???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

You can now whip up a 13th century Middle Eastern feast: Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib is a cookbook by Andalusi scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī that includes 475 recipes. It is one of just two surviving cookbooks from the 13th century Muslim-Andalusian world. Although Arabic scholars have long known about the existence of the book, incomplete copies were all that were available until Bink Hallum, an Arabic scientific manuscripts curator, discovered a third and more complete copy at the British Library in 2018 among medical texts. Hallum reached out to Nawal Nasrallah, a US-based food historian who had already begun translating the manuscript from the copies in Berlin and Madrid. Nasrallah spent years translating the complete manuscript before it was released in 2021. The book includes recipes like “Fried Aubergine Slices Simmered in Sauce and Topped with Eggs” and “Zalabiya.”