bowl, mix almond butter, sugar, and olive oil. Add the cucumber pulp to the mixture, crushing with the back of a spoon. When well crushed, add the almond oil, salt and vinegar. Mix well, and pour over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve with garnish.


    We started with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. While one of was preparing this dish, the other was making chicken salad with the other half of the chicken. When the sauce was completed we tasted it and I announced: “this would be great as chicken salad!” We decided we had a winner.

    I regularly use almond butter for “well crushed almonds.” When our house gets a good food processor I will try making almond butter from blanched almonds to see how different it is. This recipe was interesting because it called for the pulp of the cucumbers. Other recipes in this collection tell the reader to remove the pulp from cucumbers, so I felt that I was on the right track with this reading of it. I used regular grocery-store-green cucumbers for this attempt, and I have not yet done research on the differences in the two common medieval cucumbers. The quantity notes were included by Dr. Nasrallah in her translation. A pullet is a hen younger than 1 year. I would like to try this recipe again with a pullet from the farmer’s market.

Creamy Chicken Hotdish: Food Challenge Twelve: A&S50 Challenge

White Tharîdah of al-Rashid from the 9-10th c. Islamic collection of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq: Food Challenge Twelve: A&S50 Challenge
Crockpot Creamy Chicken Hotdish*
Redaction by Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
Original translation by Charles Perry

*In Minnesota, a one-pot meal cooked in a casserole or crockpot is called “hotdish.” Others might call this dish “creamy chicken casserole.”

The impetus for this redaction was to have a hot meal for lunch at an indoor site where meals were not being offered, and we would not have access to the kitchen.

I have made a few choices that are not readily spelled out in the original recipe. First, I have chosen boneless, skinless meat. Our modern palate does not like to pick bones or gristle out of stew. The second is to brown the meat. In the thirteenth century cookbook by al-Baghdadi, cooks are reminded that meat should always be fried in oil before boiling (as translated in Medieval Arab Cookery). Third is the addition of rice. In his article “The Pleasures of Consumption,” H.D. Miller points out that frequently in al-Baghdadi rice is added “carelessly” to dishes that contain meat and vegetables. He considers rice common in the Medieval Islamic diet, but does not find evidence for it being served as a dish on its own. The addition of rice makes this a better one-pot meal, and rice is also a common ingredient in hotdish.

Many Middle Eastern recipes of this period include eggs cooked on top of a dish, almost as “lid” or crust. This recipe is interesting in that is says add eggs “and mix with wine vinegar”. With that in mind, as well as the fact that crockpots only cook with bottom heat, I chose to stir in the eggs, as done in egg-drop soup, rather than allowing them to set up on top.

I chose ingredients that I had in the house for my first attempt. In the future I would try this recipe with sheep's milk instead of cow's milk (knowing that wool production was second to flax production in the Middle East, I expect sheep milk more readily available). I also used medium grain white rice. During this period, rice was "typically husked white rice (aruzz abyad maqshur)," according to Mark Nesbitt, et. al. in "History of Rice in Western and Central Asia" (Opens a .pdf.) Finally, I used turnips at the root vegetable. The two groceries I stopped at only had orange carrots and I thought color would be more important with the "white tharîdah".

Crockpot cooking is different than stewpot cooking, and there are tomes of knowledge published on the topic. Of course, being a good Minnesotan Protestant, I had learned many of the tricks at my mother’s knee. First, the meat was added without the skin or extra fat. The spices are reserved for the last hour of cooking, along with the milk. The rice is cooked before adding to the dish, and it’s also added in the last hour. Finally, every time you take the lid off of a crockpot to stir you need to add 20 minutes of cooking time. Knowing how helpful people are at activities where a good smelling pot is left alone, I decided to cook the meat through before adding to the crockpot.


Original recipe, translated to English:
Take a chicken and joint it, or meat of a kid or lamb, and clean it and throw it in a pot, and throw on it soaked chickpeas, clean oil, galingale, cinnamon sticks, and a little salt. And when it boils, skim it. Take fresh milk and strain it over the pot and throw in onion slices and boiled carrots. And when it boils well, take peeled almonds and pound them fine. Break over them five eggs and mix with wine vinegar. Then throw in the pot and add coriander, a little pepper and a bit of cumin and arrange it and leave on the fire, and serve, God willing.

Redaction:
3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
Sesame oil, pale and untoasted
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 onion, sliced
1 lb white or yellow carrots, peeled and sliced into coins (or other root vegetable)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ teaspoon powdered galangal
1 stick Ceylon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
Scant ¼ cup white wine vinegar
½ c almond butter
1 c whole milk
2 c cooked rice
5 eggs
Cilantro
Ground white pepper
Cumin

Toss the onions and carrots in olive oil, and roast them on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes. Cube chicken breast and cook it in sesame oil. Put all of this in a crock pot with two cans of chickpeas (rinsed and drained), and two cups of chicken broth. Cook on high for three hours.

In a small bowl mix almond butter, vinegar, and ground spices. Add milk to this mixture, ¼ c at a time, mixing well with each addition. Add the almond mixture, rice, and cinnamon stick to the crockpot and stir. Scramble the eggs and add to the crockpot while stirring (much like egg-drop soup). Cook an additional 30-60 minutes.  Garnish the pot with sprigs of cilantro, pepper and a ring of sprinkled cumin before serving. Fills a 5 quart crock pot.

Small Fatimid Cup, a Modern interpretation: Material Culture 21: A&S 50 Challenge

Small Fatimid Cup, a Modern Interpretation
Painted beaker in the Fatimid style
A&S 50 Challenge, Material Culture 21
Sayyeda Samia al-Kaslaania
 Written January 29, 2012. Revised and Presented at Boar's Head 2012.
Edited September 2018


Obtaining a period-appropriate drinking cup is something that newcomers are encouraged to have fun seeking out. It’s not too difficult to find something “not modern” in which to conceal your favorite acid-green soda, but it’s nerdy fun to find something that matches what you see in period images or extant pieces!

Participants with Middle Eastern personas have several great sources to explore for re-creating drinkware. A beaker,visually similar to those carried by illustrations of Fatimid women, can be obtained from SCA artists like Ash and Griffin Pottery www.facebook.com/pages/Ash-and-Griffin-Pottery/ .

Fatimid or Ayyubid glass beaker at the British Museum. Source: [http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus01;9;en&cp]

The extant cup (bottom left), held by the National Museum of Damascus, item ع 16021, is dated to the 9th century as an Abbasid piece (the Fatimid period is 10th to 12th centuries). I was tickled by the two inscriptions reading “drink and be filled with delight” and “made in Damascus”.


The undecorated glass I selected  for making a period influenced re-creation was found at a local retailer. The shape is similar to other truncated cone-shaped glassware from the period, seen upper left. While researching techniques to decorate pottery, I learned about Pebeo Vitrea 160 Glass Paint and was able to purchase it from the art supply store Wet Paint as felt-tip pens and jars of paint. I found the pens to be difficult to work with, so changed to the jars of paint, applying it with brushes. Keeping cotton balls and cotton swabs handy with a bottle of rubbing alcohol for removing mistakes, applying the designs was not difficult. Once completed, the pieces are baked in a home oven to set the paint.

Being a member of the order of the Pyxis in the SCA Kingdom of Northshield, I used the Pyxis order motif. I copied the text on the extant cup, including “made in Damascus”. There are extant examples of textiles which bear inscriptions of “made in X,” however chemical and technical analysis indicates this is patently false (R.B. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles. Lebanon: Libraire du Liban, 1972, p. 46, fn.56.).

That inscription, like modern branding, is believed to have made the textile more valuable in period. I changed the orientation of the text to follow the rim, inspired by the bowl pictured below on the right. The colors were based on extant examples. Of painted glass, I have only found pieces that have browns and gold as colors. I don't yet know if this is a factor of age, firing, or choice. Update- In visiting with the proprietor of Historical Glassworks, I am excited to have learned that this coloring is silver after being fired.







"Bowl [Probably Egypt] (1974.74)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 ndash;. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/ho_1974.74.htm (October 2006)


Emily Shovelton "Beaker" in Discover Islamic Art. Place: Museum With No Frontiers, 2010.  http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus01;9;en

Middle Eastern Man's Garb: A&S50 Challenge: Material Culture 19 and 20

Black and Green Middle Eastern Man’s Ensemble
A&S 50 Challenge: Material Culture 19 and 20
Sayyeda Samia al-Kaslaania
Coronation of Vladimir and Petranella


An ensemble for a middle-class man in the Middle East, specifically Cairo, during the Fatimid Caliphate (969-1172). Item 19 is the green tunic with a placket. Item 20 is the black wool tunic and matching pants.

Garments from the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages were generally loosely fitted tunics for both men and women, augmented by unseamed rectangular lengths of fabric. Yedida Stillman refers to this as a Pan-Islamic style of dress because the basic elements were the same across communities, excepting Persia.

figure 1 Extant Mamluk tunic with placket and
embroidered "necklace". Ashmolean 1984.353, detail.

Overtunic: Wool twill in a tropical weight, black; stitched with yellow and white silk-wool yarn. The adornments echo extant tunics, with the embroidered “necklace” as the focal point (see fig. 1). The slit-front neck is finished with black bias-cut linen and black cotton thread. The cut of the garment is, according to excavations in Egypt at Nalqun, the most common type of tunic worn by children and adults. Wide, unfitted sleeves are the norm during this period. The yellow and green tiraz (embroidered armbands) showcase a pseudo-script which bears foliated Kufic risers--almost animal-like in their appearance. Approximately 10-16 hours of sewing (purchased tiraz).

Figure 2 outlined extant tiraz. 10th c Iran. Royal
Ontario Museum. item 2008-9753-24, detail.

Tunic: Linen shot tabby fabric in a medium weight, green; stitched with yellow and white silk-wool yarn. The striking contrast of the stitching against the fabric is similar to extant tunics (see fig. 4). On the right sleeve is a single tiraz, outlined for emphasis, and worked directly onto the fabric (see fig. 2). The cut of the garment was selected to match the overtunic. This garment could also be worn alone over a qumîs (undertunic).  Approximately 10-16 hours of sewing.

Figure 3 Extant Mamluk pants, as they
appear in L.A. Mayer Mamluk Costume.

These two garments are nearly the same size so that they move as one garment when layered. In several illuminations a raised arm reveals a lining or a tunic of a complimentary color (see fig. 5). The illuminated garments also appear to be between knee- and ankle-length. Frequently the trouser ends are exposed at the ankles.

Pants: Wool twill to match the overtunic; silk-wool yarn to match as well. Pants are more difficult to research because they’re considered an intimate garment. I know of one extant pair of pants in colored stripes (see fig. 3), and a few illuminations of colored pants; however, most are illuminated as white (see fig. 5). The pattern is derived from the work of Master Rashid, who based his pattern on extant examples. Approximately 8 hours of sewing.

Figure 4 11th c Coptic tunic, wool with complimentary
colored stitching. Neckline finished with linen band.
Christie's Sale 9723 lot 273, detail.

 
Would-be Accessories: Completing the ensemble would require a few additional pieces. Over a skullcap, men would wear a turban colored to compliment the rest of the clothing, often with tiraz -embellished ends. A belt or sash would not be out of place around the waist, but is not required. Shoes could be plain thong sandals, “ballet” type slippers (see fig. 5), or soft leather short boots. A rectangular wrap would be expected in any sort of formal setting. Finally, all well-dressed men carried a mandil, or handkerchief. The mandil might be tucked into the belt or the sleeve, or simply carried in the hand.


Notes—color choice: Black is a rare color in the Fatimid period, likely because it was the royal color of a rival Caliphate. It is, though, still recorded as a color used for clothing in Fatimid trousseaux, according to Stillman.

Figure 5 1200's illumination. Note
red lining. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
MS Arabe 5847 fol 4v, detail.

Fiber choice: Wool commodities in the Fatimid period were a distant second to linen, but well ahead of silk and cotton, according to S.D. Goitein in his six-volume tome on Mediterranean culture. Examples of fine woolen fabrics have been excavated from the Naqlun cemetery sites in the last decade.


Adornment: Tiraz (inscribed and adorned textiles) in this period were quite varied. While tiraz originally featured formulaic text, over time the inscriptions became less important and pseudo-script became acceptable. It came to follow that increasingly elaborate decoration became the focus, according to Paula Sanders. Tiraz could be woven, embroidered, or painted on to fabrics. Extant tiraz are housed in museums all over the world; a good selection of images can be found at the website Museums with No Frontiers.

Additional embroidered decoration on these garments were inspired by an extant tunic featured in Marianne Ellis’s affordable photo book Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (see fig. 1).

Figure 6 Fatimid man. Museo Nazionale de San Matteo, no. 130.

Matching fabrics: Extant records show that matched ensembles were quite popular in the Fatimid period. Called hulla, these could include two to eight garments, some of which would be headwear.  Unfortunately, figural imagery from the Fatimid period doesn’t include illuminations. The readily available illuminated manuscripts, from a later time period, are mostly based on the same secular tale; thus featuring recurring images—all with white trousers. Garments for the lower body are seldom discussed in period writings, and few actual articles have been preserved.


Works Cited

Czaja-Szewczak, B., "Burial Tunics from Naqlun", PAM XIV, Reports 2002 (2003), 177-184.

Ellis, Marianne. Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt. Ashmolean  Museum/University of Oxford, 2001.

Goitein SD. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. Vol. 1. Berlkey and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967.

Mellor, Charles. "Salwar." http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/Rashid/salwar.gif (accessed 10/08/2009).

Sanders, Paula. "Robes of Honor in Fatimid Egypt." in Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of Investiture. Edited by Steward Gordon. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 225-239.

Stillman, Yedida K. "Female Attire of Medieval Egypt: According to the Trousseau Lists and Cognate Material from the Cairo Geniza." Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1972. Chicago: unpublished.