Recipes from Baghdad

With an introduction by Her Majesty the Queen Mother or Iraq and caricatures by Suad Salim. Contains 457 recipes of Arabic dishes created "for good feeling and good fellowship" and contributed by many residents of the Iraq at the time, both European and Arabic. Also includes chapters on cooking and shopping in Baghdad, local beverages, a chapter on spices and herbs, and an index giving both page and recipe number for each dish. Publisher's original black cloth boards with the front panel of the jacket and most of the spine present. A few chips and sections of rubbing to edges of the spine and corner tips. Folding table showing the equivalence of the weights and measures widely utilised. Delightful vignette drawings throughout, by Suad Salim. The work is believed to be "by far the first cookery document to have been written in Iraq after a long silence of almost seven hundred years" - from the blog "In my Iraqi Kitchen: Recipes, History and Culture", by Nawal Nasrallah. Lady Margaret stated that the purpose of writing this book was to raise funds for the Red Cross. She also saw in it a chance for a cultural exchange. With its 'oriental' and 'occidental' collection of recipes, she explained, the book would enable Westerners who enjoyed the Arab delicacies of the table to make them for themselves, and introduce the Eastern readers to Western food. The book was "the result of friendly co-operation between Iraqi and British housewives, with help from the ladies of other nations." Indeed, the acknowledgement list of contributors included no less than 118 names of Baghdad residents just after the second world war, which besides the 'housewives' Lady Margaret mentioned, included professionals, physicians and institutions, such as 'Home Arts School' for girls, and 'Painforce Schools of Cookery'. Lady Margaret, originally from Sheffield, was the second wife of Sir Kinahan Cornwallis (1883-1959), a British administrator and diplomat and an advisor to King Faisal I of Iraq. He was British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq during the Anglo-Iraqi War. In her introduction, the Queen Mother of Iraq tells us a little about the earliest recorded evidence of cookery in her country: "Following their entry into settled life and civilisation, the Arabs were foremost among the nations in their interest in cookery, the introduction of new dishes and the recording of recipes. The enthusiasm for the art of cooking was not confined to women to the exclusion of men; nor to the common people to the exclusion of the select. For instance, the Caliph Ibrahim, son of the Caliph Mahdi and brother of Harum ar Rashid, was one of the Arabs who wrote a book on cookery in which he mentions how to prepare dishes with precision and artistry; while Arab literature, particularly 'Kitab al Diyarat' by the distinguished writer Al Shabashti, still delights us with the story of how the great Caliph Adbullah al Mamun commanded his friends and his brother Al Mu'tassim Billah each to cook a dish of food, while he himself would also do so".