Wine Recipes in al-Warraq’s Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook

Drink recipes in al-Warraq’s cookbook are covered in ten chapters, almost half of which deal with making intoxicating drinks using raisins, dates, date syrup, honey, sugar, and sugar taffy. A chapter is dedicated to beer, but it is the non-alcoholic variety called fuqqaa’ (the bubbly drink). Unlike wine, it was usually served before the meal. Fuqqaa’ was described as a cooling, refreshing drink, albeit it caused bloating. It was also used to treat acute thirst caused by hangovers.

This is a specimen of al-Warraq’s wine recipes, a sun-fermented wine called shamsi (from shams ‘sun’):