Kurdish History Journal
Rob-e hînar (pomegranate molasses) is the Kurdish condiment made from boiled-down pomegranate juice — sweet-sour, dark, and intensely flavoured. Produced in the Kurdish orchards of Halabja and Horaman, it is the key ingredient in xorsht fesenjan, the great walnut and pomegranate stew of Rojhelat Kurdish cuisine.
Read article →Mîvanperwerî is the Kurdish art of hospitality — guest-nurturing — expressed through food, time, and the table that never empties. It is the ethical foundation of the Kurdish kitchen: a guest must be fed, and it is shameful not to serve them well. The central principle of Kurdish food culture.
Read article →Local production, a registered meftune recipe and a cook’s account explain how red pepper paste belongs to Diyarbakır and a wider food region. Drying methods, cooking uses and storage require separate attention.
Read article →Şorba nîsk is the Kurdish red lentil soup — the most everyday and universal pot in the Kurdish kitchen, finished with somaq (sumac) and served with flatbread. Originating in Southeast Anatolia (Kurdish Bakur), it is eaten across all four parts of Kurdistan and is the first course of the Ramadan iftar.
Read article →Ethnographic interviews and fungal surveys document different local names, woodland and open habitats, and distinct mushroom and desert-truffle traditions.
Read article →Bih (beh) is the Kurdish quince — known as the ‘fruit from heaven’ in Rojhelat, with its name meaning goodness. Used in Kurdish lamb stew (khoresh-e bih), prized quince reçel, and quince paste. The last orchard fruit of the Kurdish autumn, transforming under heat from sour to amber-gold.
Read article →Aşure is Kurdish Noah’s pudding — wheat, walnuts, pomegranate seeds, dried figs, apricots and chickpeas cooked into a sweet pudding and distributed to forty neighbours during Muharram. Noah’s Ark landed on Mount Ararat in Kurdish Bakur; Kurdish communities have been making this pudding from the Kurdish pantry ever since.
Read article →Nanê tirî is the nomadic Kurdish flatbread of the Koçer herders of Hakkari / Colemêrg — baked on the same fire used to boil the morning’s milk, eaten with fresh cheese and butter in the highland camp. The bread of a people who keep moving.
Read article →Perde pilavı is Siirt’s curtain rice — chicken and pine-nut rice baked inside a pastry dome, served at Kurdish weddings. The dough symbolises keeping the home’s secrets; the rice means fertility; the almonds represent grandchildren. The most symbolic dish in the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Hejîr (هەنجیری) is the Kurdish fig — wild fig grows spontaneously in Kurdistan, and the fig is probably the world’s first cultivated fruit, over 11,000 years old. Named with the olive in the Quran as a sacred fruit, the hejîr connects the Kurdish mountains to the very beginning of human agriculture.
Read article →Tût (toot / dut) is the Kurdish mulberry — eaten fresh in summer, dried for winter, pressed into syrup, or made into fruit leather. The black mulberry originated in the Zagros mountains; white mulberries grow in Tunceli/Dersim. The fruit that fed the silkworm of the Silk Road.
Read article →Daweta Kurdî is the Kurdish wedding feast — cattle slaughtered at dawn, women cooking qozê in copper cauldrons, dolma and biryani and kebabs served straight from the pot to hundreds of guests. The communal heart of Kurdish celebration.
Read article →Izot (isot / Urfa biber) is the dark, oily, smoky Kurdish chili pepper of Şanlıurfa / Riha, the Kurdish-majority city of Bakur. Sun-dried by day and wrapped to sweat at night, izot develops flavours of raisins, chocolate, and tobacco — the defining dark spice of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Taskababi is the Kurdish onion and lamb stew of the winter clay pot — known in Kurdistan as “onion water,” slow-cooked for hours with dried lime, cinnamon, and pearl onions. A symbol of Kurdish comfort food at its most simple and nourishing.
Read article →Genim is the Kurdish word for wheat — and einkorn wheat, ancestor of all bread wheat, was first domesticated on Karacadağ mountain near Diyarbakır / Amed, in Kurdish Bakur. The Kurdish mountains are where farming began.
Read article →Zeytûn is the Kurdish olive — and a 2013 peer-reviewed study found that the olive tree was first domesticated in the Kurdish-region south Taurus Mountains. The world’s most iconic Mediterranean crop has its primary origin in Kurdish hands.
Read article →The Kurdish breakfast of Van is a spread of fifteen or more small plates — penîrê giyayî, kaymak, honey, reçel, bread, eggs, tahini with molasses, and endless tea. The elaborate breakfast tradition credited to Kurdish Van, now a beloved institution at Van Kahvalti Evi in Istanbul.
Read article →Pestil is Kurdish dried grape leather — grape juice thickened with flour and sun-dried each October at the communal vintage, to the sound of klams. The winter snack rolled around walnuts, the last preserve of the Kurdish autumn.
Read article →Charcoal grilling is part of Kurdish cooking in bazaars, restaurants and gatherings with family and friends. Published recipes and first-person accounts show how the grill, skewered meat, bread and accompaniments work together in particular Kurdish meals.
Read article →Dried apricots give shilay qaysi its sweet fruit flavour. Family recipes and memories show how this Kurdish dish accompanies rice and meat, while also revealing variation in ingredients and serving occasions.
Read article →Gûz is the Kurdish walnut — a tree whose wild ancestors grow in the Zagros mountains, the heart of Kurdistan. Used pickled, in syrup, in halva, and cracked with tea in winter, it is one of the most ancient and versatile foods of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Local cultivars, cooking and remembered beliefs give pomegranates a specific place in Kurdish life, alongside their wider regional history.
Read article →Somaq is the Kurdish name for sumac — the wild dark-red mountain spice at the heart of Kurdish sourness. Ground on grilled meat, steeped in water for sour stews like meftûne, and scattered on onions beside the kebab, it is the spice that underlies a whole cuisine’s love of acidity.
Read article →Rewas, or rêwas, is associated with Rheum ribes, a perennial mountain plant. Botanical records and Kurdish field interviews explain its spring food uses, the social life of its stalks and concerns about how wild plants are gathered.
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