Arabian Society in the Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand and One NightsLane, Edward William
Islamic
Arabian Society in the Middle Ages: Studies From The Thousand and One Nights
Lane, Edward William
Arabian nights; Egypt -- Social life and customs; Islamic Empire -- Social life and customs; Social history -- Medieval, 500-1500
With respect to clean and unclean meats, the Muslim is subject to nearly
the same laws as the Jew. Swine's flesh, and blood, are especially
forbidden to him; but camel's flesh is allowed. The latter, however,
being of a coarse nature, is never eaten when any other meat can be
obtained, excepting by persons of the lower classes and by Arabs of the
desert. Of fish, almost every kind is eaten (excepting shell-fish),
usually fried in oil: of game, little; partly in consequence of frequent
doubt whether it have been lawfully killed. The diet consists in a great
measure of vegetables, and includes a large variety of pastry. A very
common kind of pastry is a pancake, which is made very thin, and folded
over several times like a napkin; it is saturated with butter, and
generally sweetened with honey or sugar; as is also another common kind
which somewhat resembles vermicelli.
The usual beverage at meals is water, which is drunk from cooling,
porous, earthen bottles, or from cups of brass or other metal: but in
the houses of the wealthy, sherbet is sometimes served instead of this,
in covered glass cups, each of which contains about three-quarters of a
pint. The sherbet is composed of water made very sweet with sugar, or
with a hard conserve of violets or roses or mulberries. After every time
that a person drinks, he says, "Praise be to God;" and each person of
the company says to him, "May it be productive of enjoyment:" to which
he replies, "May God cause thee to have enjoyment." The Arabs drink
little or no water during a meal, but generally take a large draught
immediately after. The repast is quickly finished; and each person, as
soon as he has done, says, "Praise be to God," or "Praise be to God, the
Lord of all creatures." He then washes in the same manner as before, but
more thoroughly; well lathering his beard and rinsing his mouth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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