Kahk in Jordan
Kahk or Kahk el-Eid ( arz, كحك or ), is a small circular
biscuit
A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be ...
that originated in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and is eaten across the Arab world to celebrate
Eid al-Fitr
, nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast
, observedby = Muslims
, type = Islamic
, longtype = Islamic
, significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan
, dat ...
and
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
.
It is covered with
powdered sugar
Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, or icing sugar, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains between 2% and 5% of an anti-caking agent – such as corn starch, po ...
and can be stuffed with ( , a mixture of honey, nuts, and
ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from c ...
),
lokum, walnuts, pistachios, or dates, or simply served plain. Date-filled kahk are believed to be the origin of
maamoul, a similar Eid biscuit eaten in the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
. This dish also popular in Indonesia and called as ''kue kaak'' as result of acculturation between Arabs and Indonesian. Usually served during
Mawlid
Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi ( ar, المولد النبوي, translit=mawlid an-nabawī, lit=Birth of the Prophet, sometimes simply called in colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes , ) ...
or
Eid ul-Fitr
, nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast
, observedby = Muslims
, type = Islamic
, longtype = Islamic
, significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan
, dat ...
.
Kahk is an important part of Egyptian and Sudanese culture. In addition to its role in Eid and Easter, when it is often served to guests,
it is also eaten as part of a wedding feast and is occasionally served at other holiday feasts, namely
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
and
Mawlid
Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi ( ar, المولد النبوي, translit=mawlid an-nabawī, lit=Birth of the Prophet, sometimes simply called in colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes , ) ...
. Baking kahk is a traditional and social activity in the region: women of a village or neighborhood, Christian and Muslim alike, gather together to bake kahk, chat, and swap stories and recipes.
Sometimes, Egyptians will prepare their kahk at home before taking it to a communal or commercial bakery to be baked and cooled. Families typically exchange kahk as gifts, and friendly informal competitions over whose kahk is best are common. The designs stamped on kahk can be elaborate and are sources of pride for Egyptian families. Kahk molds, typically made from wood or ceramic, are often passed down from generation to generation. While bakeries have always sold premade kahk, buying kahk from a bakery has increased in popularity in urban Egypt in recent years.
However, store-bought kahk is relatively expensive—reaching
£E70 (US$12.69) per kilo in 2009—so many Egyptians, particularly those in rural areas, still bake their own.
Etymology
The word ''kahk'' comes from the
Coptic language
Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic ...
word
. Other Arabic speaking people may phono-semantically match the Egyptian word to the familar Arabic ( , "cakes").
History
Kahk is believed to date back to
Ancient Egypt: carvings depicting people making kahk have been found in the ruins of temples in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and
Thebes and in 3500 year old
Eighteenth Dynasty tombs. Ancient kahk were made in a variety of geometric shapes—more than 100 designs have been found—and stamped with an image of the solar disk, a symbol of the sun god
Ra. Ancient Egyptians also baked pie-sized kahk, called ''shurik'', before visiting tombs of their ancestors. These ''shurik'' were believed to function as magical amulets.
Kahk remained popular as Egypt converted from traditional religion to Christianity, often being served on special occasions, especially Easter.
![Kahk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Kahk.jpg)
Kahk's Islamic history began with the
Tulunid dynasty
The Tulunids (), were a Mamluk dynasty of Turkic origin who were the first independent dynasty to rule Egypt, as well as much of Syria, since the Ptolemaic dynasty. They were independent from 868, when they broke away from the central authority ...
, whose bakers made kahk molds imprinted with the words ''kol wishukr'' ("eat and thank God"), though kahk rose to prominence under the 10th century
Ikhshidid dynasty
The Ikhshidid dynasty (, ) was a Turkic mamluk dynasty who ruled Egypt and the Levant from 935 to 969. Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, a Turkic mamluk soldier, was appointed governor by the Abbasid Caliph al-Radi. The dynasty carried the Arabic t ...
, who were the first to include it in the Eid al-Fitr feast. An Ikhshidid minister, Abu Bakr Mohammed bin Ali al-Madrani, was known to hide
gold dinar
The gold dinar ( ar, ﺩﻳﻨﺎﺭ ذهبي) is an Islamic medieval gold coin first issued in AH 77 (696–697 CE) by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The weight of the dinar is 1 mithqal ().
The word ''dinar'' comes from the La ...
s in some kahk that were distributed to the people, a practice that entered local folklore and was emulated by later Egyptian rulers. For instance, the
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dy ...
Caliph spent 20,000 dinars baking and distributing gold-filled kahk for Eid in 1124 CE/518 AH, an operation of such complexity that it had to be started in
Rajab
Rajab ( ar, رَجَب) is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb ''rajaba'' is "to respect" which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative.
This month is re ...
, the month preceding Ramadan, and required the creation of a special government department, the ''Diwan al-Fitr''. Likewise, Caliph
Al-Aziz
Abu Mansur Nizar ( ar, أبو منصور نزار , Abū Manṣūr Nizār; 10 May 955 – 14 October 996), known by his regnal name as al-Aziz Billah ( ar, العزيز بالله, al-ʿAzīz bi-llāh, the Mighty One through God), was the fifth ...
built a 1350 meter long table piled high with 60 different kinds of kahk and
ghorabiye
Qurabiya (also ghraybe, ghorayeba, ghoriba ( ar, غريبة), ghribia, ghraïba, or ghriyyaba and numerous other spellings and pronunciations) is a shortbread-type biscuit, usually made with ground almonds. Versions are found in most Arab and Ot ...
, some of which contained gold coins.
Distribution of kahk was an important and effective means of raising public support for the Fatamid government, both as a means of appeasing the public, à la "
bread and circuses
"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: ''panem et circenses'') is a metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE, and is used c ...
," and as a form of
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
, since kahk was stamped with messages calling for loyalty to the state or specific leaders. Archaeologists have found Fatimid-era kahk molds inscribed with messages such as "eat and thank God your Lord" ("كل وأشكر مولاك") and "thank Hafeza" ("تسلم ايديكي يا حفيظة"), with Hafeza being an official responsible for manufacturing kahk. The latter message is also an early example of branding.
When the Sunni
Ayyubid dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
replaced the
Isma'ili
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...
Shia Fatimids in 1174, Ayyubid Sultan
Salah ad-Din
(, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba ...
attempted to stamp out Fatimid customs, including eating kahk on Eid. Despite his great influence on Egyptian culture and politics, he failed to get rid of kahk, attesting to the dessert's importance to Egyptians. State distribution of kahk was revived under
Mameluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...
rule. The Mameluk Sultans distributed kahk for Eid and Easter, especially to socioeconomically marginalized groups like Sufis, students, and the poor, though there is no evidence that they hid gold coins in their kahk. Like the Fatimids before them, the Mameluks distributed kahk to pacify the population and build support for their rule.
Distribution of kahk to the poor and disadvantaged was continued under
Ottoman rule.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, charitable trusts—''
awqaf
A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitab ...
''—were highly associated with baking and distributing kahk.
During the Islamic period, the Christian cross on kahk was replaced with sayings, geometric designs (including the original images of the solar disk), or stylized depictions of foliage. Several Fatimid-era kahk molds are on display in the
Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo as important examples of Islamic art and
Arabic calligraphy
Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy based on the Arabic alphabet. It is known in Arabic as ''khatt'' ( ar, خط), derived from the word 'line', 'design', or 'construction'. Kufic is the oldest form of th ...
.
See also
*
Fig roll
The fig roll or fig bar is a cookie or biscuit consisting of a rolled cake or pastry filled with fig paste.
History
Figs are a popular snack food in most of the world. Originating in northern Asia Minor, traded by the sailors and explorers of th ...
*
List of cookies
This is a list of notable cookies (American English), also called biscuits (British English). Cookies are typically made with flour, egg, sugar, and some type of shortening such as butter or cooking oil, and baked into a small, flat shape.
Cooki ...
*
Qatayef
Qatayef or katayef or qata'if ( ar, قطايف, ), is an Arab cuisine, Arab dessert commonly served during the month of Ramadan, a sort of sweet dumpling filled with cream or nuts. It can be described as a folded pancake, similar to a Scottish cr ...
References
External links
Kahk recipe – Amira's PantryKahk al-Eid recipe – Egypt Independent
{{Cuisine of Egypt, state=expanded
Arab desserts
Egyptian cuisine