The Suhoor of the Muslim Caliphs... Who was the first Caliph to place "Kunafa" on his table?!

Kunafa and Qatayef top the list of Ramadan desserts, and they have an important place in Arab cuisine, so what is their story and who was the first to make it?!

Kunafa began as food for the Caliphs, and the first person to make Kunafa specifically for him was Caliph Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan in his state of the Levant as food for Suhoor.

Gradually, knafeh took its place among the types of sweets invented by the Fatimids in Egypt, and later became one of the customs associated with food in the month of Ramadan in the Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman eras until the present time.

Traditionally, knafeh is considered a Fatimid food, but its beginning was in the Umayyad era, when it is mentioned that the Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah bin Sufyan loved to eat it during suhoor, and it became the food of the rich and the poor, and the Umayyad poets sang it in their poems.

There are three types of konafa, the first is called “hair” for fine strands of konafa just like hair, which is the most popular among housewives, and the second is “manual” and relies on the traditional method through the bowl with holes, and it is called “baladi konafa”, and the third type in which the machine is used It is called a "knafeh machine".

What indicates the great impact that the kunafa had on the Egyptian society is that the Sheikh of Islam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti collected what was said about kunafa in a letter he called “Manhal al-Latif in Kunafa and Qatayef”.

As for the Qatayef, there is no historical origin for the beginning of its appearance, and it is also said that it was from the days of the Fatimids, as is the case with the Kunafa.

It is said that "Ibn Al-Roumi" was known for his love of kunafa and Qatayef, and he sang them in his poetry, and after that it became one of the customs associated with food in the month of Ramadan in the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras, and it became a popular and valuable place in history and heritage.

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