For centuries, it had been the favourite Arabic cookery book of the Turks. The original manuscript, formerly held in the library of the Aya Sofya Mosque, is still in Istanbul; it is now MS Ayasofya 3710 in the Suleymaniye Library. At some point a Turkish sultan commissioned very a handsome copy, now MS Oriental 5099 in the British Library in London. At a still later time, a total of about 260 recipes were added to Kitab al Tabikh's original 160 and the expanded edition was retitled Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada (my translation of it also appears in Medieval Arab Cookery); three currently...