Ancient cookbooks bridge the distance between past experiences and tastes and the contemporary present, and enrich our knowledge of Arab culture. Do you expect to mention "Qataif" and Syrian and Iraqi dishes you know in an ancient manuscript from the Abbasid era?Muhammad bin Hassan al-Baghdadi (d.

1239 AD) wrote the "Book of Cooking", explaining Abbasid food arts and types in a poetic language, including citrus, "swats", "fryers", "nawashifs", "haras", "tannouriyat" and "board"