Shorba

In most Islamic countries, the word for ‘soup’ is shorba. This is not, as one might expect, a word related to ‘sherbet’ or ‘sorbet’. It is a Persian rather than an Arabic word, compounded of shor (salty, brackish) and ba (stew, dish cooked with water).

The word ba is also found (in forms reflecting its pre-9th-century pronunciation bag) in the names of various medieval dishes such as zirabaj (cumin stew) and sikbaj (vinegar stew, the ancestor of escabeche). It is perhaps unsurprising that the dictionaries have assumed that shorba was distinguished by a salt flavouring. But there is a more reasonable meaning than ‘brackish stew’ for a dish that has spread so widely. It is suggested by a recipe in a 10th-century Arabic cookbook which in turn purports to describe a dish prepared for the 6th-century Persian king Chosroes.