A Medieval Nabatean Chicken Dish, Nibatiyyat Dajaaj

Appears in
Delights from the Garden of Eden
Delights from the Garden of Eden

By Nawal Nasrallah

Published 2019

  • About

The Nabateans (Anbat) were the indigenous inhabitants of Iraq, a mix of Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Arameans, collectively called Nabat al-‘Iraq (not related to the ancient Nabateans from the area around Petra, collectively called Nabat al-Sham). It was through them that the essence of the Mesopotamian culture continued. Their native language was the eastern Aramaic dialect from which Syriac evolved.

After the fall of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Mesopotamian region was ruled by Persian Achamenides, Greeks, Parthians, and Sassanians, up until 636 ad, when the Muslim Arabs defeated the Persians and seized control of the region. The majority of the Nabateans worked as farmers in rural areas. The middle class played an important role in spreading the intellectual and scientific knowledge that spurred the Abbasid cultural boom. Harran, Kufa, and Wasit were centers for their intellectual activities. Medieval accounts of the Nabateans were shrouded with notions of paganism and witchcraft, even though most of them had converted to Christianity a long time before.