Hummus and the Arabs

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Sep 6, 2008 at 07:36

Our dear Ahmed wrote

>It's not like Hummus was on the menu in Warsaw.

Wrong example. Hummus (garbanzo beans and tahina) as well as falafel (ta3miyya in Egypt) and fava beans (eg: Fuul) and tahina sauce were not food items that were brought by the Arabs that invaded the Middle East in 633CE. These were the main source of protein for the various cultures in the Middle East in the late antique period. And I suspect that without pulse (boquul in Arabic) and the humble bean (be it garbanzo bean or fava bean) or the sesame seed we would not have had these great civilizations

The Arabs? They adopted these food items and far as we know Muhammad was interested (as per sira) in eating meats, marrows and some horrid soup called tarid which we have no clue what it is.

And it seems that our dear Ahmed is not aware that hummus is consumed in homes in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, Iraq and the Arabia by Muslims, Christians and Jews but you will not find it in a home in let us say al-Maghreb which really means that the Arabs cannot claim it to themselves

In the case of let us say Egypt everyone realizes that the humble bean used in fuul and falafel pre-date the Arab invasion and they are as old as Egypt

Hummus is food that crosses the cultural and religious boundaries of the people of the Middle East

Bagels on the other hand are really Jewish, period. Yes there are close examples to bagles in the Middle East (eg: sammet) but I doubt very much that the source of sammet is the bagel

You need to stick to the foods of Pakilstan our dear Ahmed

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