Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Baghdad Shopping List

A wealthy lady's shopping list in the markets of Baghdad in the 8th century, from One Thousand and One Nights:

Fruiterer's shop: 
  • Syrian apples
  • Uthmani quinces
  • Omani peaches
  • jasmine
  • water lilies from Syria
  • autumn cucumbers
  • lemons
  • sultani oranges
  • scented myrtle
  • privet flowers
  • camomile blossoms
  • red anemones
  • violets
  • pomegranate blooms
  • eglantine 
 Butcher's:
  •   ten ratls' worth of meat wrapped in banana leaves
 Grocer:
  •  pistachio kernels
  • Tihama raisins
  • shelled almonds
Sweetmeat seller's shop:
  • sugar cakes
  • doughnuts stuffed with musk
  • 'soap' cakes
  • lemon tarts
  • Maimuni tarts
  • 'Zainab's combs'
  • sugar fingers
  • qadis' snacks 
Perfume seller's:
  • rosewater
  • orange-flower water
  • water scented with water lilies
  • water scented with willow flowers
  • two sugar loaves
  • bottle of musk-scented rosewater
  • frankincense
  • aloes
  • ambergris
  • musk
  • Alexandrian candles

No comments:

Post a Comment