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Published 2015
The oldest qaؓā’if, typically fried and then rolled around a filling of nuts, appear in a tenth-century cookbook from the court of the Abbasid caliphs. A sweet called khushkanānaj min qaؓā’if maqlī (a cookie made from stuffed crepes) was made by frying a crepe just long enough to stiffen one side, with the upper side remaining tacky, so that it could be folded around a nut filling, sealed shut, and deep-fried. This sweet may have been a recent invention, because in North Africa it was called “Abbasid qaؓā’if.” It is still made in Arab countries; the Turks call it dolma kadayif.