Crossing borders
Rabbit Recipes: Bengali White Chicken Curry (Rezala) – the original korma? And a waffle on Bengali history…
A post, and a recipe, by Nazneen Ahmed. Extract:
I think this dish might be the origin of the British chicken korma. I can’t say for sure, because I’ve never eaten one – curry snob, me – but the creaminess and gentleness of the flavours (and the fact that it comes from the region most “Indian” chefs in Britain come from – suggests to me that it might be the inspiration.I’m always intrigued by the dual personality of Bangladeshi cuisine, which I think might be related to the history of Islam in Bengal. One aspect of Bengali cuisine is almost East Asian – having more in common with the flavours of Vietnam and Thailand than the “curries” we know of in Britain. The flavours are hot, sharp, pungent, with thin broths, a lot of vegetables, fish and seafood rather than meat, and pounded chilli and fish pastes. But then, another aspect is very rich, fragrant and reminiscent of Persian cuisine.I think it’s a difference between what’s been identified as the atraf and the ashraf sections of the Bengali Muslim population, a division that goes back to the early nineteenth century as historian Richard Eaton has written about – the former, the agragrian, rural population, and the latter, the urban, middle class and notably, for a time, Urdu-speaking section of the community. It would make sense, right? The hot thin broths, wholesome and hearty, eking out precious harvested supplies for as long as possible; the Persian inspired foods created for a wealthier population always looking to aspire to the cultural heritage of Persia and Afghanistan. (Still ongoing – both my sister’s and my name are Persian in origin). Now, both cuisines are eaten by most sections of the population – though with obvious regional differences. But rezala reminds me a lot of Persian food, and I wonder if it was eaten by the ashraf as they read their ghazals and dreamt of (and up) their Iranian and Peshwari ancestors.
Speaking ethically across borders
I came across this wonderful image in an interesting blogpost by Jonathan Mair:
A conversation between Western Christendom and the Mongol Empire: Pope Innocent IV sends a mission to Central Asia, carrying one of a series of letters that were exchanged between the pontiffs and the Mongol khans in the thirteenth century. (Source: Wikipedia)
Other reading
Erika Sanchez on Latino Muslims and Natasha Tynes on Jerusalem: A Cookbook. Richard Bulliet on “Islamo-Christian” civilization [pdf].
Plan von Timbuktu
‘Plan von Timbuktu’, published in Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen (1855)
Rene Caillie was given 10,000 francs in 1828 for being the ‘first’ non-Muslim/Westerner to enter the city, disguising himself as a Muslim to do this safely (the guy before him was killed..)
The Jefferson Qur’an
…American interest in Islam and the Qur’an did not begin with Thomas Jefferson’s serendipitous purchase of a Qur’an while a student, but dates as far back as the nation’s Puritan forefathers. The firebrand preacher Cotton Mather is said to have devoured books written about the Ottoman Empire and referenced the Qur’an on numerous occasions. Benjamin Franklin, parodying a North African pirate addressing a colonial audience in the 17th century asked his audience, “Is it worse to follow Mahomet than the Devil?”i, a question it seems he did not receive an answer to from amongst his many readers. Even John Adams knew enough of Islam to discuss it.ii In fact, Adam, like many early Americans, from German immigrants to Pennsylvania to our founding fathers, owned copies of the Qur’an.iii Although it may surprise many contemporary Americans that the Puritans read outside the gospel and Franklin and Adams were well-versed in the diversity of the world’s faiths, these were men who had a profound and insatiable intellectual curiosity and political genius in that they understood, collectively, that this knowledge was essential to the success of the early colonies as well as to the establishment of a sovereign and sustainable nation state. Unsurprisingly, given his reputation as a voracious reader and humanist, Jefferson was perhaps the most attuned to this necessity of learning about world religions and the social systems and governments that they created. Indeed, it is really through Jefferson, more than any other early American statesman, that we understand the early importance and impact of Islam upon the new republic….
The Columbian Exchange and the Indian Ocean
The Waldseemüller map (1507 CE) – the first map to show the America’s. From an interesting post at Varnam, on how the “discovery” of the America’s was to change the relationship between Europe and Asia.
[…] Few years after Columbus failed in his mission to find the Indies, Vasco da Gama reached the Malabar coast. To impress the Zamorin, he took out the gifts he had bought and the people from the court who had come to examine them burst into laughter. These trinkets, they explained, were not the gifts suitable for a rich king. Even the poor merchants from Mecca or India gave better gifts. Did the Captain-Major have any gold, they asked. According to the accounts, Gama’s face fell.
This episode symbolizes the trade equation between the East and West during the 15th century. Asia produced spices, silk, porcelain and tea which the Europeans badly wanted, but there was nothing Europe produced that the Asians needed. Asia needed gold and silver and Europe did not have sufficient quantity of it. […]
Wonderful “focal point” on port cities in Eurozine at the moment. Here are some highlights:
NORTH AFRICA From Ottoman rule through the colonial period, Algiers’ function as military and economic power has been interwoven with processes of migration. Saïb Musette surveys this “histoire croisée” and asks where Algeria’s international metropolis is heading in the future. [ more ]
MARSEILLE Lacking any unified vision of itself, Marseille proves the possibility of a good society based on simple co-presence rather than intimate co-existence. As such, it offers an alternative approach to the diversity of Europe as a whole, argues Joëlle Zask. [ more ]
Franco Bianchini, Jude Bloomfield: Porous cities
HARBOUR CULTURE Walter Benjamin’s description of Naples as a “porous city” absorbent of heterogeneity applies equally to other harbour cities, write Jude Bloomfield and Franco Bianchini. On cultural hybridity, economies of informality and strategies of creativity in four European ports. [ more ]
Zellij 