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12176

Diet as Culture. On the Medical Context of Food

Consumption in the Medieval Middle East
Paulina B. Lewicka*
University of Warsaw

Abstract
Greco-Arabic medicine was based on ancient Greek foundations, or more precisely, on the Galenic doc-
trine of humoral pathology, which conditioned both the preventive and curative proper diet.1 This doc-
trine had been imported into the Arabic-Islamic world in the course of the eighth and ninth centuries,2
when Nestorian Christians, sponsored by the elites of early-Abbasid Baghdad, translated the ancient
Greek legacy into Arabic. With time, Galenic thought spread all over the Islamic world, where it became
the prevailing medico-dietetic-philosophical system. As the humoral doctrine was taken for granted by
most cultured people, it shaped their thinking on medicine, health, illness, diet, food, and drink.A large
number of studies over the past decades were devoted to both Graeco-Arabic medicine and the culinary
culture of the medieval Arabic-Islamic world. But although the Galenic doctrine had an immense influ-
ence on dietary consciousness and thus on daily food choices of those who inhabited that world, contem-
porary scholarship rarely recognized the medico-dietary culture as a separate subject. The present paper is
a review of the questions involved in its study.

“I have called this book Attachment to the Lover which Can Spare Him the Need for a Doctor” – reads
the title page of one of the copies of Kitāb at.-T.abīkh, ‘Book of Cooked Food’, the oldest extant
Arabic cookery manual.3 As it appears from the introductory remarks by Ibn Sayyār al-
Warrāq, the tenth-century compiler of the manual, the work was preordered.

You have asked me—may God prolong your life—to write for you a book into which I
would gather dishes that are served to kings, caliphs, and nobles. So I have composed for
you a noble book, an elegant compilation in which you can find what is beneficial for
the body; what is harmful was avoided.4

Apparently, while the patron had just ordered a collection of elegant dishes, placing these
dishes in the medico-dietary context was the idea of the author. The resulting culinary manual
was, apart from other things, a literary expression of thoughts that made up the spirit of the times
and place of its author. Tied to the unique, creative, intellectual atmosphere of early-Abbasid
Baghdad, al-Warrāq quite naturally thought of food in medical terms, and at the same time
considered questions of health in terms of foodstuffs; multicultural foodstuffs, it should be
stressed. The cultural climate that prevailed in his times made him understand dishes not only
as nourishment but also as compositions of nutrients that were determinants of health and illness,
remedies for ailments, therapeutics against diseases, and in a broader perspective – parts of
‘Nature’, and consequently composed of four basic elements: fire, water, earth, and air. This
cultural climate, deriving from, and permeated with, ancient Greek medical thought, turned
diet into a complex medico-culinary-hygienic domain of knowledge, and finally, a philosophy
of life which was endorsed all over the literate medieval Arabic-Islamic world.
In the tenth century, the idea that food was related to a sophisticated Greek medical context
was still relatively new in the Near East; nevertheless, it already gained recognition among

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608 Diet as Culture

educated people of the early-Abbasid Baghdad. That was why Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq, while
musing over the composition of his Kitāb at. -T.abīkh, “browsed through the books of the ancient
philosophers and the eloquent physicians’ accounts.”5 That was also why in his cookery book,
he included topics such as “foods recommended for the young and the elderly,” “humoral
properties of various foods,” “the dishes that agree with the eaters’ humoral qualities and
temperaments,” and “the humoral powers of food” or “humoral properties of wines and other
beverages.” For that reason also, his book includes chapters on “regulating food consumption
according to the season of the year,” on “foods that aid the ailing stomach,” on “measures taken
to ward off anticipated harm caused by some foods,” on “physical activities before having a
meal,” on “benefits of sleep and regimen for sleeping after the meal,” and a chapter on various
dishes for the sick.
In the tenth century, Greco-Arabic medico-culinary culture was still in the process of being
shaped. Its symbolic beginning is the year 762, when al-Mans.ūr, the second Abbasid caliph,
established the city of Baghdad and with it a center of what became known as the translation
movement. The idea was, very generally speaking, to translate the Greek scholarly heritage into
Arabic. The goal was achieved due to the long-lasting effort of Nestorian Christians, who settled
in the newly-established capital. They were fluent in Greek and Arabic, and familiar with
secular Greek learning, medicine included.6 The project, continued by caliph al-Mans.ūr’s
successors, lasted until the end of the tenth century and resulted – among other things – in
the appropriation of ancient Greek medical thought by the Arabic-Islamic world. The creative
intellectual tension which this development generated transformed many cultural spheres,
medical and food culture included. From that time on, thinking about health and illness became
inextricably tied to thinking on food and cooking.
In fact, the themes of food, foodways, and cooking must have been the topic of intensive
discussions in the newly-built multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual Baghdad. Eating
habits are not easily altered, so the newcomers, who included Persianized Muslim Arabs,
Arabized Persians who converted to Islam, Persians who remained Zoroastrians, Muslim and
Christian (mostly Nestorian) Arabs, and Jews,7 must have missed the tastes and smells of their
home cuisine. And, as is often the case with migrants, the nostalgic appetite motivated them
to try and reproduce these tastes in their new place. The cosmopolitan culinary chaos, which
their arrival generated in Baghdad, contributed to the creative intellectual-culinary enthusiasm
and inspired the emergence of new trends in cooking.
These inspirations included the refinement of Persian and Persian-Indian culinary traditions;
Bedouin Arab cooking, which in Baghdad gained the royal look and flavor; and the Christian
monks’ meatless food for fasting days, which proved useful for therapeutic purposes and which
later encouraged Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq to include in his book a chapter “on meatless dishes
[muzawwarāt] which the Christians eat in the time of fasting.”8 There was also the local, ancient
Mesopotamian culinary practice, the spirit of which probably prevailed in the locality before the
coming of the Abbasids.9 Of these ideas, and of the produce of Mesopotamian agriculture, of
Oriental spices and of fruits imported from Iran and Syria, the Baghdadi “new wave”10 haute
cuisine was born. However, this would not have happened had it not been for the translation
movement. For whatever the significance and stimulating power of each of these elements, it
was the ancient Greek medical lore which made them fuse into the pattern of the specific
Abbasid medico-culinary-philosophical way. It was the irresistible authority of Hippocratic-
Galenic medical doctrine11 which, having become available in Arabic, made the new menu
dominate first the tables of the Baghdadi elite, and then the tables of the rest of the Arabic-
Islamic Near East. Al-Warrāq’s cookery book attests to this sophisticated, multi-track process.
Al-Warrāq’s book and the Baghdadi “new wave” cuisine, as well as many elements that
contributed to the emergence of the latter, have been discussed in quite a number of studies.12

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 Diet as Culture 609

This also refers to the Greek intellectual input, in the form of the Hippocratic-Galenic medical
doctrine, into the shaping of the Arabic-Islamic medico-culinary theory and practice. Most of
the secondary works that focus on the medieval Arabic-Islamic culinary culture mention, in
more or less precise terms, the importance of the Galenic medicine. Works that discuss medieval
Arabic-Islamic medicine always stress the importance of proper diet. But although the Galenic
doctrine had an immense influence on dietary consciousness and thus on daily food choices of
the Arabic-Islamic urban populations of the Middle Ages, contemporary scholarship rarely
recognized medico-culinary culture as a separate subject. Apart from a number of articles –
the most notable being those by David Waines13 – and few critical editions of the old texts,14
the culture of dietetics has rarely been approached as one discipline. In other words, the topic
still demands an in-depth monograph. The limited scope of the present paper allows only for
a brief outline of the question.
What deserves highlighting in the first place is the doctrine of humoral pathology for
which Hippocrates laid the fundaments in the fifth–fourth centuries BC. In the second
century CE, Galen developed it into a complex, sophisticated medical system, which later
provided the basis for the Greco-Arabic medical culture. Very roughly speaking, it was
based on the concept that all things were composed of four classical elements – fire,
earth, air, and water – which embodied the qualities, or temperaments of hot, cold,
dry and wet. A product of deductive reasoning, the doctrine insisted that these elements
transformed in human bodies into four substances called humors: blood, yellow bile,
black bile, and phlegm, each of which corresponded to one of the four so-called temper-
aments (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic, respectively). When one’s
humors were in balance, one was healthy. When any of humors increased above, or
decreased below the normal level, their balance was disrupted; this disruption affected
the temperaments and thus human health, and caused illnesses.15
Such reasoning – presented here in an oversimplified way – implied a peculiar style of therapy
which consisted in restoring the lost balance by repairing the faulty humor according to the
principle of allopathic contraries. Based on the conviction that a contrary drives away a contrary
(contraria contrariis curantur, ‘ilāj ad. -d.idd bi-d. -d.idd ), it involved treating a disease with therapeutics
possessing qualities that were contrary to its qualities. The therapeutics included simple and
compound drugs16 and food. Their healing potential stemmed from the conviction that the
components of drugs as well as the ingredients of food and beverages, which changed into body
matter when digested,17 consisted, like anything else, of the four elements, and therefore had,
like anything else, their prevailing qualities – hot, cold, wet, or dry.18
In practical terms, this meant that if a patient’s temperament (which was a symptom of the
overabundant humor) was diagnosed as too “hot,” the ingredients of his/her diet should consist
of what was believed to be “cold” (like sugar), in order to counter the “hotness” of the disease.
And, vice versa, if in a patient’s temperament “cold” prevailed, the ingredients of his/her meals
were to be composed of what was considered “hot” (like honey, for example). In other words,
“hot” diseases were to be cured by “cold” remedies, “dry” with “wet,” etc. The job of the
doctor was, therefore, to diagnose the illness by recognizing which of the humors was excessive
or deficient and to prescribe appropriate counterbalancing drugs and an appropriate
counterbalancing diet in order to restore the balance of humors.19 Accordingly, a certain
physician in 12th-century Syria, reports that when a lady suffering from “dryness” (nushāf,
i.e. tuberculosis) was brought to him, he “prescribed her [an appropriate] diet and moistened
her temperament.”20 Treatment with food or drugs “similar” to the disease would not cure
it; moreover, such a treatment would increase the undesirable symptoms. This must have been
the motive behind a treatment opted for by a certain 15th-century Cairene doctor who, when
visited by a patient suffering from a tumor, recommended the avoidance of the following foods:

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610 Diet as Culture

colocasia, broad bean dish, okra dish, geese, chicken, eggs, fried cheese, pilaf, and fried
dishes in general.21 Apparently, the qualities of these dishes were similar to those of the
disease he diagnosed.
What was disallowed in curative therapy was recommended when one was well, for the same
Hippocratic-Galenic philosophy which considered “contrary” food a cure, insisted that diet
“similar” to one’s temperament played a vital role in preventive treatment and the preservation
of health. According to this philosophy, when one was in good health, there was no need for a
contrary cure; moreover, contraries were not allowed, for they would disturb the proper
balance of humors and cause disease. “When you are well do not bring cold things to hot,”22
taught the ancient masters, and the Arab-speaking world subscribed to their fundamental
wisdom. But good health had to be cared for, and this was done with things that were “similar”
to the temperament of the body – in accordance with the Hippocratic-Galenic dictum that
“likeness maintains the like”23 (apparently the ancient version of similia similibus curantur, which
later became a homeopathic axiom). The appropriate “likes” were, first of all, foodstuffs and
beverages.
The conviction that food influenced health, however fundamental for the Hippocratic-
Galenic medicine, was not the only guideline of the humoral pathology. According to this
doctrine, food was just one of the six “non-natural” (i.e. extra-bodily) things, which constituted
the environment of the body and which influenced its condition. Apart from food and drink,
these elements included also the surrounding air, sleep and movement, exercise and rest,
retention and evacuation, and the mental states.24 Their influence upon body and soul could
be controlled through appropriate behavior, the purpose of which was to turn interaction with
Nature to one’s profit – the trick was to reduce from the surrounding environment the elements
which were detrimental for health, and to increase the impact of elements which were
beneficial.25
In practical terms, such a philosophy translated into the promotion of what we would today
call a hygienic way of life. On a daily basis this implied, for example, proper sleep, proper
bathing, keeping one’s mouth clean, using perfumes, keeping evil smells and odors away from
the brain,26 or, wisely enough, removing evil people from one’s environment.27 In the domain
of food – but not food only – the fundamental rule was to “beware of an excess or deficiency
and favor moderation,” for when excessive food was ingested, it became “superfluous and
caused illness.”28 In accordance with the Hippocratic dictum “every excess is an enemy of
nature,” which was also consistent with the Arab-Bedouin ways, gluttony was denounced in
the Arabic-Islamic world of the Middle Ages, while moderation was promoted as the manner:

The virtuous eats only when there a pressing need, at a suitable time, the proper amount, and drinks
only what is necessary. His other activities - his movements, rest, sleep, walking and, in short, whatever
nature leads him to do - are carried out in a similar manner

reads the ninth-century savoir-vivre for physicians.29 But moderation was not all, as far as proper
alimentation was concerned: one should also take care to consume nutrients that are suitable in
quality and served in proper order – i.e. easily digestible, fine food precede slowly digestible
food, and food precede drink.30 Exercise, rest and sleep, as well as factors such as one’s age,
habits, occupations and crafts, and features of the habitat, were also important for the stomach
and the other bodily organs, and were to be considered in the context of proper nourishment.31
As the theme of food and its consumption was absolutely crucial both in preventive and cu-
rative medicine, one of the duties of the physician educated and practicing according to the rules
of Hippocratic-Galenic medicine was to apply the correct dietary procedures. In order to com-
prehend them, he had to master a significant volume of knowledge32: he was obliged to know

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 Diet as Culture 611

the attributes of human environment, the attributes of the body, the attributes of food and
drink, and those of simple and compound drugs, most of which were composed of edibles such
as parts of plants or animals. In other words, he had to know what of the countless things on
Earth – from plants to animal parts and minerals – was hot, cold, moist, or dry.33 Moreover,
he had to understand the nexuses between all these things and their impact on human health.
Such knowledge could be learned from countless dietary, medical, and pharmaceutical
compendia which, from the ninth century on, flooded the book market of the medieval
Arabic-Islamic world.34 A considerable part of this corpus was addressed to scholars, doctors,
and students of medicine. Many works, however, were written for literate non-professionals,
who shared an universal human tendency to treat, cure, and heal one’s body by oneself – be
it because there was no doctor around, or because the doctor available was not trustworthy
enough, or because of one’s fear of, or one’s aversion to, physicians. Some were simply
knowledge-hungry and curious to know the etiology of illnesses.35 It was for this audience –
which included literati, theologians, state officials, etc. – that short, simplified and user-friendly
medical handbooks on foodstuffs were produced.36 The key importance of food in both
preventive and curative treatment was also the reason why the culinary manuals became their
object of interest.37
With educated people reading books and spreading the acquired knowledge, with the infor-
mation transmitted from book to book, from teacher to student, from doctor to patient,38 and
from patient to his relatives or neighbors, it was only a matter of time before the Greek teachings
referring to foodstuffs became part of a broader public domain of knowledge.39 Simplified and
modified, the Greek humoral doctrine blended with time into the mentalité of the Arabic-
Islamic world, where it became a lingua franca, a common jargon mastered by most of the
educated people – ethnic or religious affiliation notwithstanding. Within this particular
“community of discourse,”40 it shaped thinking on medicine, health, illness, and food.
It was only natural that some dietary guidelines became more popular than others and,
consequently, translated into particular usages, manners, habits, and customs practiced in the
context of health. People seemed to “know,” for example, that sugar was soothing and
moistening and that, due to its “coldness,” it was good for the sick (if only because illnesses,
often accompanied by fever, were popularly considered “hot”). Sugar was also believed to be
less detrimental to the stomach than honey. That was why the sick were fed with sugared food
and cured with syrupy potions. The opinion that sugar is an effective and universal remedy
was – very much like in medieval Europe, by the way – common knowledge in the medieval
Islamic Middle East.41 In his annals for 833/1429–30, the Cairene chronicler Ibn Taghrī Birdī
mentions sugar as one of the medications (besides purslane seeds and pear), the prices of which
rose when the plague broke out, as they were needed by the sick. Interestingly enough, the
chronicler also noticed that this occurred despite the fact that few of the sick were cured by these
remedies and that some of them died despite the treatment.42 Other chroniclers, such as
al-Maqrīzī in his annals for 709/1309–10 and Ibn Iyās in his annals for 806/1403–4,
confirm that during the epidemics, as the demand for medicaments grew, the price of
sugar exceeded any acceptable level.43
The therapeutic values of sour fruits, particularly quince, lemon, and citron, were also broadly
recognized. Ibn Iyās mentions in the annals for 808/1405–6 that during the epidemic the price
of quince, pulp grew significantly because it was in high demand by the sick. Similar reasons
seem to have caused the extremely high prices of quinces, pomegranates, and melons that are
mentioned in al-Maqrīzī’s report on the epidemics of 776/1374–5.44 This belief in the power
of some fruits might have been related to some local folk wisdom or to the particular medicinal
properties ascribed to fruits by the Greco-Arabic medicine,45 or both.46 At the same time, it
might have been an echo of the concept which the prevailing Greco-Arabic medical system

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612 Diet as Culture

promoted regarding food for the sick. According to this concept, sick persons were not
supposed to eat meat. Instead, they were to consume food otherwise considered poor in nutri-
ment; in fact, not real food. This way of thinking was related to the idea of the so-called
muzawwarāt, that is, meatless dishes imitating those which contained meat. Muzawwarāt reflected
an interesting combination of influences, which included the Greek concept of curing certain
illnesses by vegetarian diet, the Nestorian tradition of fasting, and elements of Persian cuisine.
Introduced to the Arabic-Islamic medico-culinary culture by Nestorian Christians, muzawwarāt
were at some point acknowledged in the Near East as a right way to cure ailing. As such, these
dishes constituted a proper component of the Arabic-Islamic medico-culinary tradition, but
never became a rightful part of the Arabic-Islamic cuisine.47
Meat was the food, and it was only for the healthy; this directive was popularly known and
accepted.48 But there were various kinds of meat which, as any other edibles, had their different
properties and thus their impact upon human temperament and health differed, too. Educated
people probably realized that beef was thick and tough, and thus difficult to digest; that chicken
or partridge was light and good for the troubled stomach49; and that mutton was the best, the
healthiest, and the easiest for digestion. Warm and moist, it was an excellent food.50 Thanks
to medical recommendations, or for other reasons, mutton was at some point recognized as
the best of meats in Arabic-Islamic (as well as Jewish) medieval food culture. As “the lordliest
food of the people of this world and of Paradise,”51 it also became expensive, fashionable,
and coveted. Interestingly, in post-11th century Europe, where the same Hippocratic-Galenic
medical doctrine started to prevail, the warmness and moistness of lamb was widely regarded as
dangerous, and mutton never enjoyed popularity there.52
An integral part of medical culture was that the domain of diet was not detached from
politics, religion, and other factors that shaped the cultural climate and social mood of the
medieval Near East. One of the most important features of the post-12th-century period was
an increasing radicalization of Islam as well as its growing domination of the culture of Dār
al-Islām. One of the results of this long-term and complicated process was that medicine, once
free of theology and religion, gained a religious attribute and lost its universal character,53 while
much of the knowledge relating to the Greek medico-philosophical doctrine fell into oblivion,
either oversimplified and confused, or combined with the Mu ammadan dietary tradition as
featured in the so-called medicine of the Prophet.54
True, doctors still recommended particular nutrients for certain illnesses, and the names of
Hippocrates and Galen and the vague idea of “humors” still rang a bell. However, with the
waning interest in secular scholarship and the concurrent increase of Islamic theologians’
engagement in altered medical discourse and practice, the dietary culture lost its refined,
philosophical setting. This, in turn, resulted in the loss of the linkage between food and the
environment, Nature, and the harmonious way of life.

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 Diet as Culture 613

Ibn Khals.ūn, Kitāb al-Aghdhiya wa-H . ifz. as.-S.ih.h.a in Ibn Hals.ūn, Kitāb al-Aġd_iya. Text établi,
traduit et annoté par Suzanne Gigandet (Damas: Institut français de Damas, 1996).
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The Medical Formulary or Aqrābādhīn of Al-Kindī: Translated with a Study of its Materia Medica by
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(Blackawton: Prospect Books, 2001), 273–465.
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Rosner (Haifa: The Maimonides Research Institute, 1995).
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wa-n-Nashr and Dār al-Kutub, 1930–73).
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Short Biography

Paulina B. Lewicka is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Oriental
Studies, University of Warsaw. Her research is focused on history and social history of the me-
dieval Near East, particularly of the Mamluk era. For a few years, she has been working on
topics related to social history of medicine and inter-faith relations. Her publications include
Šāfi’ Ibn ’Alī’s Biography of the Mamluk Sultan Qalāwūn. Introduction, Edition, and Commentary
(Warsaw: Dialog 2000) and Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes: Aspects of Life in an Islamic
Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean (Leiden: Brill 2011).

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614 Diet as Culture

Notes
* Correspondence: Paulina B. Lewicka, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of
Warsaw, Ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28 00-927 Warsaw, Poland. Email: paulina.lewicka@uw.edu.pl
1
The term “diet” is used here in its Hellenic understanding of “regimen.”
2
As a result of the Muslim conquests (ca. 632–750), the areas ranging roughly from the shores of the Atlantic to the steppes
of Central Asia were brought together under one language, one religion, and one legal system, at least in theory. With the
religion of Islam and the Arabic language working as its universal culture-making incentives, this world, far from being
exclusively Arabic or Islamic, was marked by a degree of what might be called “standardization” of many domains of life.
3
See Nasrallah, Annals, 6.
4
Al-Warrāq, Kitāb at. -T.abīkh, 1. It may be interesting to compare the introduction to the dietary manual by Ibn Khals.ūn
(XIII century), whose words sound strikingly similar; see Ibn Khals.ūn, Kitāb al-Aghdhiya, 11–12 of the Arabic text; and 33
of the French translation.
5
Al-Warrāq, Kitāb at. -T.abīkh, 1.
6
On the translation movement as initiated by al-Mans.ūr, see Gutas, Greek Thought, 28–60.
7
See Gutas, Greek Thought, 34; also presentation of the process by Attewell, “Islamic Medicines,” 333–338.
8
Al-Warrāq, Kitāb at. -T.abīkh, Chapter 46, 119–24; Nasrallah, Annals, 238–9. For a discussion of a similar chapter included in
the work of the Arab Christian physician Ibn But.lān (d. 1066) and in an anonymous Mamluk-era cookery manual, see
Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 37, n. 50; 261–3.
9
For interesting remarks on the Mesopotamian origins of the Arabic culinary tradition, see Waines, Patterns, ‘Introduction’,
xxxiii. For hints regarding the ancient Mesopotamian culinary culture, see Bottero, ‘The Most Ancient Recipes’, 239–46;
idem, The Oldest Cuisine, passim. On Mesopotamian roots of Abbasid cookery, see Nasrallah, Annals, 46–54.
10
The term was first used by Marín and Waines in ‘Balanced Way’, 124; and by Waines in Caliph’s Kitchen, 7–15.
11
See Bürgel, ‘Secular and Religious Features’, 45.
12
For a convenient and informative presentation of the culinary culture of medieval Baghdad, see Nasrallah, Annals, 29–55.
See also Marin and Waines, “Balanced Way”; Waines In a Caliph’s Kitchen; Rosenberger, “Arab Cuisine”; Lewicka, Food and
Foodways, 74–78.
13
Particularly Waines, ‘Dietetics’; idem, ‘Abū Zayd al-Balkhī’; Marín, Waines, ‘Balanced Way’; and Waines, Marín,
‘Muzawwar’; there are also articles by Brabant, ‘Al-Rāzī’ and ‘Apuntes’ as well as by Sanchez, ‘Dietetic Aspects’ and
‘Consommation’. Levey, Early Arabic Pharmacology; idem, Substitute Drugs; Lev and Amar, Practical Materia Medica; and
Chipman, World of Pharmacy, 185–270 also provide interesting insights.
14
Particularly Ibn Khals.ūn, Kitāb al-Aghdhiya; also Levey, The Medical Formulary; Maimonides, Glossary, transl. by Rosner;
and al-Isrā’īlī’s Kitāb al-Aghdhiya, ed. by as.-S.abbāh..
15
For a concise presentation of the Galenic theory of humoral pathology, see, for example, Ullmann, Islamic Medicine, 56–62;
Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 10–16; Pormann, Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 43–5; Nasrallah, Annals, 55–64.
16
For the exhaustive presentation of pharmacological culture, see Levey, Early Arabic Pharmacology and Chipman, World of
Pharmacy. For an interesting analysis of the relationship between the Chinese medical tradition, Mongolian folk medicine and
the pharmacological practice in the Islamic world, see Chipman, ‘Islamic Pharmacy’.
17
See, for example, ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 27.
18
See, for example, Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 10.
19
Factors such as sex, age, place, and time had to be taken into consideration in each case; see Hamarneh, ‘Ecology and
therapeutics’, 180, 181.
20
Usāma b. Munqid _ h, Kitāb al-I’tibār, 230.
21
See Ibn Sūdūn, Nuzha, 73; also short comment in Marín, ‘Literatura’, 144–5 and Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 263, n. 643.
22
See ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 27.
23
Cf. ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 27.
24
Pormann, Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 44–5; Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 14; Waines, “Dietetics,” 126;
Hamarneh, ‘Ecology and Therapeutics’, 171. Cf. ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at.-T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 29.
25
See, for example, Pormann, Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 44; ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical
Ethics’, 44–47; Hamarneh, ‘Ecology and Therapeutics’, passim.
26
Ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 54.
27
Ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 24.

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 Diet as Culture 615
28
Ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 37; for remarks on the approach to gluttony in the Arabic-Islamic
culture, see Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 438–42.
29
Ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T. abīb, in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 50.
30
In fact, there were many other considerations; see ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T.abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 27, 37–8.
31
Cf. ar-Ruhāwī, Adab at. -T. abīb in: Levey, ‘Medical Ethics’, 32–38.
32
For remarks on medical education, see Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 24–31; Ibn Rid. wān, ‘Treatise’, in: Dols, Medieval
Islamic Medicine, 120. See also Leiser, ‘Medical Education’.
33
In fact, the qualities of “hotness,” “coldness,” “wetness,” and “dryness” had their degrees (these were one of Galen’s
contributions to the humoral doctrine) which further complicated the problem; for example, meat of mutton was moist
and warm to the first degree, while barley was cold to the first and dry to the second degree.
34
An introductory survey of the major works of Arabic medical corpus can be found in Savage-Smith, ‘Medicine’; Ulmann,
Islamic Medicine, passim, and Pormann, Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, passim.
35
In fact, the subtleties of the humoral pathology were an intellectual discipline which “formed part of the ‘liberal
education’ of a well-educated man” in the Arabic-Islamic world; see Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 38.
36
The long list of such compendia includes works such as ar-Rāzī’s He Who Has No Physician to Attend to Him, Ibn al-Jazzār’s
(d. ca. 984 in al-Qayrawān) Provisions for the Traveller and Nourishment for the Sedentary and Medicine for the Poor and Destitute, Ibn
But. lān’s Almanac of Health (Taqwīm), and Compendium for Monasteries (Kunnāsh) or Ibn Khal ūn’s Kitāb al-Aghdhiya. The most
outstanding example of such a guide-like compendium is certainly Taqwīm as. -S. ih..ha, Almanac of Health, prepared by Ibn
Bu lān (d. 1066), a Christian physician from Baghdad. A medical regimen in an unprecedented, tabular form (taqwīm), it
proved successful not only in the Arabic-speaking world, but also in Europe where, translated into Latin in the late 13th
century, it enjoyed wide currency throughout the later Middle Ages and Renaissance. For more on the work, see
Elkhadem, Le Taqwīm al-S. ih..h a; Savage, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 50, 68; Conrad, ‘Arab-Islamic Medical Tradition’, 122.
37
See, for example, Ibn Sayyār Al-Warrāq, Kitāb at. -T.abīkh, Ibn Khals.ūn, Kitāb al-Aghdhiya wa-H . ifz
. as.-S. ih.h.a,
anonymous , or anonymous .
Cf. Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 76–77.
38
It was the doctor’s duty to teach his patients the proper regimen for their bodies according to their individual
circumstances. See Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 17.
39
Cf. Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 76–7 and the references therein.
40
Cf. Killingsworth, ‘Discourse Communities’.
41
On the properties of sugar, see, for example, Levey, Medical Formulary, 284, n. 148 (sugar was “used by al-Kindī for sore
throat, in snuffs, dentifrices, several electuaries, in an eye powder for removing cataracts, in a white powder, and in a sesame
seed drug”); al-Isrā’īlī, Aghdhiya, 308–9. Cf. Ibn Rid.wān, who mentioned sugar as one of “the cooling things,”
recommended to eat it when the air was excessively hot; Ibn Rid.wān, ‘Treatise’, in Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 139.
See also Tsugitaka, ‘Sugar’, 100–3; Marín, Waines, ‘Balanced Way’, 130. For the medicinal uses of sugar in medieval
Europe, see Mintz, Sweetness, 79.
42
Ibn Taghrī Birdī, Nujūm, XIV, 340.
43
Al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, II/1, 55; Ibn Iyās, , I/2, 689.
44
Ibn Iyās, , I/2, 738; also 689; al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk, III/1, 236.
45
In Greek and Graeco-Arabic medicine, quinces, lemons, or citrons, known for their therapeutic and tonic properties,
were used to make medicinal concoctions; see, for example, Levey, Medical Formulary, 282, n. 144.
46
In the Arabic-Islamic world, there was no single, therapeutic system with final authority. People used a wide range of
beliefs and practices which, apart from the medicine based upon Galenic doctrine, included popular belief in the power
of amulets, holy relics, and preservatives. See Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 38–9.
47
See Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 64, 262
48
See Lewicka, Food and Foodways, 173–4.
49
Cf., e.g. Lev; Chipman; Niessen, “Chicken and Chickory”.
50
Ibn But. lān, Taqwīm as.-S. ih..ha, 87, 176; Ibn Khals.ūn, Kitāb al-Aghdhiya, 109, 84.
51
See ash-Shirbīnī, Hazz al-Quhūf, 352.
52
See Turner, Spice, 122.
53
On the transformation of medical culture after the 12th century, see Lewicka, ‘Medicine for Muslims?’ For analysis of the
relationship between medicine, religion and philosophy within the Islamic culture of the medieval Near East, see Fancy, Science.
54
Prophetic medicine (at. -t.ibb an-nabawī), a very particular literary genre produced and promoted by Islamic religious
scholars from ca. 13th century on, combined what was believed to be “medical” sayings of the prophet Muh.ammad with

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616 Diet as Culture

somewhat simplified Hippocratic-Galenic tenets. As far as dietary lore is concerned, it stressed the importance of
“Muh. ammadan” statements which referred to particular edibles or simple Arab/Bedouin dishes; nevertheless, it
continued to associate food with the domain of health. For the exhaustive presentation of at. -t.ibb an-nabawī, see
Perho, Prophetic Medicine; for an interesting discussion of prophetic medicine as (mis)understood by contemporary
scholars, see Attewell, ‘Islamic Medicines,’ 326–33; on the prophetic medicine and social-political context of its
reemergence, see also Lewicka, ‘Medicine for Muslims?’

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