Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi


Muḥammad bin al-Ḥasan bin Muḥammad bin al-Karīm al-Baghdadi, usually called al-Baghdadi, was the compiler of an early Arabic cookbook of the Abbasid period, كتاب الطبيخ Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ, written in 1226.The original book contained 160 recipes, and 260 recipes were later added.

Manuscripts and Turkish translations

The only original manuscript of Al-Baghdadi's book survives at Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul, Turkey, and according to Charles Perry, "for centuries, it had been the favorite cook-book of the Turks". Further recipes had been added to the original by Turkish compilers at an unknown date and retitled as Kitâbü’l-Vasfi’l-Et‘ime el-Mu‘tâde, with two of its known three copies found at the Topkapı Palace Library. Eventually, Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Shirwani, the physician of Murad II, prepared a Turkish translation of the book adding around 70 contemporary recipes. This translation was published in modern Turkish in 2005, whereas a modern Turkish translation of the original book was published in 2009.