Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi

Muḥammad bin al-Ḥasan bin Muḥammad bin al-Karīm al-Baghdadi, usually called al-Baghdadi (d. 1239 AD) was the compiler of an early Arabic language cookbook of the Abbasid period, كتاب الطبيخ Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ (The Book of Dishes), written in 1226.

Manuscripts and Turkish translations

The only original manuscript of Al-Baghdadi's book survives at Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul, Turkey and according to Charles Perry, "for centuries, it had been the favorite cook-book of the Turks". Further 260 recipes had been added to the original by Turkish compilers at an unknown date and retitled as Kitâbü’l-Vasfi’l-Et‘ime el-Mu‘tâde, with two of its known three copies found at the Topkapı Palace Library. Eventually, Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Shirwani, the physician of Murad II prepared a Turkish translation of the book with also adding around 70 contemporary recipes. This translation was published in modern Turkish in 2005,^[1] whereas a modern Turkish translation of the original book (co-edited by Charles Perry) was published in 2009.^[2]

References

Bibliography

• A.J. Arberry, "A Baghdad cookery-book", Islamic Culture 13 (1939), pp. 21–47 and 189-214. A translation of al-Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ.
• Charles Perry, A Baghdad Cookery Book (Petits Propos Culinaires), Prospect Books, 2006. ISBN 1-903018-42-0. A new translation.