Rice is eaten in great quantities in the Caspian region, but elsewhere in Iran bread is the main staple. Rice is considered a luxury by villagers or the urban poor to be eaten only on special occasions or served to guests. There are four major types of cooked rice in Iran: kateh, dami, chelow, and polow. Though various polows were first mentioned in Persian literature by Obeyd-e Zakani in his Mush-o Gorbeh around 1350 (see poem), and although Boshaq Atameh wrote a long poem around 1400 about the battle between saffroned rice and pasta (saffron rice is the eventual winner), the present refined versions were developed in the 1600s in the Safavid courts and in the 1800s by the Qajars.
