VVolumeolume 9 - NumberNumber 5 OOctoberctober – NovemberNovember 22013013 ££44 | €€55 | UUS$6.5S$6.5 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: CCULINARYULINARY CCONNECTIONSONNECTIONS ● KKebabebab andand mezzemezze gglobalisedlobalised ● AAnn iinterviewnterview withwith ClaudiaClaudia RodenRoden ● CCoffeeoffee thenthen aandnd nownow ● WWater:ater: A ddrinkrink fforor eepicurespicures ● BBeekeepingeekeeping inin BritainBritain andand ArabiaArabia ● FFoodood iinn PPersianersian poetrypoetry ● SSultansultans ooff RRomeome ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LondonLondon VVolumeolume 9 - NumberNumber 5 OOctoberctober – NovemberNovember 22013013 ££44 | €€55 | UUS$6.5S$6.5 TTHISHIS IISSUESSUE: CCULINARYULINARY CCONNECTIONSONNECTIONS ● KKebabebab aandnd mmezzeezze gglobalisedlobalised ● AAnn iinterviewnterview wwithith CClaudialaudia RRodenoden ● CCoffeeoffee tthenhen aandnd nnowow ● WWater:ater: A ddrinkrink fforor eepicurespicures ● BBeekeepingeekeeping iinn BBritainritain aandnd AArabiarabia ● FFoodood iinn PPersianersian ppoetryoetry ● SSultansultans ooff RRomeome ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews aandnd eeventsvents inin LondonLondon A market stall in Kadikoy, Istanbul © Sarah Johnson About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) Volume 9 - Number 5 Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide October – November 2013 teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Editorial Board individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic Professor Nadje Al-Ali SOAS membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Ms Narguess Farzad has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle SOAS East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Mr Roger Hardy it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its King's College, London programme of activities. Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Mr Najm Jarrah Dr George Joff é Mission Statement: Cambridge University Mr Max Scott Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Gilgamesh Publishing East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Ms Sarah Searight British Foundation for the Study those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in of Arabia London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Dr Kathryn Spellman Poots AKU and LMEI Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart SOAS and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Mrs Ionis Th ompson Saudi-British Society and BFSA Dr Shelagh Weir SOAS LMEI Staff: Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College Director Dr Hassan Hakimian Co-ordinating Editor Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking Sarah Johnson Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci Administrative Assistant Valentina Zanardi Listings Vincenzo Paci Designer Disclaimer: Letters to the Editor: Shahla Geramipour Th e Middle East in London is published Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Please send your letters to the editor at fi ve times a year by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal the LMEI address provided (see left panel) views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their or email [email protected] Publisher and organisations nor those of the LMEI or the Editorial Editorial Offi ce Board. Although all advertising in the magazine is Th e London Middle East Institute carefully vetted prior to publication, the LMEI does SOAS University of London not accept responsibility for the accuracy of claims Th ornaugh Street, Russell Square made by advertisers. London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7898 4490 SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: F: +44 (0)20 7898 4329 E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ ISSN 1743-7598 Contents 4 19 EDITORIAL REVIEWS BOOKS LMEI Board of Trustees 5 Living to Some Purpose: Professor Paul Webley (Chair) Director, SOAS INSIGHT Memoirs of a Secularist Iraqi Professor Richard Black, SOAS Kebab and mezze globalised and Arab Statesman Dr John Curtis Roger Hardy British Museum Sami Zubaida H E Sir Vincent Fean KCVO Consul General to Jerusalem 7 20 Professor Ben Fortna, SOAS CULINARY CONNECTIONS Th e People Want: A Radical Mr Alan Jenkins Th e culture of food: An Exploration of the Arab Dr Karima Laachir, SOAS interview with Claudia Roden Uprisings Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Dr Barbara Zollner Roger Hardy Laleh Khalili Birkbeck College 9 21 LMEI Advisory Council ‘It quickens the spirits and BOOKS IN BRIEF Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) makes the heart lightsome’: Th e Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Near and Middle East Department, SOAS coff ee bean then and now 23 Mr Stephen Ball Sarah Searight and Alec Gordon RESTAURANT KPMG Moroccan Fish Stall – Golborne H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait 11 Road Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani Nadje Al-Ali Arab International Women’s Forum Water: A drink for epicures Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Mary Isin President, University College of Bahrain 24 Professor Tony Allan King’s College and SOAS 13 OBITUARY Dr Alanoud Alsharekh Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS Beekeeping in Britain and Sheila Whitaker (1936-2013) Mr Farad Azima Arabia Dina Matar Iran Heritage Foundation Julian Lush Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. 25 Mr Charles L. O. Buderi 15 Th e role of food in Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP Ms Zeynep Dereli A loaf of bread, a jug of wine Zoroastrianism APCO Worldwide and rhyme: Images of food in Sarah Stewart Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna British Egyptian Society Persian poetry HE Mr Mazen Kemal Homoud Ambassador, Embassy of the Hashemite Narguess Farzad 26 Kingdom of Jordan EVENTS IN LONDON Mr Zaki Nusseibeh 17 Sultans of Rome Founding Patron and Nevsal Hughes Member of the Advisory Council Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber MBI Al Jaber Foundation October-November 2013 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © M. Messkoub DDearear RReadereader Fresh and dried Iranian pistachios Sarah Searight, Nevsal Hughes MEL Editorial Board here is no doubt Britain has gone Zubaida describes the range of foods to our homes via television screens. Th e 21st through a food revolution in the from the region which are now so much century is bringing us even more in contact Tlast decades. Long gone are the more available in London’s shops and with diff erent foods and cooking styles, days when you could only buy olive oil in restaurants, the result of the huge growth with London nurturing more and more a chemist’s shop, marked ‘for external use in residents from the Middle East. Roger ethnic restaurants and food stalls. In this only’. Today not only can you fi nd all kinds Hardy’s interview with Claudia Roden issue, Nadje al-Ali once again introduces of olive oil on any supermarket shelf but shows the infl uence of one individual on the reader to an alternative to cooking one’s also a variety of vegetables and fruit once the palate and diet certainly of Londoners own regional meal, and Narguess Farzad described as exotic by the British. Television with easy access to the crucial ingredients. provides us with the poetic dimension so and food journalism have also brought Alec Gordon and Sarah Searight describe vital to distinctive Persian cuisine. Other more recipes than one can even read, let how coff ee reached Britain (and its status articles include Nevsal Hughes’ discussion alone reproduce. today), via Constantinople. By the end with Warwick Ball of his latest book, Sultans For us two editors of this issue of Middle of the sixteenth century, many European of Rome, which describes the spread of East in London, the idea of Culinary merchants were determined to have access Turks across Asia and into Europe; and Connections epitomises the more pleasant to the precious drink back home. And it is Sarah Stewart introduces us to some of aspects of the relationship between Britain they who are quoted by Mary Isin in her the highlights of the current Zoroastrian and the Middle East, highlighted in many fascinating description of the signifi cance exhibition. of the articles here. Another member of water, much of it distributed via the of the editorial board came up with the magnifi cent fountains that are still a feature idea listening to Julian Lush describe his of modern Istanbul. beekeeping forays into the region, the Th e world shrank in the 20th century subject of his article on beekeeping in with so many people able to go to foreign Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Sami lands and their eating habits were brought 4 The Middle East in London October-November 2013 IINSIGHTNSIGHT Sami Zubaida takes a look at the wide range of Middle Eastern cuisine now available outside the region KKebabebab aandnd mmezzeezze gglobalisedlobalised © Alexander Hannon Kebabs go beyond the vertical skewers of Turkish doner and Lebanese shwarma, the best and original form being layers of meat and fat and not an industrial meatloaf recent survey revealed that 41% of of rotating meat loaves made in factories. emporia of every sort of Middle Eastern British households have hummus European supermarkets now off er packets food: vegetables, olives and pickles, meat Ain their fridge (Guardian Shortcuts of kebab, slices of pork or turkey ready for counters, cheeses, bakeries off ering fl at Blog, 7 August 2013).