CULINARY BIOGRAPHIES: Ziryab The cuisine of medieval Arab Spain and eventually of Europe as a whole was profoundly influenced

ed by one of the great musicians of the time, a man known as Ziryab or Blackbird. So named because of his dark complexion and beautiful singing voice, Ziryab performed and taught music in Cordoba under the patronage of the Umayyad emir of alAndalus, Abdul Rahman II. The musician became widely known as an arbiter of style; historians have compared him to Beau Brummel and Petronius. He introduced revolutionary changes in music, dining, fashion, grooming, hairstyles, cosmetics and other aspects of courtly life. Many of his innovations spread to other social classes and communities, and eventually throughout Western Europe. In the ninth century, Cordoba was the capital of the civilized West, just as Baghdad was the cultural center of the Arab East. Cordobas fads, fashions and creations were widely emulated. Ziryabs innovations were more than fads, and a number of them survive in the West to this day, as enduring parts of our everyday life. Ziryabs real name was Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Nafi. He was born in Mesopotamia, probably near Baghdad, in about 789 AD. Details of his early years are sketchy. He was most likely a freed slave, or the son of slaves, in the service of the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi. Some Arab historians say he was of African ancestry; others claim he was Persian or Kurdish. As a member of the caliphs court, Ziryab was well schooled in poetry, astronomy, geography, physics and other fields. Music was his first love. He studied under a living legend, court musician Ishaq al-Mawsili. Eventually forced to flee Baghdad because of the hostile jealousy of his teacher, Ziryab traveled to Kairouan in North Africa and then to Arab Spain, where he was invited to the Umayyad emirs court at Cordoba in 822. He opened the countrys first musical conservatory, as well as an academy of beauty and cosmetology. Ziryabs impact on Spanish society was swift and powerful. As music historian Julian Ribera (1929) observed, Ziryab knew all branches of literature, his social contacts were most delicate and courteous, his conversation very agreeable, and his urbanity

2 exquisite, thus combining all the qualities needed for a gentleman of the court. Many were his musical contributions, including new song styles and a fifth course of strings for the Arabian lute or ud. Thanks to Ziryab, Spaniards became acquainted with such social innovations as toothpaste, the shaving of beards, short hair styles with bangs and the concept of seasonal clothing. Ziryab was also celebrated as a gourmet, possessing detailed knowledge of the sophisticated cuisine of Baghdad. With the emirs blessing, he took charge of the kitchens of the Cordoba court and revolutionized the arts of the table in ways that survive to this day. Before Ziryabs influence, Spanish dining was a somewhat crude affair, inherited from the Visigoths, Romans and local custom. Platters of assorted foods were piled together on wooden tables sometimes covered with rough cloth, sometimes not. . Ziryab taught the palace cooks how to prepare Spains delectable ingredients meats, fish and fowl, vegetables, cheeses, soups, nuts and fruits - in imaginative recipes inspired by Baghdads haute cuisine. He delighted courtly diners by elevating a humble spring weed called asparagus into a succulent dinner vegetable. One of his popular dishes, meatballs and small triangular pieces of dough fried in coriander oil, came to be called taqliyat Ziryab, or Ziryabs Fried Dish. Another, an asado or roast of seasoned broad beans, survived into modern times as a Cordoba classic called ziriab. A 13thcentury Andalusian cookbook preserves a dish named baqliyyat Ziryab (Vegetables Ziryab), a casserole of lamb chunks, cabbage, onion and spices, topped with a crispy crust of ground meat, eggs, almonds and breadcrumbs. Ziryab arranged for palace dinners to be served in courses one after another, beginning with soup, continuing with meat entrees alternating with fowl dishes, and ending with sweet desserts which, in the words of one historian, included cakes of walnuts, almonds and honey, or fruit pats, flavored with vanilla and stuffed with pistachios and hazelnuts. This orderly presentation style unheard of even in Baghdad steadily gained popularity, spreading through the upper and merchant classes, then among Christians and Jews, and even the peasantry. In time, the custom became the rule throughout Europe. Our expression from soup to nuts, indicating a lavish meal of successive courses, can be traced back to Ziryabs innovations at the Andalusian table.

3 Dressing up the plain dinner table, Ziryab instructed local craftsmen how to produce tooled and fitted leather table coverings. He replaced the bulky gold and silver drinking goblets of the aristocracy a holdover from the Goths and Romans with delicate, hand-cut crystal ware. He redesigned the wooden soup spoon, substituting a trimmer, lighter-weight model. Ziryabs dining innovations made his social evenings the talk of al-Andalus. Ziryab died in about 857, at the age of 68. He had several wives and concubines; most of their names are unknown. Ziryab was survived by eight sons and two daughters, all of whom pursued musical careers. His son Abdul Rahman took over management of the music school. His daughter Hamduna, a famous singer, married a vizier and helped publish a collection of her fathers music, Kitab Maruf fi Aghani Ziryab (The Book of Ziryabs Known Songs). As the centuries passed, popular memory of Ziryab faded, but his innovations remained deeply entrenched in Western custom. RWL [NOTE: This article was contributed to Culinary Biographies: A Dictionary of the World's Great Historic Chefs, Cookbook Authors and Collectors, Farmers, Gourmets, Home Economists, Nutritionists, Restaurateurs, Philosophers, Physicians, Scientists, Writers, and Others Who Influenced the Way We Eat Today by Alice Arndt (Editor), Yes Press, 2006.]