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A Feast of Books from Across the NGL

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At this time of year, people across the UK are getting ready to enjoy a range of festive treats, so we at the NGL thought, what better occasion to also celebrate the cuisine belonging to the areas of the world covered in our collections. Within this delectable selection is included not only a range of cookbooks – from The Korean Kitchen to three medieval Arabic cookbooks, translated by Nawal Nasrallah (whose other fascinating, food-related books can be found on SOLO) – but also books that explore the cultural significance of food to various cultures.

The book display for this blog post. Books are laid out on a blue table. Behind is a blue noticeboard with images of food and drink.

For example, in Earthly Delights: Economies and Cultures of Food in Ottoman and Danubian Europe, the authors provide essays on a range of topics, from hospitality to the spice trade, while the book Korean Court Banquet discusses all the requirements for a Chŏson imperial feast, including not only dishes but also outfits and musical accompaniments.

The book cover for 'Earthly Delights'. The background is mostly red with a thick dark blue stripe on the left. At the bottom of the image is a depiction of the Last Supper.
The book cover for 'Korean Court Banquet'. The title is in a white rectangle in the centre of the image. Behind it are miniature illustrations of Korean court officials in red, blue and white outfits on a beige background.

If you are interested in the religious significance of food in particular, you can look to Korean Temples & Food, which includes some details of the diets of Korean Buddhist monks and nuns, both historically and in the present day. There are also recipes so that you can try recreating some of these dishes at home, and this book explains how they contain ‘foodstuffs carefully chosen to help the eater reduce the “Three Poisons” of greed, ignorance, and hatred’. This means that they are, among other things, free from animal products as well as garlic, chives, leeks, onions and asafoetida, as it is believed that these vegetables disrupt the mind.

A dark brown wooden table photographed from above, laid with dishes of dishes of Korean temple food, including multiple dishes of fried green vegetables, a dish of cabbage rolls, a dish of potatoes, and a dish of vermicelli noodles. The dishes are arranged three concentric circles from the centre of the image.
Examples of Korean temple food.

Similarly, food and drink to be avoided (most notably alcohol) are a key theme in the fifth sura of the Qu’ran, which is the subject of The Banquet by Michael Cuypers. This is, however, not this sura’s only subject (other topics covered notably include instructions for washing and prohibitions on murder) and, part of Cuypers aim in his book is to find an interpretive framework that demonstrates the harmony between the different subjects addressed, as well as between this sura and the rest of the Qu’ran.

The book cover of 'The Banquet'. The book's details are in an ornate font on a gold background.
An image of the beginning of the fifth sura of the Qu'ran in Arabic.

The Memorial Feast for Kökötöy-khan, an excerpt from the Epic of Manas,provides a literary example of the significance of food – specifically to the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia. Food items are named repeatedly throughout the text, conveying layers of associated meaning, from abundance to poverty to hospitality. Key among them is kumis or airag, an ancient fermented beverage, traditionally made from mare’s milk, which is still made and consumed by peoples across the region today.

A small glass filled with kumis with the bottle it came from behind. They are both standing on a white tablecloth.
A glass of kumis being held by a hand. In the background can be seen a blue vat and the lower half of a sitting man also holding a glass of kumis.

Finally, to finish with something sweet, also included in the display is Taleen Voskuni’s culinary love story Lavash at First Sight in which two Armenian-American women bond over Armenian cuisine. You might remember this tale of belonging, identity, and finding oneself, from the Queer Armenian Library display earlier this year. The blog post accompanying that display can still be found here, and the books can also still be found on our shelves.

The book cover for 'Lavash at First Sight'. The book's details are in red and purple text on a bright green background. Underneat is an illustration of two women touching hands over a table of food.

It’s not possible to talk about all the books in the display here, nor indeed, all the many fantastic books about food around the world contained in the Bodleian Libraries, but we hope that you’ve enjoyed this look at the NGL’s culinary collections, and maybe even found some inspiration. If you’d like to share any gastronomical discoveries from these books, we’d love to see photos and comments – but, unfortunately, food and drink still aren’t allowed in the NGL, so you’ll just have to eat them all yourself at home while we’re very jealous!

Bibliography

Barbu, V. and Jianu, A. (eds.), Earthly Delights: Economies and Cultures of Food in Ottoman and Danubian Europe, c. 1500-1900, Leiden, Brill, 2018.

Chung, T. and Samuels D., The Korean Table: From Barbecue to Bibimbap: 100 Easy-to-Prepare Recipes, North Clarendon VT., Tuttle Pub., 2008.

Cooperson, M., Perry, C., and Toorawa, S. M. (eds.), Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook, New York, New York University Press, 2017.

Cuypers, M., The Banquet: A Reading of the Fifth Sura of the Qurʼan, Miami, Convivium, 2009.

Dmitriev, K., Hauser, J., and Urfahʹlī, B. (eds.), Insatiable Appetite: Food as Cultural Signifier in the Middle East and Beyond, Leiden, Brill, 2020.

Elias, L. S., Salloum, H, and Salloum, M., Scheherazade’s Feasts: Foods of the Medieval Arab World, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

Gelder, G. J. H. V., Of Dishes and Discourse: Classical Arabic Literary Representations of Food, Richmond, Curzon, 2000.

Han, K., Pak, K., and Yŏnse, T., An Analysis of Food Consumption in the Republic of Korea, 1964-67: With Projected Trends, 1968-71, Seoul, Yonsei University, 1969.

Han’guk Kukche Kyoryu Chaedan, Traditional Food: A Taste of Korean Life, Seoul, Seoul Selection, 2010.

Hansik Chaedan, The Korean Kitchen: 75 Healthy, Delicious and Easy Recipes, Hollym International Corp., Elizabeth NJ, 2014.

Hatto, A. T., The Memorial Feast for Kökötöy-khan (Kökötöydün ašı): A Kirghiz Epic Poem, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1977.

Jegal, Y. S., and Lee, H. J., Let’s Try Korean Cooking: The Simple and Easy Way, Seoul, Hanchic, 2010.

Kim, Chong-su, Korean Court Banquet, Kyŏnggi-do P’aju-si, Kŭl Hangari, 2013.

Kim, S., Kimchi: Traditional Korean Food, Seoul, Ehwa Womans University Press, 2010.

Lee, J., Korean Temples & Food, Seoul, YeinArt Co., 2002.

Nasrallah, N., Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-century Egyptian Cookbook, Leiden, Brill, 2018.

Nasrallah, N., Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib, Leiden, Brill, 2021.

Nasrallah, N., Smorgasbords of Andalusi and Maghribi Dishes and Their Salutary Benefits: English Translation of the Thirteenth-century Cookbook Anwa’ al-saydala fi alwan al-atima With Introduction and Glossary, Leiden, Brill, 2025.

Prakash, O., Food and Drinks in Ancient India, From Earliest Times to c. 1200 A.D., Delhi, Munshi Ram Manohar Lal, 1961.

Voskuni, T. Lavash at First Sight, London, Pan Books, 2024.

Black History Month 2025 @ the Nizami Ganjavi Library: Book Recommendation for Born Palestinian Born Black

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This Black History Month, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the book Born Palestinian Born Black – a powerful poetry volume from Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad in the NGL’s collection.

Book cover for Born Palestinian Born Black.

Hammad’s poetry is deeply inspired by and speaks up for the Black Brooklyn communities within which she grew up. For example, as Kenza Oumlil states in his essay “Talking Back”: The poetry of Suheir Hammad, Hammad ‘[inscribes] Brooklyn and hip-hop language on the page in an effort to revalue its aesthetic merit as a form of orality’.[1]

Hammad also writes in the introductions to Born Palestinian Born Black explicitly of the inspiration she owes to African American poet and activist June Jordan – how, ‘The last stanza in June Jordan’s “Moving Toward Home” changed her life’[2]. One of her descriptions of her own writing process is also as ‘a new embroidery, stitched in june jordan’s dark’[3]. As Sirène Harb argues in her essay, Naming Oppressions, Representing Empowerment: June Jordan’s and Suheir Hammad’s Poetic Projects, ‘these resonances and echoes [between the two poets] originate from a shared commitment to coalition-building, solidarity, and the fight against various oppressions and injustices, which reflects the spirit and analytical project of women of color feminism.’[4]

Black and white portrait photograph of June Jordan

This focus on coalition-building is apparent through Hammad’s poetry in different ways – including not only the communities she writes about, but also community-building between speaker and audience. And nowhere in the collection is this made more explicit than in we spent the fourth of July in bed, as Hammad declares ‘my sincere love         for real / is for my peeps         my family        humanity’.[5]

It is also in this poem that Hammad rhetorically weaves together a community of victims of US violence, in Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines, Puerto Rica, Yemen, Japan, and Palestine. This is a device that she uses throughout the book, as again and again, she connects sites of injustice. She also finds kinship in marginalisation with her African American neighbours, as in open poem to those who rather we not read… or breathe, she constructs a ‘we’ that connects ‘taino and arawak bodies’, ‘children of children exiled from homelands’, ‘descendents of immigrants’, and ‘survivors of the middle passage’ – all linked in opposition to fascism and imperialism.[6]However, Hammad does not draw one-to-one comparisons between African American and Palestinian experiences, instead presenting each side-by side, connecting them often to illustrate how the trials faced in both are the product of many of the same structural forces.

She also makes clear that these kinships are not only born of suffering. For example, manifest destiny details how Hammad and three of her friends defied the expectations of society and family to forge their own paths and find one another, ‘creating a family’.[7]

A frustrated attempt to establish this sort of connection is furthermore present in fly away. This poem tells of a ‘young brother man’ who decides to escape ‘bein high / and forced / into the back of a police car’ by joining the US Air Force, as Hammad confronts him with the ways that that organisation has inflicted trauma on ‘saigon beirut   greneda’ and asking ‘what if you have to kill people’. He in turn argues that ‘he’s gotta support his moms / give up donations / for the next funeral’ and that he cannot consider these issues ‘cause he’s dealin with / a different kinda fear’. In doing so, she makes a powerful argument about how oppressive systems force the marginalised into competition with one another and for the importance of ‘revolution and peace’ and solidarity as a corrective.[8]

Indeed, I hope that this message of solidarity, enhanced rather than diminished by the acknowledgment of intense suffering worldwide, and this homage to African American communities is one that we can all take from Suheir Hammad’s work this October. I could never do full justice to all of the textures of this poetry collection, so, if anything at all that I have said here has interested you, I can only recommend that you have a look for yourself.

Suheir Hammad reading at PalFest 2010

Bibliography

K. Andrews, K. Crenshaw, and A. Wilson, Blackness at the Intersection, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.

S. Hammad, Born Palestinian Born Black, Brooklyn NY, UpSet Press Inc., 2010.

S. Harb, ‘Naming Oppressions, Representing Empowerment: June Jordan’s and Suheir Hammad’s Poetic Projects’, Feminist Formations, vol. 26, no. 3, 2014, pp.71-99.

J. Jordan, Moving Towards Home: Political Essays, London, Virago, 1989.

J. Jordan, Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan, Port Townsend, 2007.

D. Moore, ‘“Breaking language”: Performance and community in Suheir Hammad’s poetry’. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 56, no. 1, 2020, pp.110-125.

K. Oumlil, ‘“Talking Back”: The poetry of Suheir Hammad’, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 13, no. 5, pp.850-859.

[1] K. Oumlil, ‘“Talking Back”: The poetry of Suheir Hammad’, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 13, no. 5, p.855

[2] S. Hammad, Born Palestinian Born Black, Brooklyn NY, UpSet Press Inc., 2010, p.12: The stanza itself is also quoted on that page:

 I was born a Black woman

and now

I am become a Palestinian

against the relentless laughter of evil

there is less and less living room

and where are my loved ones?

It is time to make our way home

[3] Ibid., p. 9

[4] S. Harb, ‘Naming Oppressions, Representing Empowerment: June Jordan’s and Suheir Hammad’s Poetic Projects’, Feminist Formations, vol. 26, no. 3, 2014, pp.72.

[5] S. Hammad, idem., p.72

[6] Ibid., p.73-75

[7] Ibid., p.72

[8] Ibid., 46-47

Welcome to the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies!

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We at the NGL wanted to wish a warm welcome to everyone joining us here for the first time and also to enthusiastically welcome back our returning readers! And what better way to do that than a little introduction to the members of the Faculty for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies through their writing. We hope that this gives you some fun and interesting places to start if you are just getting to know the library, and also that, even if you have been a reader here for years you can still find some hidden gems in this collection.

Image of the book display accompanying this blog post in the issue desk area of the Nizami Ganjavi Library.

The books on the display range from language-learning essentials (like Media Persian by Dominic Brookshaw) and reading list texts (like Key Terms of the Qur’an by Nicolai Sinai) to explorations of topics from angles you might not expect. They also cover the full range of geographic areas and time periods represented by the NGL’s collections, including Korea (Jeju Language and Tales from the Edge of the Korean Peninsula by Jieun Kiaer), Iran (Early Islamic Iran edited by Edmund Herzig), Turkey (Uncoupling Language and Religion: An Exploration into the Margins of Turkish Literature by Laurent Mignon), India (Negotiating Mughal Law by Nandini Chatterjee), and more!

Indeed, one of the aspects of researching for this display and blog post that I have enjoyed the most has been seeing the repeated emphasis on connections between places, people, and texts. For example, in The History of English Loanwords in Korean, Jieun Kiaer not only examines the changing channels by which English has influenced Korean or the different ways English words become integrated, but also situates those shifts in a wider east Asian context, incorporating Japan and China, and, furthermore, illustrates how these influences are not one way. Similarly, Mohamed-Salah Omri uses the works of Tunisian author, Maḥmūd al-Mas’adī to demonstrate the complex nature of literary influence between European and Arab cultures in Nationalism, Islam and World Literature, and Imre Bangha, in Hungry Tiger discusses the profound but little-explored impact of Rabindranath Tagore’s work and travels on the Hungarian intelligentsia of the early to mid-20th century.

I think that the books featured in the display really highlight one of this faculty and this library’s greatest strengths which is the bringing together of a range of research interests to produce and discover insightful interdisciplinary ideas. I am continually impressed by both how wide-ranging the collections are here, but also how well-connected to one another. I really encourage you to explore as there wasn’t room in the display or this blog post to feature all of the faculty’s great contributions – for example, some of the books not featured are in the bibliography below – and of course there’s even more to discover beyond these works. And that’s to say nothing of the millions of books available to order from off-site storage via SOLO! I hope you enjoy your time at the AMES Faculty and NGL as much as I have and we at the NGL look forward to you visiting us in future!

Bibliography

A. Abdou, Arabic Idioms: A Corpus-Based Study, London, Routledge, 2012.

I. Bangha, Hungry Tiger: Encounters Between Hungarian and Bengali Literary Cultures, New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 2008.

U. Bläsing, J. Dum-Tragut, and T. M. van Lint, Armenian, Hittite, and Indo-European Studies: A Commemoration Volume for Jos J.S. Weitenberg, Leuven, Peeters, 2019.

D. Brookshaw, Media Persian, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2011.

E. Cakir, Turkish Tutor: Grammar and Vocabulary workbook. Advanced beginner to upper intermediate

N. Chatterjee, Negotiating Mughal Law: A Family of Landlords Across Three Indian Empires Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022.

J. F. Coakley and D. Taylor, Syriac books printed at the Dominican Press, Mosul : with an appendix containing the Syriac books printed at the Chaldean Press, Mosul, Piscataway N.J., Gorgias Press, 2009.

K. Crosby, Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity and Identity, Chichester, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2014.

E. Herzig, Early Islamic Iran, London, I.B. Taurus, 2012.

R. Ismail, Rethinking Salafism: The Transnational Networks of Salafi ʻUlama in Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, New York, Oxford University Press, 2021.

L. Jabb, Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: The Inescapable Nation, Lanham, Maryland, Lexington Books, 2015.

J. Kiaer, The History of English Loanwords in Korean, Muenchen, Lincom, 2014.

J. Kiaer, Jeju Language and Tales from the Edge of the Korean Peninsula, Muenchen, Lincom, 2014.

J. Kiaer, The old Korean poetry : grammatical analysis and translation, Muenchen, Lincom, 2014.

J. B. Lewis, Frontier Contact Between Choson Korea and Tokugawa Japan, London, Routledge, 2011

J. J. Lowe, Modern Linguistics in Ancient India, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2024.

L. Mignon, Uncoupling Language and Religion: An Exploration into the Margins of Turkish Literature, Boston, Academic Studies Press, 2021.

A. Mokashi, Sapiens and Sthitaprajña : a comparative study in Seneca’s stoicism and the Bhagavadgīta, New Delhi, DK Printworld, 2019.

F. Morrissey, Sufism and the Scriptures: Metaphysics and Sacred History in the Thought of ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī, London, I.B. Taurus, 2021.

M. S. Omri, Nationalism, Islam and world literature : sites of confluence in the writings of Maḥmūd al-Masʿadī, London, Routledge, 2006.

T. Qutbuddin, al-Muʼayyad al-Shīrāzī and Fatimid daʿwa Poetry: A Case of Commitment in Classical Arabic Literature, Leiden, Brill, 2005.

T. Qutbuddin, Arabic Oration: Art and Function, Leiden, Brill, 2019.

E. L. Rogan, Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

C. Sahner, Christian Martyrs Under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Islamic World, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2018.

N. Sinai, The Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Introduction, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

N. Sinai, Key Terms of the Qur’an: A Critical Dictionary, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2023.

M. Stausberg and Y. Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to Zoroastrianism, Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month at the NGL

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Last month was the UK’s LGBTQ+ History Month, and to celebrate this occasion, we at the Nizami Ganjavi Library created a display to showcase some of the Bodleian Libraries’ LGBTQ+ related materials, from across the Middle East. I hope that seeing this side of the collections was as enlightening for you as it was for me, and thank you for all those who expressed a positive interesWith the NGL’s blog newly up-and-running, I thought I would it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to provide a bit more information!

A collection of books on a table. Some are proppeA collection of Bodleian Libraries' books on LGBTQ+ themes. Behind the books is a board with images from 'There Are No Homosexuals in Iran' on the left and the movie poster for 'Alexandria Again and Forever' on the right. In the centre is a sign with text in the colours of the Progress Pride flag that reads LGBTQ+ History Month at the NGL Behind the Lens.
Last month’s display by the NGL issue desk.

Front cover for the book Islamicate Sexualities

The display included works from and about a wide range of countries are included – Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, and Armenia – representing a diverse range of perspectives on LGBTQ+ experiences. This was very necessary, because often conversations on LGBTQ+ issues are dominated by Western frameworks – some of which may be inappropriate to the cultures discussed. This is a difficulty that the volume Islamicate Sexualities tackles head-on, questioning how well Western queer identities can apply to subjects of study that are distant not only geographically, but also temporally. The volume’s contributors carefully excavate from documentary evidence how various historic Islamic writers represented normative sexuality as it existed in their time and region, making for a fantastic and subtle analysis. I highly recommend this title!

Front cover for the book Unspeakable Love

Similarly, Brian Whitaker, in representing the LGBTQ+ experience leading to the modern day, carefully writes to avoid simple orientalist narratives about a repressive Middle East and a tolerant West. At the same time, he acknowledges the many obstacles faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in the countries he discusses.

This reality can also be seen in how many of the queer authors included here write from outside of their country of origin, or in European languages, such as Abdellah Taïa who writes in French, and Khaled Alesmael who writes in German. This interplay is present in Siba Al-Harez’s novel The Others, in which the protagonist discovers same-sex attraction for the first time. Al-Harez writes about the difficulty of finding information about sexuality on the internet under Saudi censorship, and the different language that the unnamed main character encounters on domestic sites compared to foreign ones – language of sin versus language of identity – and how she finds both equally confusing.

Front cover for the book Selamlik by Khaled AlesmaelFront cover for the book Another Morocco by Abdellah TaïaFront cover for the book The Others by Siba Al-Harez

Image from There Are No Homosexuals in Iran depictingtwo fat women cover each other's faces in a well-lit white room. Both wear white t-shirts. One wears orange trousers and the other black trousers. One has blonde hair and the other has dark hair.
Image from ‘There Are No Homosexuals in Iran’ by Laurence Rasti

Yet another perspective can be seen in Swiss-Iranian photographer Laurence Rasti’s There Are No Homosexuals in Iran. This title is a reference to a comment made by then Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2007. In this beautiful series of photographs, Rasti shows a variety of queer Iranians defiantly and quietly living their daily lives, interspersed with images of Tehran and domestic scenes. Another reason why I chose to include Rasti’s work is because this year, the theme for LGBTQ+ History Month is ‘Behind the Lens’. This theme drew me to written works by queer Middle Eastern filmmakers like Khaled Alesmael, Saleem Haddad, and Abdellah Taïa, but also Hovhannes Tekgyozyan’s ‘movie novella’. This book both evokes the subject of filmmaking in the form of the protagonist, Gagik’s projects, and in its structure and style. To me, this novel is not only queer in having openly gay characters, but also in the way that Tekgyozyan’s use of ‘cuts’ and ‘scenes’ to play with time in this work, conjures the concept of ‘queer time’.

Movie poster for Alexandria Again and Forever with text in both French and English. In the foreground is the actor Amr Abdulgalil in a light suit and shirt, making a swooning gesture.
Movie poster for ‘Alexandria Again and Forever’.

I have also included in this display information about Youssef Chahine and his autobiographical Alexandria quadrilogy. While Chahine was never openly queer, the films in this series are notable for their nuanced depictions of masculine same-sex desire. Whether or not these representations illustrate anything about the creator’s own identity, the theme of ‘openness to the other’ runs through many of Chahine’s films, and his willingness to show queer perspectives fits this trend. In any case, these films are an indispensable part of understanding queer Egyptian cinema. I particularly recommend Alexandria Again and Forever – a genre-bending dramedy that examines themes of obsession, history, and auteur theory, but is also a fun experience.

It has been rewarding for me to look at LGBTQ+ history through a different ‘lens’ at the NGL, and I hope that you find something interesting or enlightening for you in these materials too. But this is nowhere near everything that the Bodleian has to offer on LGBTQ+ themes in the Middle East. For example, the book Queer Turkey: Transnational Poetics of Desire is also available online via SOLO. I can only encourage you to explore further!