Kitab al-Wuslah ila l-habib

Kitab al-Wuslah ila l-habib (Arabic: الوصلة إلی الحبیب في وصف الطیّبات و الطیب, lit. 'Winning the Beloved’s Heart With Delectable Dishes and Perfumes') is a Syrian cookbook from the 13th century. It contains 635 recipes and was authored or compiled by an anonymous author who, in some cases, is identified as the historian Ibn al-Adim from Aleppo.[1][2] The book provides a picture of what people ate in the Middle East over 700 years ago and is one of the earliest known examples of cookbooks.

Several hand-written copies of the book were found in the Levant and Iraq, one scroll was attributed to Ibn al-Adim, with another in Mosul attributed to "al-Jazzar".[3]

The book contains a recipe attributed to the authors uncle, Ayyubid Emir Al-Ashraf Musa ibn Adil, which suggests that the author may have been a member of the Ayyubid dynasty.[4][5]: 154 

Contents

The book contained many recipes that are believed to have influenced modern-day dishes:

  • One of the first known recipes for hummus.[6]
  • A recipe for a dish very similar to modern-day Syrian makdous.[7]
  • A recipe resembling modern-day Egyptian hawawshi.[8][9]
  • A recipe describing minced meat spread on thin dough and baked in a brick oven (furn), which is identified by historian Nawal Nasrallah as possibly the earliest recipe for lahmacun.[10][11]

The book contained 75 recipes containing chicken, most of which instruct the cook to use sugar,[12] the book contains no recipes that require the use of fresh fish, which is attributed to it being written in a landlocked region.[5]: 39 [4]

Editions

In 1986, the University of Aleppo released an Arabic-language edition in print form, which was attributed to Ibn al-Adim.[13][14]

It was translated into English by Charles Perry in 2017.[15] Perry noted that the recipes shifted from instructions given in second-person narration to descriptions given in third-person, which suggests that the recipes where read out loud to the cooks.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ligaya Mishan (July 26, 2023). "This Hummus Holds Up After 800 Years". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 Nov 2024. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  2. ^ Habboush, Mahmoud. "Medieval Arabic Culinary Literature Offers Lessons for the Present". New Lines magazine. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  3. ^ ""كتاب الطبخ السوري": تراث القرن الثالث عشر" ["The Syrian Cookbook": A 13th-century heritage]. The New Arab (in Arabic). 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2026.
  4. ^ a b "عالم الكتب: المطبخ الحلبي قبل 9 قرون" [World of Books: Aleppo Cuisine 9 Centuries Ago]. BBC News Arabic (in Arabic). 21 May 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2026.
  5. ^ a b Perry, Charles (3 March 2020). Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-0081-0. Retrieved 7 January 2026.
  6. ^ "Recipes from 13th-Century Syria". Library of Arabic Literature. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  7. ^ Levkowitz, Joshua (16 October 2023). "When a Little Syrian Eggplant Is More Than Just Food". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  8. ^ "ليس من بينها الكشري والفول... 6 أطباق نرشحها لكم عند زيارتكم مصر" [Koshari and ful are not among them... 6 dishes we recommend for you when you visit Egypt]. Raseef22 (in Arabic). 21 April 2024. Retrieved 7 Jan 2026.
  9. ^ ثابت, د ياسر. "الكشري هندي والفول مصري والملوخية طعام الملوك.. تاريخ أشهر الأطعمة الشعبية" [Koshari is Indian, beans are Egyptian, and molokhia is the food of kings... the history of the most famous popular foods]. Al-Jazeera (in Arabic). Retrieved 7 Jan 2026.
  10. ^ Nasrallah, Nawal (17 Sep 2014). "In my Iraqi Kitchen: Recipes, History and Culture, by Nawal Nasrallah". In My Iraqi Kitchen. Retrieved 7 Jan 2026.
  11. ^ Nasrallah, Nawal (2018). Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine. Equinox Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-78179-457-9. Retrieved 30 September 2025. The earliest record of lahm bi ʿajin appears in a 13th-century Aleppan cookbook, Kitāb al-Wusla ilā al-Ḥabīb, where the recipe calls for minced meat to be spread on thin dough and baked in a brick oven.
  12. ^ Gaul, Anny; Pitts, Graham Auman; Valosik, Vicki (8 December 2021). Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-4773-2459-2. Retrieved 7 January 2026.
  13. ^ "الوصلة الى الحبيب في وصف الطيبات والطيب". National Library of Israel. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  14. ^ الوصلة إلی الحبیب في وصف الطیّبات و الطیب ج 1 إبن العديم (in Arabic). 1986. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  15. ^ Tresilian, David. "Reviving mediaeval cooking". ahramonline. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  16. ^ Qualey, Marcia Lynx (2020). "Medieval Arabic cookbooks: Reviving the taste of history". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
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