The Ni'matnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu: The Sultan's Book of Delights (Routledge Studies in South Asia) 1st Edition

"The Nimatnama Manuscript of the Sultans of Mandu: The Sultan's Book of Delights" provides a rare but very clear and detailed picture of Indo-Islamic courtly cuisine that preceded what is known to us as MUGHLAI CUISINE today.Although Muslim courtly cuisine of the Sultan period is the precursor of Mughlai, the Manuscript deals with Central Asian food of the Turkic rulers. The great fusion/blend of Central Asian, Persian and northern Indian (Hindustani) food that we find in Mughlai today did not yet take place. The only other authoritative source in English translation is Ain-i-Akbari (Akbarnama) which is more refined as a document.I curiously read the recipes and enjoy viewing the 20 or so paintings incorporated into the text of the Manuscript. It is also interesting to read Urdu (an older written version of modern Hindi/Urdu) language in its early stages written in Arabic script. The hand-written Manuscript is a great treasure for humanity.Thanks to translator Norah Ridley, Internet and Amazon.com. I highly recommend the Manuscript to those who are interested in research on Indo-Islamic courtly cuisine.Dr. Solaiman AliTechnical Report Writing InstructorCollege of EngineeringKing Abdulaziz UniversityJeddah, Saudi ArabiaE-mail: [email protected]

For sure, the book is a translation of a historical text, but to place it under the genre of cookbooks is misleading.I had expected at least a few coloured illustrations for the price, but the book is a hard to follow translation along with black and white photocopy of the original manuscript.