See also
animals
; a
rabic
langUage
and
litera
-
tUre
; m
aJnUn
and
l
ayla
; p
ersian
langUage
and
literatUre
.
Anna Bigelow
Further reading: Dwight Reynolds,
Heroic Poets, Poetic
Heroes: The Ethnography of Performance in an Arab
Epic Oral Tradition (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1995); John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza:
Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India (Washington,
D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, and London: Azimuth, 2002);
Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Thalabi, Arais al-majalis fi
qisas al-anbiya, or “Lives of the Prophets.” Translated by
William M. Brinner (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002).
food and drink
Food is a fundamental requirement for all living
things, yet how it is selected, grown, prepared,
served, and eaten are uniquely human activities.
Humans also have the ability to imagine and
manipulate symbolic meanings for food, incor-
porating them into their religious and cultural
life. The natural environment sets some limits
on the kinds and quantities of food that might be
available, grown, and harvested, but the cultural
environment is able to exploit these limitations
to the maximum, creating elaborate cuisines for
bodily pleasure, display on the table, and men-
tal contemplation. Food and drink also occupy
important places in memory and history, allowing
people to recall significant moments in the life of
their family, community, or nation and to express
their individual and collective identities.
Muslim social and religious life reflects these
different aspects of culinary culture. The q
Uran
provides a general framework with respect to the
religious and symbolic dimensions, as reflected
in its depictions of
paradise
, descriptions of God’s
creative power, and legislation of
dietary
laWs
.
a
dam
and
e
ve
, the first humans, lived in a gar-
den, enjoying all its fruits except those of the tree
of immortality, which was forbidden to them (Q
7:189; 2:35). When they disobeyed God and ate
from it, they were denied their place in the garden.
As creator of the universe, the Quran declares that
God is the one who sends rainwater to nourish the
earth’s vegetation, including foods for people to
eat such as grain, date palms, grapes, olives, and
pomegranates (Q 6:99). More than being purely
natural phenomena, the growth of food plants and
animals is presented as a system of signs designed
to remind the faithful to submit and worship the
one God, a
llah
. According to the Quran, he cre-
ated all manner of food for humans to consume
(Q 6:14; 26:78), commanding the faithful, “Eat
of the good things that we have granted you”
(Q 2:172). Moreover, in the
aFterliFe
, righteous
believers are promised lush gardens through
which rivers of water, milk, honey, and wine flow
where they will consume food and drink served
by youthful servants and beautiful servant girls,
the houris (sing.
hoUri
).
The command to “eat of the good things”
is linked to admonitions not to follow in the
way of s
atan
, but to be thankful to God and
eat only what is permitted. Eating, therefore, is
symbolically associated with moral action, since
the Quran relates eating permitted foods with
thanking God, who provided them. The dietary
laws of what is permitted (
halal
) and forbidden
(
haram
) are given in some detail in the Quran and
elaborated further in the
hadith
and juristic litera-
ture. While most foods are allowed, Muslims are
obliged to abstain from consuming swine flesh,
blood, carrion, and wine. Meat must be properly
slaughtered in the name of God. Muslims are
permitted to eat lawful and pure food prepared
by other People of the Book, particularly Jews
and Christians. Adherence to the dietary laws
expresses the relation of Muslims with God and
establishes their identity as a distinct religious
community among other peoples.
For centuries, Muslims have drawn inspira-
tion from m
Uhammad
, the founding prophet of
Islam, for many aspects of their life, including
K 246
food and drink
their culinary practices. According to the
hadith
,
he exemplified the ideal of moderation, expressed
in a quranic admonition for all people, “Eat and
drink, but do not be wasteful, for [God] does
not like those who are wasteful” (Q 7:31). In a
similar vein, m
Uhammad
is remembered to have
said, “A believer eats with one intestine, while a
disbeliever eats with seven intestines,” meaning
that Muslims should consume only what is suf-
ficient for their needs and not overeat. He is said
to have recommended that everyone sitting at a
meal eat small amounts so that there is food for
all, including unexpected guests. Moreover, he
also advocated giving food to the hungry, even if
it meant that one’s own family had to forgo a meal.
Such practices reflected and upheld Arab hospital-
ity customs.
There is a body of lore in Islam about the
relation between good health and good food.
Greek medical science (with Indian and Persian
elements) was transmitted to Muslims during
the eighth and ninth centuries, but they also
developed their own distinctive body of medi-
cal knowledge known as “the medicine of the
Prophet” (al-tib al-nabawi) in the ninth century.
According to a book on the subject by Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyya (1292–1350), Muhammad provided
guidance on how to maintain bodily health, which
was seen as a gift from God. Among the basic
dietary facts Ibn Qayyim wanted his readers to
know was that eating too little, overeating, eating
only one type of food, and nutritional imbalances
were major causes of illness. Muhammad’s eating
and drinking habits as described in the hadith
Flatbreads hot from the baker’s oven in Alexandria, Egypt
(Magda Campo)
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