What did Ibn Battuta eat in Persia?
• Ibn Battuta mentions the following Persian foods served to him and other visitors by a shaikh of Tustar: pilaff of rice with pepper and cooked in ghee (clarified butter), fried chickens, bread, meat and sweetmeats (sweets like pastries or cakes made of flour, butter, honey or sugar, and often with nuts and sweet jellies or grape-syrup). (Gibb, vol. II, p. 284, 286) He was impressed with the orchards and gardens along the rivers and tells that travelers could easily buy bread, fish, dates, milk and fruit. He mentions orange and lemon trees, apricots, quinces, dates, grapes, watermelons, figs, apples, walnuts and almonds, breads and cheese, meat sauce served over rice (served on a banana leaf plate), gruel (porridge) of meat, wheat and butter, thin breadcakes, fish, and other foods. • For actual Islamic recipes from the Middle Ages 10th – 15th centuries (900s – 1400s) see, Cariadoc’s Miscellany: An Islamic Dinner. This site is prepared by a member of Creative Anachonisms Society (a gro
